Xbox 360
Manufactured by Microsoft, the Xbox was available to buy in North America on November
15, 200. Soon to follow it was released in Japan on February 22, 2002 and on March 14,
2002 it was released in Australia and Europe. The Xbox was one of the first ‘sixth-
generation’ game console’s and would compete with other popular console’s such as Sony's
PlayStation 2, Sega's Dreamcast, and Nintendo's GameCube.
The Xbox became the one of the best-selling game consoles in history as it sold 24+ million
(as of May 10, 2006). In terms of games, The Halo trilogy took the gaming world by storm
and sold over 8 million copies of the Xbox game.
What was different about the Xbox compared with other consoles?
The Xbox was the first video game console to feature a built-in hard disk drive, used souly
for storing game saves and content downloaded from Xbox Live (Xbox Live on page ….). This
eliminated the need for separate memory cards.
The Xbox was the first gaming product to feature Dolby Interactive Content-Encoding
Technology, which allows real-time Dolby Digital encoding in game consoles. Previous game
consoles could only use Dolby Digital 5.1 during non-interactive "cut scene" playback
The Xbox was discontinued in all countries as from 2006. Once again produced my
Microsoft, they released the ‘Xbox 360’. Possibly the best selling ever gaming console as
there are a reported 50 million Xbox consoles worldwide. (As from January 2011).
Sales figures:
Region Units sold
United States 25.4 million as of March 31, 2011
Japan 1,448,665 as of April 1, 2011
EMEA region 13.7 million as of March 31, 2011
(Europe, Middle East and
Africa)
United Kingdom 3.9 million as of January 13, 2009
Australia & New Zealand 1 million as of April 19, 2010
Canada 870,000 as of August 1, 2008
Worldwide 50 million as of January 6, 2011
The Xbox 360 was part of the ‘7th generation’ of game consoles and would compete with the
likes of Sony’s PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii. On release of the Xbox 360, they
completely sold out of every country besides Japan.
The reason for the success:
Compared to the previous Xbox, the Xbox 360 now had better graphics, better storage, a
much easier to use online system and of course better games.
The 2007 Game Critics’ Awards honoured the Xbox 360 platform with 38 Nominations and
11 Wins - more than any other platform. By March 2008, the Xbox 360 had reached a
software attach rate of 7.5 games per console—a record for any console in history, in EU the
rate was 7.0 while its competitors were 3.8 (PS3) and 3.5 (Wii).
Top selling games:
1. Call of Duty
2. Gears of war
3. Halo
4. Saints row
5. Dead or alive
Accessories:
Kinect for Xbox 360, or originally known by name Project Natal), is a "controller-free gaming
and entertainment experience" by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game platform. Based
around a webcam-style add-on for the Xbox 360 console, it enables users to control and
interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller.
Kinect holds the Guinness World Record of being the "fastest selling consumer electronics
device". It sold an average of 133,333 units per day with a total of 8 million units in its first
60 days