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The Xbox 360 is a video game console developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to the original Xbox, and it is the second console in theXbox series. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. 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 Xbox 360 features an online service, Xbox Live, which was expanded from its previous iteration on the original Xbox and received regular updates during the console's lifetime. Available in free and subscription-based varieties, Xbox Live allows users to: play games online; download games (through Xbox Live Arcade) and game demos; purchase and stream music, television programs, and films through the Xbox Music andXbox Video portals; and access third-party content services through media streaming applications. In addition to online multimedia features, the Xbox 360 allows users to stream media from local PCs. Several peripherals have been released, including wireless controllers, expanded hard drive storage, and the Kinect motion sensing camera. The release of these additional services and peripherals helped the Xbox brand grow from gaming-only to encompassing all [14][15][16][17][18] multimedia, turning it into a hub for living-room computing entertainment. Launched worldwide across 20052006, the Xbox 360 was initially in short supply in many regions, including North America and Europe. The earliest versions of the console suffered from a high failure rate, indicated by the so-called "Red Ring of Death", necessitating an extension of the device's warranty period. Microsoft released two redesigned models of the console: the Xbox 360 S in [19] [20] 2010, and the Xbox 360 E in 2013. As of October 2013, 80 million Xbox 360 consoles have been [21] sold worldwide, making it the seventh-highest-selling video game console in history. Although not the best-selling console of its generation, the Xbox 360 was deemed by TechRadar to be the most influential through its emphasis on digital media distribution and multiplayer gaming on Xbox [18][22] Live. The Xbox 360's successor, the Xbox One, was released on November 22, [23] 2013. Microsoft has stated they plan to support the Xbox 360 until at least 2016.

History
Development
Known during development as Xbox Next, Xenon, Xbox 2, Xbox FS or NextBox, the Xbox 360 was [26] conceived in early 2003. In February 2003, planning for the Xenon software platform began, and [26] was headed by Microsoft's Vice President J Allard. That month, Microsoft held an event for 400 [26] developers in Bellevue, Washington to recruit support for the system. Also that month, Peter Moore, former president of Sega of America, joined Microsoft. On August 12, 2003, ATI signed on to produce the graphic processing unit for the new console, a deal which was publicly announced two [27] days later. Before the launch of the Xbox 360, several Alpha development kits were spotted using Apple's Power Mac G5 hardware. This was because the system's PowerPC 970 processor running the same PowerPC architecture that the Xbox 360 would eventually run under IBM's Xenon processor. The cores of the Xenon processor were developed using a slightly modified version of the PlayStation 3's Cell Processor PPE architecture. According to David Shippy and Mickie Phipps, the IBM employees were "hiding" their work from Sony and Toshiba, IBM's [28] partners in developing the Cell Processor. Jeff Minter created the music [29] visualization program Neon which is included with the Xbox 360.
[25]

Launch
Main article: Xbox 360 launch The Xbox 360 was released on November 22, 2005, in the United States and Canada; December 2, 2005, in Europe and December 10, 2005, in Japan. It was later launched in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, and Russia. In its first year on the market, the system launched in 36 countries, more countries than [30] any other console has launched in a single year.
[5]

Critical reception
In 2009, IGN named the Xbox 360 the sixth-greatest video game console of all time, out of a field of [31] 25. Although not the best-selling console of the seventh-generation, the Xbox 360 was deemed by TechRadar to be the most influential, by emphasizing digital media distribution and online gaming [18] through Xbox Live, and by popularizing game achievement awards. PC Magazineconsidered the Xbox 360 the prototype for online gaming as it "proved that online gaming communities could thrive in [14] the console space". Five years after the Xbox 360's original debut, the well-received Kinect motion capture camera was released, which set the record of being the fastest selling consumer electronic [32] device in history, and extended the life of console. Edge ranked Xbox 360 the second-best console of the 1993-2013 period, stating "It had its own social network, cross-game chat, new indie games every week, and the best version of just about every multiformat game... Killzone is no Halo and nowadays Gran Turismo is no Forza, but it's not about the exclusives--there's nothing to trump Naughty Dog's PS3 output, after all. Rather, it's about the choices Microsoft made back in the original Xbox's lifetime. The PC-like architecture meant those early EA Sports titles ran at 60fps compared to only 30 on PS3, Xbox Live meant every dedicated player had an existing friends list, and Halo meant Microsoft had the killer next-generation exclusive. And when developers demo [33] games on PC now they do it with a 360 pad--another industry benchmark, and a critical one."

Sales
Region United States EMEA region Units sold 25.4 million as of March 31, 2011 13.7 million as of March 31, 2011
[34]

First available November 22, 2005

[34]

(Europe, Middle East and Africa) (Includes UK sales)

December 2, 2005
[35]

United Kingdom Japan

8 million as of February 14, 2013 1.5 million as of June 17, 2011

[36]

December 10, 2005 March 23, 2006

Australia & New Zealand 1 million as of April 19, 2010 Worldwide Main article: Xbox 360 sales

[37]

80 million as of October 17, 2013

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The Xbox 360 began production only 69 days before launch, and Microsoft was not able to supply enough systems to meet initial consumer demand in Europe or North America, selling out [40][41][42][43] completely upon release in all regions except in Japan. Forty thousand units were offered [44] for sale on auction siteeBay during the initial week of release, 10% of the total supply. By year's

[38][39]

end, Microsoft had shipped 1.5 million units, including 900,000 in North America, 500,000 in Europe, [45] and 100,000 in Japan. In May 2008 Microsoft announced that 10 million Xbox 360s had been sold and that it was the "first [46] current generation gaming console" to surpass the 10 million figure in the US. In the US, the Xbox 360 was the leader in current-generation home console sales until June 2008, when it was surpassed [47][48][49] by the Wii. The Xbox 360 has sold a total of 870,000 units in Canada as of August 1, [50] 2008. Between January 2011 and October 2013, the Xbox 360 was the best-selling console in the [51] United States for these 32 consecutive months. In Europe, the Xbox 360 has sold seven million units as of November 20, 2008, according to [52] Microsoft. In the United Kingdom, the Xbox 360 has sold 3.9 million units as of June 27, 2009, [35] according to GfK Chart-Track. The Xbox 360 performed even more poorly, selling only 1.5 million units from 2005 to [36] 2011. Edge magazine reported in August 2011 that initially lacklustre and subsequently falling sales in Japan, where Microsoft had been unable to make serious inroads into the dominance of domestic rivals Sony and Nintendo, had led to retailers scaling down and in some cases discontinuing sales of [53] the Xbox 360 completely.

Legacy
The Xbox 360 sold much better than its predecessor, and although not the best-selling console of the seventh-generation, it is regarded as a success since it strengthened Microsoft as a major force in the [54] console market at the expense of well-established rivals. The inexpensive Nintendo Wii did sell the most console units but eventually saw a collapse of third-party software support in its later years, and it has been viewed by some as a fad since the succeeding Wii U had a poor debut in [18][55][56][57][58][59] 2012. The PlayStation 3 struggled for a time due to being too expensive and initially [60] lacking quality titles, making it far less dominant than its predecessor, the PlayStation 2, and it took until late in the PlayStation 3's lifespan for its sales and game titles to reach parity with the Xbox 360. TechRadar proclaimed that "Xbox 360 passes the baton as the king of the hill - a position that [18] puts all the more pressure on its successor, Xbox One". The Xbox 360's advantage over its competitors was due to the release of high profile titles from both first party and third party developers. The 2007 Game Critics Awards honored the platform with 38 [61][62] nominations and 12 wins more than any other platform. By March 2008, the Xbox 360 had reached a software attach rate of 7.5 games per console in the US; the rate was 7.0 in Europe, while [63] its competitors were 3.8 (PS3) and 3.5 (Wii), according to Microsoft. At the 2008 Game Developers Conference, Microsoft announced that it expected over 1,000 games available for Xbox 360 by the [64] end of the year. As well as enjoying exclusives such as additions to the Halo franchise and Gears of War, the Xbox 360 has managed to gain a simultaneous release of titles that were initially planned [65] [66] [67] to be PS3 exclusives, including Devil May Cry, Ace Combat, Virtua Fighter, Grand Theft Auto [68] [69] [70] [71] [72] IV, Final Fantasy XIII, Tekken 6, Metal Gear Solid : Rising, and L.A. Noire. In addition, Xbox 360 versions of cross-platform games were generally considered superior to their PS3 [73] counterparts in 2006 and 2007, due in part to the difficulties of programming for the PS3. TechRadar deemed the Xbox 360 as the most influential game system through its emphasis of digital [18] media distribution, Xbox Live online gaming service, and game achievement feature. During the console's lifetime, the Xbox brand has grown from gaming-only to encompassing all multimedia, [15][16][17] turning it into a hub for "living-room computing environment". Five years after the Xbox 360's original debut, the well-received Kinect motion capture camera was released, which became the [32] fastest selling consumer electronic device in history, and extended the life of the console.

Microsoft announced the Xbox One, successor to the Xbox 360, at E3 on June 10, 2013. Although succeeded as Microsoft's main console by the Xbox One, support from publishers for the Xbox 360 is [74] expected to continue until at least 2017.

Hardware
The main unit of the Xbox 360 itself has slight double concavity in matte white or black. The official color of the white model is Arctic Chill. It features a port on the top when vertical (left side when horizontal) to which a custom-housed hard disk drive unit can be attached.

Technical specifications
Main article: Xbox 360 technical specifications Various hard disk drives have been produced, including options at 20, 60, 120, 250, or 320 GB. Inside, the Xbox 360 uses the triple-core IBM designed Xenon as its CPU, with each core capable of simultaneously processing two threads, and can therefore operate on up to six threads at [75] once. Graphics processing is handled by the ATI Xenos, which has 10 MB of eDRAM. Its main memory pool is 512 MB in size.

Accessories
Main article: Xbox 360 accessories Many accessories are available for the console, including both wired and wireless controllers, faceplates for customization, headsets for chatting, a webcam for video chatting, dance mats andGamercize for exercise, three sizes of memory units and five sizes of hard drives (20, 60, [76] [77][78] 120, 250 (initially Japan only, but later also available elsewhere ) and 320 GB), among other items, all of which are styled to match the console.

Kinect
Main article: Kinect

A Kinect sensor device

Kinect is a "controller-free gaming and entertainment experience" for the Xbox 360. It was first announced on June 1, 2009 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, under the codename, Project Natal. The add-on peripheral enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without a game controller by using gestures, spoken commands and presented objects and images. The Kinect [79] accessory is compatible with all Xbox 360 models, connecting to new models via a custom [80] connector, and to older ones via a USB and mains power adapter. During their CES 2010 keynote speech, Robbie Bach and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer went on to say that Kinect will be released during the holiday period (NovemberJanuary) and it will work with every 360 console. Its name and release date of November 4, 2010 were officially announced on June 13, 2010, prior to Microsoft's [81] press conference at E3 2010.

Retail configurations

Xbox 360 Arcade, Pro and Elite

Main article: List of Xbox 360 retail configurations At launch, the Xbox 360 was available in two configurations: the "Xbox 360" package (unofficially known as the 20 GB Pro or Premium), priced at US$399 or GB279.99, and the "Xbox 360 Core", priced at US$299 and GB209.99. The original shipment of the Xbox 360 version included a cut-down version of the Media Remote as a promotion. The Elite package was launched later at US$479. The [82] "Xbox 360 Core" was replaced by the "Xbox 360 Arcade" in October 2007 and a 60 GB version of the Xbox 360 Pro was released on August 1, 2008. The Pro package was discontinued and marked down to US$249 on August 28, 2009 to be sold until stock ran out, while the Elite was also marked [83] down in price to US$299.

360S
In June 2010, Microsoft announced a new, redesigned, model and the discontinuation of the Elite and [19] Arcade models.

360E
At Microsoft's E3 press conference on June 10, 2013, another revision of the Xbox 360 hardware with design traits from its successor, the Xbox One, was unveiled and released. SKUs and pricing for the new model are identical to those of the previous model