Xbox 720

The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles.
A prominent feature of the Xbox 360 is its integrated Xbox Live service that allows players to compete online and download content such as arcade games, game demos, trailers, TV shows, and movies. Major features of the console include its Windows Media Center multimedia capabilities, mandatory support of high definition in all games, movie rentals and game downloads from its online marketplace and the ability to watch HD DVD movies with an add-on drive.
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 console sold out completely upon release in all regions except in Japan, and, as of January 5, 2009, 28 million units have been sold worldwide, according to Microsoft. The Xbox 360 is currently available in three configurations: the "Arcade", the "Pro", and the "Elite" console, each with its own selection of accessories.


Overview
Development
Known during development as Xenon, Xbox 2, Xbox FS, Xbox Next, or NextBox, the Xbox 360 was conceived in early 2003. In February 2003, planning for the Xenon software platform began, and was headed by Microsoft's Vice President J Allard. That month, Microsoft held an event for 400 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 days later. Before the launch of the Xbox 360, several alpha development kits were spotted using Apple's Power Mac G5 hardware.

This was due to 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 PlayStation 3's Cell Processor PPE architecture.

It was later launched in 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 any console has launched in a single year.
Retail configurations
The Xbox 360 is available in three standard variants; the "Xbox 360 Arcade", the "Xbox 360 Pro" (sometimes shortened to simply "Xbox 360"), and the "Xbox 360 Elite". A discontinued SKU, the "Xbox 360 Core", was replaced by the "Xbox 360 Arcade" in October 2007. The 60 GB version of the Xbox 360 Pro was released on August 1, 2008.
At launch, the Xbox 360 was available in two configurations: the "Xbox 360" package, priced at US$399 or GB£280 , and the "Xbox 360 Core", priced at US$299 and GB£199.

The Elite package was launched later at US$479.


Xbox 360 Core

The Xbox 360 Core (discontinued) was an entry level Xbox 360. The Core may output HD signals up to 1080p when connected to separately sold HDMI, Component, or VGA cables.The original "Blade" interface is still used in the new Xbox Guide. Firstly, the update offers the ability to install games from disc to the hard drive, reducing load times and disc drive noise, however, the game's disc must remain in the system in order to run.

The update was released on November 19, 2008.
While previous system updates have been stored on internal memory, this was the first update to require a storage device. The December 2007 dashboard update added support for the playback of MPEG-4 ASP format videos. The console can also display pictures and perform slideshows of photo collections with various transition effects, and supports audio playback, with music player controls accessible through the Xbox 360 Guide button.

Users may play back their own music while playing games or using the dashboard, and can play music with an interactive visual synthesizer.
Music, photos and videos can be played from standard USB mass storage devices, Xbox 360 proprietary storage devices (such as memory cards or Xbox 360 hard drives), and servers or computers with Windows Media Center or Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or higher within the local-area network in streaming mode. As the Xbox 360 uses a modified version of the UPnP AV protocol, some alternative UPnP servers such as uShare (part of the GeeXboX project) and MythTV can also stream media to the Xbox 360, allowing for similar functionality from non-Windows servers. The games are written, published, and distributed through a community managed portal.

The console's best-selling game for 2005, Call of Duty 2, sold over a million copies. Five other games sold as well in the console's first year in the market: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Dead or Alive 4, Saints Row, and Gears of War. Gears of War would become the best-selling game of the console with 3 million units, before being surpassed in 2007 by Halo 3, with 8.1 million units.
Six games were initially offered in Japan, and eagerly anticipated titles such as Dead or Alive 4 and Enchanted Arms were released only a few weeks later. Games more suitable to the region were planned or have since been released, such as Chromehounds, Ninety-Nine Nights, and Phantasy Star Universe. Microsoft also had the support of RPG developer Mistwalker, founded by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. Mistwalker's first game, Blue Dragon, was released in 2006 and had a limited-edition bundle which sold out quickly with over 10,000 pre-orders. Blue Dragon became the best-selling Xbox 360 game in the region, with over 200,000 units.

Mistwalker's second game, Lost Odyssey also sold over 100,000 copies.
The Xbox 360 has managed to gain a simultaneous release of titles which were initially planned to be PS3 exclusive, including Devil May Cry 4, Virtua Fighter 5, Tekken 6, and Final Fantasy XIII, or PS3 timed exclusives, such as Grand Theft Auto 4.
At E3 2007, Microsoft announced that Disney movies would be coming to Xbox 360 Live Marketplace. New trailers were shown for Halo 3 and Halo Wars, as well as the announcement of a Halo-themed Xbox 360.At E3 2008, Microsoft demonstrated a number of titles for their 2008 line-up, including Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Fable II, and Resident Evil 5, among other games. A television-style gaming feature known as Primetime was shown with a game based on the game show 1 vs.

It allows users to create a user profile, join on message boards, and access Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade and Marketplace and talk to other members. A Live Silver account does not generally support multiplayer gaming; however, some games that have rather limited online functions already, (such as Viva Pinata) or games that feature their own subscription service (eg. An Xbox Live Gold account has an annual cost of US$49.99, C$59.99, NZD 90.00, GB£39.99, or €59.99.

These features are available to both silver and gold members on Xbox Live. Television episodes can be purchased to own, and are transferable to an unlimited number of consoles.

Items are purchased using Microsoft Points, a proprietary currency used to reduce credit card transaction charges. Being released one year ahead of its competitors, the Xbox 360 was the market leader throughout the first half of 2007; however, on September 12, 2007, it was reported by the Financial Times that the Xbox 360 had been surpassed by the Wii in terms of worldwide home console sales.
On October 4, 2007, after the launch of Halo 3, Microsoft stated that Xbox 360 sales had more than doubled compared to the previous average. According to the NPD Group, the Xbox 360 outsold the Wii for the month of September in the United States, helped in part by the spike in sales seen after the launch of Halo 3, which sold 3.3 million copies in the US in a 12-day period. The Xbox had sales of 528,000 units for September, while the Wii had sales of 501,000 units.
However, despite these sales figures, Microsoft's gaming division is losing money.

This error is often known as the "Red Ring of Death". The warranty extension is not granted for any other types of failures that do not generate this specific error code.
Since these problems surfaced, Microsoft has attempted to modify the console to improve its reliability.