The Xbox 360 is the second game console produced by Microsoft Corporation

Overview


The Xbox 360, the second video game console from Microsoft Corporation, was officially unveiled on May 12, 2005 on a special presentation show that aired live on MTV.

Co-Developed with IBM, ATI, and Silicon Integrated Systems, the Xbox 360 uses the triple-core IBM designed Xenon as its CPU, ATI Xenos which has 10 MB of embedded eDRAM as the graphics processor and has a main memory pool is 512 MB in size.  Development of the Xbox 360 began in early 2003, a year and a half after the original Xbox release.

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 in Japan, the Xbox 360 has gone on to sell more than 19 million units as of April of 2008.

Hardware Configurations
Which Console is for You?

 * The 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, 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, which also includes a "Welcome Video" and several game trailers/demos.  Officially announce on October 22, 2007, the Xbox 360 Arcade has a MSRP of $279.99 USD.

    * The Xbox 360

Commonly known as the Premium or Pro bundle, has a MSRP of $299.99 USD.  Included in the bundle are all the features found in the Xbox 360 Arcade with an added 20 GB hard drive, hybrid composite and component cable with optional optical out instead of a composite cable and does not ship with HDMI cables. The pre loaded detachable 20GB hard drive comes with game demos, video clips and a free Live Arcade game, Hexic HD.  The hard drive allows from the storage of downloaded content, backwards compatibility with original Xbox games in addition to game saves and game data.  A new Xbox 360 is to be released in early August 2008, replacing the 20 GB hard drive with a larger capacity 60 GB hard drive.  The new 60 GB equipped Xbox 360 bundle comes at an MSRP of $349.99 USD

    * The Xbox 360 Elite

The Elite is the most expensive Xbox 360 configuration carrying an MSRP of $449.99 USD.  It comes with a 120 GB hard drive and all the features found in the Arcade and Premium pack with a matte black finish with matching controller and headset.

'New Xbox Experience'


Xbox 360 Dashboard
Since launch the main way of interacting with the Xbox 360 has been using the 'Dashboard', a menu system split into sections by 'Blades'; initially the 'Dashboard' consisted of 4 'Blades' Live, Games, Media and Settings; a blade was later added which separated the Xbox Live Marketplace from the Xbox Live 'Blade'. At the 2008 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) Microsoft announced it would be redesigning the Xbox Dashboard into a more conventional menu system dubbed the New Xbox Experience.

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, Live Party and Primetime.

Notable features of the NXE:
New Xbox Experience

  • 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.
  • Primetime: A new game channel, in which players compete in gameshow like contests.
  • Netflix: Allows Xbox owner to stream content from Netflix; requires Netflix subscription.
  • 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 New Xbox Guide
The new Xbox 360 Guide (right) will mimic the interface of the current "Blade" dashboard system that is currently used. It will be accessible in all Xbox 360 games to mange messages/invites, create parties, view player statistics, et cetera.

The NXE update will be distributed initially over Xbox Live starting Fall '08, it will later be included as an update on Xbox 360 game discs; this update will be mandatory.

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.

'Red Ring of Death'


Red Ring of Death
The Xbox 360 has gained a reputation for a high failure rate, sometimes rumored to be as high as 30% although Microsoft have denied the failure rate is that high; they have not released an official failure rate. The most common hardware failure is the General Hardware Failure, denoted by the bottom 2 and upper right quadrant of the Ring of Light flashing red; leading to the failure being dubbed the 'Red Ring of Death'. This failure renders the console unable to boot or 'bricked' and the only official course of action for the consumer being to call Xbox support to ship the console back to Microsoft where it is either repaired or replaced. While there is no official course of action on fixing the Red Ring of Death there are some unofficial solutions to try. The most popular is called the "towel trick" in which you take everything off of your Xbox 360, your hard-drive, A/V cables ect. The only thing you want plugged in is the power supply. Now you wrap it in three (3) large towels (the ones you would use to dry yourself off after a shower) and turn it on. Let it sit running for 20-30 minutes, turn it off, and let it cool off for another 15. Then turn it on and it should work. *Note this is not a permanent solution.*

No official reason has been given my 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 chipset 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 $1Bn.

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.

Xbox 360 - Recent Games

Name Platforms Developer
Too Human
released on Aug. 19, 2008
X360 Silicon Knights, Inc.
Madden NFL 09
released on Aug. 12, 2008
PSP, PS2, X360, XBOX, PS3, WII, DS EA Tiburon
Brave: A Warrior's Tale
released on Aug. 12, 2008
PSP, X360, WII Collision Studios
Crash Time: Autobahn Pursuit
released on Aug. 5, 2008
X360, PC Synetic GmbH
Summer Athletics
released on Aug. 4, 2008
PS2, X360, WII, PC 49Games GmbH
Soul Calibur IV
released on July 29, 2008
X360, PS3 Project Soul
Spectral Force 3
released on July 29, 2008
X360 Idea Factory
NCAA Football 09
released on July 15, 2008
PSP, PS2, X360, PS3, WII EA Tiburon
Space Chimps
released on July 15, 2008
PS2, X360, WII, DS Redtribe
Golf: Tee It Up!
released on July 9, 2008
X360, XBLM Housemarque
Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution
released on July 8, 2008
X360, PS3, DS Firaxis Games
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
released on June 29, 2008
PS2, X360, PS3, WII Vicarious Visions, Neversoft Entertainment, Budcat Creations
Beijing 2008: The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games
released on June 27, 2008
X360, PS3, PC Eurocom Entertainment Software
Operation Darkness
released on June 24, 2008
X360 Atlus, Success Corp.
Alone in the Dark
released on June 24, 2008
PS2, X360, PS3, WII, PC Eden Games S.A.S.
Hail to the Chimp
released on June 24, 2008
X360, PS3 Wideload Games, Inc.
Wall-E
released on June 24, 2008
PSP, PS2, X360, PS3, WII, DS, PC Heavy Iron Studios, Helixe, Asobo Studio, Savage Entertainment, LLC
Hellboy: The Science of Evil
released on June 24, 2008
PSP, X360, PS3 Krome Studios Pty Ltd.
Top Spin 3
released on June 23, 2008
X360, PS3, WII, DS 2K Sports, PAM Development
Battlefield: Bad Company
released on June 23, 2008
X360, PS3 DICE

Xbox 360 - Upcoming Games

Name Platform Developer
Beijing 2008: The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games
X360, PS3, PC Eurocom Entertainment Software
Borderlands
X360, PS3, PC Gearbox Software LLC
Fight Night Round 4
X360, PS3 EA Canada
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand
X360, PS3 Swordfish Studios Limited
Lips
X360 iNiS Corp.
Battlestations: Pacific
X360, PC
Singularity
X360, PS3, PC Raven Software
Wheelman
X360, PS3 Tigon Studios
Bionic Commando
X360, PS3, PC GRIN
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
X360 Rare, Ltd.
Images

General Information Edit
Platform Name: Xbox 360
Release Date: Nov. 22, 2005
Online Support: True
Install Base: 20,000,000
Original Price: $399
Producing Company: Microsoft Game Studios
Total Games: games
Recurring Appearances
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Xbox 360 Forum


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Topic (» jump to last post) Author Last Post Forum Views Posts
**X360 Gamertag Thread** » KindGalaxy
July 21, 2008
HomoPocket »
7 hours, 21 minutes
Xbox 360
1,639
378
Insert Angry Face Here » shadowjak
today
Sir_Ragnarok »
5 minutes
Xbox 360
31
6
Quick question about new dashboard. » matttty
Aug. 16, 2008
Emilio »
28 minutes
Xbox 360
168
39
What exactly does an HDMI cable do? » Vlademir
Aug. 17, 2008
Emilio »
39 minutes
Xbox 360
90
12
360/PC Streaming help! » Emilio
yesterday
Emilio »
53 minutes
Xbox 360
11
2
Selling my ps3, need game suggestions for 360 » Yoshi_trips
yesterday
Demyx »
1 hour, 27 minutes
Xbox 360
19
4
What was your first thought when you saw the red ring? » Petro
Aug. 15, 2008
normajean777 »
1 hour, 37 minutes
Xbox 360
140
39
Whats your most fav game on the 360 and why? » MidnyteWolf
July 22, 2008
normajean777 »
1 hour, 40 minutes
Xbox 360
398
93
I feel like such an idiot. » uberpwner93
Aug. 11, 2008
normajean777 »
1 hour, 43 minutes
Xbox 360
354
54
Help me pick a Gamerpic.................... » Riddler
yesterday
normajean777 »
1 hour, 45 minutes
Xbox 360
153
26

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