Xbox 360
Microsoft's console that beat the PS3 to market by a year and defined HD-era online gaming. Unified Achievements, party chat, a matured Xbox Live — and the Red Ring of Death, the three flashing lights that taught a generation the meaning of hardware failure.
Microsoft released the Xbox 360 on November 22, 2005 in North America (Europe December 2, Japan December 10), a full year ahead of Sony's PlayStation 3. It defined the HD-console generation: the unified Achievements and Gamerscore system it popularized became industry standard, and Xbox Live matured into the era's dominant online console service — party chat, Gamertags, and after-school lobbies at the center of late-2000s gaming life. For kids of the decade, this was the Halo 3 and Call of Duty machine.
Its infamous flaw was the "Red Ring of Death" — three quadrants of the power ring flashing red to signal hardware failure — widespread enough that Microsoft extended the warranty on affected consoles to three years. The console survived its own defect: around 84 million units sold worldwide by mid-2014. Kinect, the controller-free motion camera released November 4, 2010, set the record as the fastest-selling consumer electronics device in history and extended the console's life deep into the next decade.
Production ended April 20, 2016, and the 360's online marketplace wasn't switched off until July 2024 — a long goodbye for the console that made online console gaming the default rather than the exception.
Similar items
Original Xbox
Microsoft's first console was a giant black box that held a Pentium III and changed online gaming forever. Launched November 15, 2001, the Xbox arrived with the Duke controller (instantly mocked for its size), a built-in hard drive, and Ethernet port. Halo: Combat Evolved was the system seller, but Xbox Live (November 2002) was the revolution: console gaming went online with a headset in the box and broadband required.
Xbox Live (Original Xbox Era)
Microsoft's revolutionary bet on broadband gaming — the service that brought voice chat and Gamertags into living rooms and normalized trash-talking strangers over the internet. The $49.95 Starter Kit arrived in November 2002 with a wired headset, a year of subscription, and a radical demand: high-speed internet or stay offline. It worked — 150,000 kits sold in the first week.
Halo: Combat Evolved
Bungie's sci-fi FPS that proved console shooters could rival their PC counterparts. Released November 15, 2001 as an Xbox launch title, Halo: Combat Evolved sent you to a mysterious ringworld as Master Chief to fight the alien Covenant—and turned LAN parties into a rite of passage.
Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding
This Xbox launch title did something radical: instead of following preset race tracks, you could pick any line down a whole mountain. The gimmick was fame—impress photographers and film crews, land sponsorships, and become a media sensation. Plus, the hard drive let you load your own music onto the console, a showstopper feature in 2001.