The Xbox 360 is the second game console produced by Microsoft Corporation and is the successor to the original Xbox.
Overview
The Xbox 360, the second video game console from Microsoft Corporation, was officially unveiled on May 12, 2005 during a special presentation show that aired live on MTV.
The Xbox 360 logo
Following the official unveil on MTV, Microsoft announced launch dates at its 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference. Launching in North America on November 22, 2005, December 2, 2005 in Europe, and December 12, 2005 in Japan, the Xbox 360 has gone on to sell more than 29 million units as of April 2009.
Current SKUs
Xbox 360 "S" 250 GB
Xbox 360 "S"
As an interesting note, Microsoft also announced, at the end of their E3 conference, that all those in attendance would be getting a free new Xbox 360 S (later received in the mail).
Xbox 360 "S" 250 GB Kinect Bundle
On November 16, 2010 Microsoft release a bundle of a standard 250 gigabyte Xbox 360 came with the motion camera system Kinect and a copy of Kinect Adventures. It retailed for $399.99.Xbox 360 "S" 4 GB
The 4 gigabyte Xbox 360 "s" features 802.11n wi-fi built in and has a matte finish rather than a the glossy finish of the 250 gigabyte model. I had a starting retail price of $199.99.Xbox 360 "S" 4 GB Kinect Bundle
On November 16, 2010 Microsoft release a bundle of a standard 4 gigabyte Xbox 360 came with the motion camera system Kinect and a copy of Kinect Adventures. It retailed for $299.99.Discontinued SKUs
Halo 3 Special Edition
Xbox 360 "Halo 3" Edition
Resident Evil 5 Edition
On February 4, 2009 before the launch of Resident Evil 5, Microsoft announced the Resident Evil Limited Edition of the Xbox 360. The bundle featured a red Xbox 360, a red wireless gamepad, a black headset, 120GB hard drive, a copy of Resident Evil 5, a download code for Super Street Fighter 2 HD Remix, and a code for an exclusive theme.Xbox 360 Modern Warfare 2 Edition
Modern Warfare 2 Edition
Xbox 360 Premium
The Xbox 360 Premium was identical to the Xbox 360 Pro configuration but contained an older CPU architecture. Manufacturing for the Premium branded units ceased in August 2007.Xbox 360 Core
The Xbox 360 Core was the barebones 360 model that carried an MSRP of $279.99 and was similar to the current Arcade configuration. It included a wired controller, had no HDMI port, and did not include any kind of storage. The Xbox 360 Core was often seen as a misstep because its production meant that developers could not take advantage of the features Xbox 360 HDD in their games, since not all users would have one. It's main benefit to Microsoft was in marketing the platform when it was launched, as they were able to state that consumers could buy an Xbox 360 for "under $300," even though the more desirable Xbox 360 Premium was close to $400 USD at the time.Xbox 360 Pro
The Xbox 360 Pro, available in the "Go Pro" bundle, had an MSRP of $249.99 USD and replaced the Xbox 360 Premium SKU. Included in the bundle were all the features found in the Xbox 360 Arcade, as well as a 60 GB hard drive and a hybrid composite/component cable. The pre-loaded, detachable 60GB hard drive came with game demos, video clips and a free Live Arcade game: Hexic HD. The hard drive allowed for the storage of downloaded content, backwards compatibility with original Xbox games, and storage of game saves. The Xbox 360 Pro bundle carried an MSRP of $299.99 USD. Prior to August 2008, the included HDD was only 20GB. For the 2007 holiday shopping season, Microsoft bundled copies of Forza Motorsport 2 and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance with the Xbox 360 Pro. In 2008, the holiday bundle included Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda. In 2009, reduced the price of the Xbox 360 Elite to $299.99, and phased out the Xbox 360 Pro. Xbox 360 Arcade
An entry level Xbox 360 that replaced the now discontinued Xbox 360 Core. The Xbox 360 Arcade sports a wireless controller, 256 MB memory unit (Which has now been replaced with an internal 256mb chip in the 'Jasper' version of consoles), composite AV cable, HDMI 1.2 output, and 5 Xbox Live Arcade titles: Boom Boom Rocket, Feeding Frenzy, Luxor 2, Pac-Man Championship Edition, and Uno on a single disk. This disc also includes a "Welcome Video" and several game trailers/demos. Officially announce on October 22, 2007, the Xbox 360 Arcade has a MSRP of $199.99 USD. Recently Microsoft confirmed that they are now putting internal memory into the Xbox 360 Arcade. This storage will be the same size as the previous external memory units: 256MB. Xbox 360 Arcade systems packaged for the 2008 holiday shopping season are bundled with a copy of Sega Superstars Tennis.Xbox 360 Elite
The Elite is currently the mid-end Xbox 360 configuration carrying an MSRP of $249.99 USD. It has all of the features of the Xbox 360 Pro, but comes with an upgraded 120 GB hard drive and has a matte black finish with matching controller and headset. For the 2008 holiday shopping season, The Elite model came packed with Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda. In 2009 there was a bundle which included both Fable 2 and Halo 3. This was followed with a bundle containing Lego Batman and Pure. In 2009, Microsoft dropped the price of the Xbox 360 Elite to $299.99, most likely to match the price of Sony's new PS3 slim carrying the same price. In 2010, Microsoft introduced a redesigned Xbox 360 and reduced the price of the 360 Elite to $249.99.Xbox 360 Splinter Cell Conviction Bundle
Released with little to no fanfare, the Splinter Cell Conviction bundle is quite similar to its immediate predecessor, the Final Fantasy XIII bundle. It includes a black Xbox 360 Console, a 250GB HDD, two black Xbox 360 controllers, and a copy of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction. Unlike many of the special edition Xbox 360 bundles, this one does not feature any unique artwork or designs on any of the included hardware. It retailed for $399.99 US.Games
The Xbox 360 has a large array of games starting in November 2005. On launch, Microsoft's first party titles included Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo: Elements of Power, and PGR 3. Activision's Call of Duty 2 introduces console gamers to the series and became the biggest game on Xbox Live during launch. Later in 2006, Epic Games released Gears of War, what was considered to be the "killer app" of the Xbox 360. Thanks to the game's impressive graphics and multiplayer, the game became a big hit. 2007 would follow many games like Halo 3 (one of the most hyped games of the year), Mass Effect, and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which broke many records on Xbox Live when it was released, with its sequel surpassing it. Many other sequels would be released including Fable 2 and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts within the later years.One key feature to Xbox Live's success is the Xbox Live Arcade games. On launch, the 360 Premium bundle came packaged with Hexic HD, a puzzle game created by Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov. Other launch titles include Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved and Marble Blast Ultra. In the beginning, Microsoft restricted Arcade game sizes to no more than 50 MB big due to the Core model and its memory card. Later, when the 256 MB memory card was released, the game size limit was expanded. Today you're able to get full games online and games can be installed to your hard drive.
New Xbox Experience (NXE)
The old Xbox 360 Dashboard
The New Xbox Experience (NXE) is designed to be more user friendly and to be expandable as new content is added, it takes several design cues from the likes of Apple and Nintendo, and introduces several new features such as Avatars and Live Party. The New Xbox Experience was released on November 19, 2008.
Notable features of the NXE:
- Avatars: A 3D representation of the user, replaces the current Gamercard; however Microsoft assure gamers they can still use their old Gamercard.
- Live Party: A group of up to 8 people, allows users to voice chat independent of which game they are each playing.
- Play From Drive: Allows players to copy disc content over to the HDD in order to cut down load times and DVD drive noise. The disc of the game played from the HDD is still required to be in the DVD drive.
The New Xbox Experience - Deleting Zero-Point games: The ability to delete games with no achievements unlocked has become possible, so that players may improve their ratio of possible achievements to ones gained.
- Netflix: The Xbox 360 gained the ability to stream movies from Netfilx to view on your TV. This feature is only available to gold members and requires a Netflix paid account.
The new Xbox 360 Guide (accessible through the Xbox button on the controller) will mimic the interface of the "Blade" dashboard system. It's accessible in all Xbox 360 games to manage messages/invites, create parties, view player statistics, et cetera.
The NXE update was distributed in the fall of 2008, and took 128 Mb of space to install. Those not meeting this requirement (The Arcade and Core SKUs not having hard drives) were given a free memory unit (512MB) by Microsoft or the option to buy a 20GB Hard Drive at $20.
Features after NXE:
At CES 2009 Microsoft's Robby Bach announced Xbox Live Primetime. Primetime was the first channel on Xbox Live to use scheduled programming at specific time so you can find friends & experience live events. One of the first games to run in Primetime was 1 VS 100, which has since been discontinued. On November 17, 2009, Microsoft released another new update for the Xbox 360. With this new update, Microsoft made available custom hubs for Facebook and Twitter, along with added features like posting pictures of your games on your Facebook page. Other features include Last.fm, Zune HD, and accessing news stations like MSNBC.Criticisms
There are a number of criticism that are often leveraged against the Xbox 360, the main one being unreliable hardware quality; however, excessive DVD drive noise and a confusing amount of hardware configurations are also targeted by critics of the system.'The Red Ring of Death'
Red Ring of Death
No official reason has been given by Microsoft as to why this error is so common place, however most speculation points towards insufficient cooling around the GPU leading to a warping of the motherboard. Microsoft has taken steps to solve this problem by adding an additional heat sink to the GPU in later units and units returned from repair. These changes were included in a chipset refresh codenamed 'Falcon' which also includes a 65nm CPU to further reduce heat. An as yet unreleased chip set refresh, codenamed 'Jasper,' will introduce a 65nm GPU and is hoped to solve the 'Red Ring of Death' problem.
As well as these hardware revisions Microsoft has increased the Xbox 360 warranty to 3 years, however this is only to cover the 'Red Ring of Death' all other hardware problems are only covered for 1 year; this was reported to have cost Microsoft $1 billion.
Note: the new "XBOX 360 'S'" does not feature the red LEDs behind the power button. Microsoft removed this particular error message because of the bad connotation is has received.
DVD Drive Problems
The DVD Drive is often the target of criticism, mostly for the excessive noise produced and an apparent tendency for scratching discs. These issues are less apparent in later models of the 360 as Microsoft have replaced the initial DVD drive with a quieter model from BenQ.Power Adapter Size
The Xbox 360's power adapter is significantly larger than similar adapters on previous consoles. This criticism was mostly vocal at the beginning of the Xbox 360's retail life, as Microsoft has reduced the power adapter's size over the life of the console.Xbox Live Arcade File Size Restriction
Xbox Live Arcade games had to come in under the 50 MB file size restriction. While many people felt that that 50MB was too small to create games this limitation allowed 360 owners without the hard drive to enjoy all of the content of XBLA at that time. Over time Microsoft has relaxed restrictions to coincide with the release of larger memory units. Currently the size limit is 2.5GB and this is a limitation of the backend of service itself rather than an arbitrary limit imposed by Microsoft.
Xbox 360 games
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General Information
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| Platform Name: | Xbox 360 |
| Release Date: | Nov. 22, 2005 |
| Online Support: | True |
| Install Base: | 50,000,000 |
| Original Price: | $399 |
| Producing Company: | Microsoft Game Studios |
| Aliases | 360 |
| Total Games: | 1254 games |
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