The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. As of January 9, 2012, 66 million Xbox 360 consoles have been sold worldwide. [3]
The Xbox 360 was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and game information divulged later that month at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). The console sold out completely upon release in all regions except in Japan.[11][12][13]
Several major features of the Xbox 360 are its integrated Xbox Live service that allows players to compete online, download arcade games, game demos, trailers, TV shows, music and movies and its Windows Media Center multimedia capabilities. The Xbox Live also offers region specific access to third-party media streaming application such as Netflix and ESPNin the US or Sky Go in the UK.
At their E3 presentation on June 14, 2010, Microsoft announced a redesigned Xbox 360 that would ship on the same day.[14] The redesigned console is slimmer than the previous Xbox 360 model and features integrated 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, TOSLINK S/PDIF optical audio output, five USB 2.0 ports (compared to the three from older versions) and a special AUX port.[15]Older models of the Xbox 360 have since been discontinued.[16] The first new console to be released features a 250 GB hard drive, while a later, less expensive SKU features 4 GB internal storage.
With the announcement of the Xbox 360 S, Microsoft have said that they believe that the console is only mid-way through its life-cycle and will continue through 2015.[17][18][19]However, unnamed sources have claimed that Microsoft's next video game console is being slated for release as early as the 2013 holiday season.[20] Development of the system has also been implied by updates Microsoft employees have made to their resumes, which state that they were working on the next Xbox console.[21]
References
- ^ Radd, David (2005-08-16). "Xbox 360 Manufacturers Revealed". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 2010-08-19.
- ^ Ashcraft, Brian (2010-11-19). "Report: Foxconn Denies Protest Over Pay | Kotaku Australia". Kotaku.com.au. Retrieved 2011-10-23.
- ^ a b c "XBOX 360 at 28 Million Worldwide, Kinect Nearly Doubling at 18 Million". SlashGear. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
- ^ Xbox 360 Cloud Storage Size Revealed
- ^ "Google translation of Xbox.com/JA-JP". microsoft. Retrieved 2010-12-03.
- ^ Xbox 360 color space fix coming, still no word on restoring 1080p playback | The Verge
- ^ "Microsoft confirms Xbox 360 802.11n adapter". joystiq. 2009-09-21. Retrieved 2009-11-23.
- ^ Dean Takahashi (January 9, 2012). "Xbox 360 surpasses 66M sold and Kinect passes 18M units". venturebeat. Retrieved January 10, 2012.
- ^ Tim Stevens (March 9, 2011). "Microsoft sells 10 million Kinects, 10 million Kinect games". Engadget. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
- ^ "Original Xbox Games Playable on Xbox 360". Retrieved 17 November 2009.
- ^ "Shortages spoil Xbox 360 launch". BBC News. 2005-11-23. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
- ^ "Xbox 360 Launch Takes Europe by Storm".
- ^ "Retailers Sell Out of Initial Xbox 360 Shipments". Retrieved 2008–10–14.
- ^ "New Xbox 360 Shipping Today, Costs $299". Kotaku.com. 2010-06-14. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
- ^ Dean Takahashi, VentureBeat. "Microsoft to Launch Smaller XBOX 360 Game Console." June 14, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thorsen, Tor (14 June 2010). "New $200 Xbox 360 planned, Elite & Arcade getting $50 price cut". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2010-06-17. "Moore said that Microsoft is currently working on a second new Xbox 360, which will be offered at the arcade's price point of $200. He declined to say what functionalities the cheaper model would or would not have. [...] One likely scenario is the cheaper model will essentially be a slim arcade with no Wi-Fi capabilities or a hard drive. [...] Moore also said that going forward, all future models of the Xbox 360 would not have names and would only be designated by their memory capacity."
- ^ Robinson, Martin (2009-06-04). "E3 2009: 360 to Stick Around Until 2015 - Xbox360 News at IGN". Uk.xbox360.ign.com. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
- ^ Bunker, Adam (2010-06-21). "Xbox 720 set to launch at the E3 expo in June 2015 | T3 magazine". T3.com. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
- ^ "New Xbox 360 (Xbox 360 'Slim') Delays Xbox 720 Till 2015 [Xbox 360 Presently 'Mid-Cycle' Says Microsoft: "We've Got at Least Another Five Years of this Generation" » TFTS – Technology, Gadgets & Curiosities"]. Nexus404.com. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
- ^ "Rumor: Next Xbox Won't Appear Until E3 2013". Tom's Hardware.
- ^ "Next generation Xbox pops up in Microsoft resumes". joystiq.