Just a week after the Xbox team celebrated the 15th anniversary of the original Xbox which launched in the US on November 15, 2001, Xbox’s Major Nelson has just reminded us that today is the 11th anniversary of the Xbox 360:
Happy 11th Birthday to Xbox 360 – on this day in 2005 I was in the middle of the desert for Zero Hour. Photos!-> https://t.co/7uI7UAQqMu
— Larry Hryb 💫✨ (@majornelson) November 22, 2016
Back in November 2005, the Xbox 360 kickstarted a new console generation with more powerful hardware to run HD games as well as new gamification features with the introduction of game achievements and the Gamerscore system.
Additionally, the Xbox 360 was also a much better entertainment system with support for third-party apps including popular video streaming services such as YouTube and Netflix.
While Microsoft announced back in April that it had now ceased production of the Xbox 360, the console is still supported by Microsoft as well as some developers including Electronic Arts (FIFA 17, Madden 17) and Telltale Games which released new Xbox 360 games recently. Moreover, you can still purchase an Xbox 360 while supplies last and the US Microsoft Store is still selling a 500GB Forza Horizon 2 Xbox 360 bundle for $199 as of today.
It’s also worth reminding that the eleven years old console will remain the most popular Xbox console ever for a few more years: according to GameSpot, Microsoft stopped reporting Xbox 360 sales in June 2014 when it announced that the console had reached 84 million units sold worldwide. While the Xbox One is reportedly selling better than the Xbox 360 at the same point in their lifecycle, Microsoft no longer reports Xbox One sales since the company explained that Xbox Live engagement is now a more important metric.
For those of you who have yet to upgrade from the Xbox 360 to the Xbox One, Microsoft is now giving you four significant incentives to do so:
- A growing catalog of backward-compatible Xbox 360 games.
- Xbox Play Anywhere, which lets you buy a digital copy of a game and play it on both your Xbox One and Windows 10 PC with shared progress and achievements (some games also support cross-platform multiplayer).
- Support for a growing number of Windows 10 UWP apps on the Xbox One.
- You can get an Xbox One at its lowest price ever during Microsoft’s Black Friday deals
Are you still playing games on your Xbox 360 today, and do you think the old generation console will retain a substantial user base in the coming years? Let us know your thoughts about the Xbox 360 in the comments below.
