Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As a successor to the original Xbox, it is theconsole in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 together with Nintendo's Wii as element of the seventh types of video game consoles. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch as living as game information announced later that month at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo.

The Xbox 360 attribute an online service, Xbox Live, which was expanded from its previous iteration on the original Xbox in addition to receivedupdates during the console's lifetime. available in free and subscription-based varieties, Xbox make up 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 and Xbox Video portals; and access third-party content services through media streaming applications. In addition to online multimedia features, it gives users to stream media from local PCs. Several peripherals gain 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 multimedia, turning it into a hub for living-room computing entertainment.

sixth-highest-selling home video game console in history, and the highest-selling console proposed by an American company. Although non the best-selling console of its generation, the Xbox 360 was deemed by TechRadar to be the almost influential through its emphasis on digital media distribution and multiplayer gaming on Xbox Live.

The Xbox 360's successor, the Xbox One, was released on November 22, 2013. On April 20, 2016, Microsoft announced that it would end the production of new Xbox 360 hardware, although the agency will remain to assist the platform.

Software

The Xbox 360 launched with 14 , Dead or Alive 4, Saints Row, and Gears of War. Gears of War would become the best-selling game on the console with 3 million copies in 2006, ago being surpassed in 2007 by Halo 3 with over 8 million copies.

Six games were initially usable in Japan, while eagerly anticipated games such(a) as Dead or Alive 4 and . Mistwalker's second game, Lost Odyssey also sold over 100,000 copies.

The 2007 Game Critics Awards honored the Xbox 360 platform with 38 Nominations and 11 Wins.

By 2015, game releases started to decline as near publishers instead focused on the Xbox One. The last official game released for the system was Just Dance 2019, released on October 23, 2018, in North America, and October 25 in Europe and Australia.

As one of the gradual updates to the software following its discontinuation, Microsoft will increase the ability for Xbox 360 users to use cloud saves even whether they do non have Xbox Live Gold prior to the launch of the Xbox Series X and Series S in November 2020. The new consoles will have backward compatibility for any Xbox 360 games that are already backward compatible on the Xbox One, and can usage any Xbox 360 game's cloud saves through this update, devloping the transition to the new consoles easier.

The Xbox 360's original graphical user interface was the Xbox 360 Dashboard; a tabbed interface that featured five "Blades" formerly four blades, and was intentional by AKQA and Audiobrain. It could be launched automatically when the console booted without a disc in it, or when the disc tray was ejected, but the user had the pick towhat the console does if a game is in the tray on start up, or if inserted when already on. A simplified representation of it was also accessible at any time via the Xbox guide button on the gamepad. This simplified report showed the user's gamercard, Xbox Live messages and friends list. It also allows for personal and music settings, in addition to voice or video chats, or returning to the Xbox Dashboard from the game.

On November 19, 2008, the Xbox 360's dashboard was changed from the "Blade" interface, to a dashboard reminiscent of that present on the Zune and Windows Media Center, requested as the "New Xbox Experience" or NXE.

Since the console's release, Microsoft has released several updates for the Dashboard software. These updates have target adding new features to the console, enhancing Xbox Live functionality and multimedia playback capabilities, adding compatibility for new accessories, and fixing bugs in the software. such updates are mandatory for users wishing to use Xbox Live, as access to Xbox Live is disabled until the improving is performed.[]

At E3 2008, at Microsoft's Show, Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg and Marc Whitten announced the new Xbox 360 interface called the "New Xbox Experience" NXE. The refresh was subjected to ease console menu navigation. Its GUI uses the Twist UI, before used in Windows Media Center and the Zune. Its new Xbox Guide submits all Dashboard functionality including the Marketplace browser and disk ejection and the original "Blade" interface although the color scheme has been changed to match that of the NXE Dashboard.

The NXE also provides many new features. Users can now install games from disc to the hard drive to play them with reduced load time and less disc drive noise, but used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters game's disc must keep on in the system in configuration to run. A new, built-in Community system allows the introducing of digitized Avatars that can be used for companies activities, such as sharing photos or playing Arcade games like 1 vs. 100. The update was released on November 19, 2008.

While previous system updates have been stored on internal memory, the NXE update was the number one to require a storage device—at least a 128 MB memory card or a hard drive.

Microsoft released a further update to the Xbox 360 Dashboard starting on Dcember 6, 2011. It included a completely new user interface which utilizes Microsoft's Metro design language, and added new features such as cloud storage for game saves and profiles, live television, Bing voice search, access to YouTube videos and better support for Kinect voice commands.