The Xbox 360 : 20 Years Later
On November 22nd, 2005 the world was blessed with one of the best consoles ever made, the Xbox 360.
This console ushered in the era of HD console gaming and was
One of the 360's biggest selling point of course was Xbox LIVE, the ability to play games online with your friends, something that the original XBOX held over its contemporaries, was taking over starting with the previous generation and then perfected with the 360.
Another huge selling point was the Xbox Live Arcade, a storefront where you could purchase smaller-scale digital games. While not the first console to do this, it was certainly the one that made it mainstream.
The 360 outperformed the PS3 in a lot of ways, with games that launched on both consoles performing and looking better on the 360 due to the PS3's complex architecture being a bitch to develop for.
The Launch
As Microsoft's 2nd console to hit the market, they really knocked it out of the park upon it's launch, completely undercutting the PS3's launch by almost a full year and being about $100 cheaper.
The hype was insane for this console, launching with 18 unique titles including: Call of Duty 2, King Kong, and Need for Speed: Most Wanted.
There were 2 different levels for this console at launch, you had Core (later replaced with "Arcade" in 2007), and Pro/Premium.
The Fat Console Era
Core (priced at $299 at launch) essentially was the most bare-bones Xbox you could get, this bundle came with the console, a wired controller, power cables, and AV cables. This bundle didn't even release with a hard drive, something almost unheard of in the modern age, but back then this really just meant you had no storage for downloading Arcade games.
Premium (priced at $399 at launch) was the next step up from Core which came with the addition of a 20GB hard drive, a wireless controller, memory card, and a headset.
Later on you had editions like Elite that released in late April 2007. A black-colored version of the Premium console with an upgraded 120GB hard drive and a coming in at a whopping $479 on it's release. This was essentially the new "premium" console.
Core was later replaced with the Arcade model in October 2007, roughly the same thing, but this bundle included a memory card and a compilation game disc of various arcade games like Uno, Boom Boom Rocket, and Feeding Frenzy. This was the bundle my family eventually got when we joined the 7th gen era.
This was basically the era of consoles called the "Fat" consoles.
The Games
A console lives and dies by its games. The console was successful with it's exclusives as well as its early access to certain games such as The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion
As mentioned above, the console launched with great titles, but where the 360 really shined was in it's exclusives. Racing games like Forza were great, and the hyper-violent, cover-shooter series Gears of War made it's debut here. However the game that everyone was excited for was Halo 3.
The Big One
Halo 3 launched with a meteoric level of hype. EVERYONE wanted to get their hands on this game and was basically THE console seller for the 360. This was the game that showcased Xbox LIVE at it's best. It was a genre-defining FPS game that every developer and their kid brother tried to out-compete. I could go on and on with this game, but that is an article for another day.
The late 2000s were the peak of this console. If you were playing on the 360 in the late 2000s, you were playing Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, Modern Warfare 2, Gears of War 2.
Indie Games
A neat addition to the online storefront was the Indie game scene. It was chock full of shovelware and babies first zombie game, but it was a novel concept that helped lead to the Indie game boom. One particular genre of this era was Minecraft clones with games like Total Miner: Forge and Castle Miner Z being the biggest ones. The former was a more Minecraft-like experience and the latter was "what if minecraft had zombies and guns" scenario. I used to be a Total Miner fanboy, even saying Minecraft sucked compared to it... what a fuckin idiot I was (I was only 12 at the time, so I'm cutting myself some slack). However, the titan itself would soon make its debut in May 2012.
Minecraft's First Console Edition
Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition was the game everyone was waiting for in the early 2010s. Developed by 4J Studios it offered an experience that many Minecraft players today long for. With unique, controller-friendly UI and crafting being one of the games biggest features. The game launched with a gameplay from beta 1.6 before slowly upgrading to catch up with Java edition (or just "Minecraft" since there wasn't Bedrock at the time). The game launched with a Tutorial world for players to get their feet wet. I'm super nostalgic for these early days of 360 Minecraft, I remember imagining a Minecraft parody song of Linkin Park's "Burn It Down" while playing it (which had released only a couple months after).
Kinect, meet Icarus
The Xbox 360 later started to be released with this terminal cancer known as the Kinect. A piece of shit peripheral that got shoehorned in to match with the Wii's motion control craze that was going on. Instead of using controller motion controls, you could use your whole body and even scream at your TV to do stuff sometimes.
Some games like Skyrim allowed you to use Shouts by yelling at your TV like a fuckin neanderthal who got thawed in 2012. For the most part, you were playing games that utilized your body as the controller.
Besides the fact that crippled Jimmy couldn't use this damn thing, even able-bodied people couldn't use it. The controls were wonky, weren't intuitive, if you were playing Microsoft-developed games like Kinect sports it worked well enough, but everything else was about as intuitive as trying to read Shakespeare while drunk.
Xbox tried to shoehorn the Kinect and make it mandatory to be on with the launch of the Xbox One, but the world collectively told them to go fuck themselves. This was later recanted, but it still left a sour taste in everyone's mouth.
It sucked, nobody liked it, and it thankfully died.
Revisions and Special Editions
The console came with many revisions over the years from both the UI and the hardware itself.
Dashboard Revisions
There were 3 distinct UIs that marked the various eras in the 360s lifespan.
Blades was the first UI to release for the console. It was called that for its tabs that basically "swooshed" side to side like... well blades. It was a fun UI and one I'm particularly nostalgic for.
The New Xbox Experience (or just NXE) was the UI that released after Microsoft unveiled Avatars. Basically the Xbox's version of Miis. While not as loved for me personally, it still has its charm.
Metro was the final UI revision and boy do I fucking hate this UI. I hate flat, boring, minimalist designs as it is, but the fact this was coupled with ads RIGHT in the fucking home screen just annoys the hell out of me. Seriously Microsoft, would it have killed you to at least add a gradient here or there? It was meant to go inline with Windows 8's UI which sucked shit through a crazy straw.
Console Revisions
It's an inevitability for consoles after the 5th Generation to release a new "Pro" or "Slim" variant that tries to do better than the previous iterations. With the fat came the "Slim" versions and then the "E" version after the launch of the Xbox One.
The slim came in 2 versions, the "shiny" version which launched with the Kinect (more on that pile of shit later) and then later the more matte finished version. This is probably the body-style most people have nowadays if they have a 360.
The "E" variant was basically a revision to coincide with the Xbox One. It's rectangular. What the fuck else can I even say?
Special Editions
Pictured above are the most notable special editions for the console. For the fat consoles, you had the Halo 3 edition (which I have), the red variant that coincided with Resident Evil 5, and the Simpsons version to coincide with the release of the Simpsons Movie (for some fuckin reason).
For the Slims you had a lot more special editions, the Star Wars Kinect version (which I had inherited from my late Dad), the Modern Warfare 3 version, the Gears of War 3 version, Halo 4 version, and the Halo: Reach version (one I want so damn bad).
My Experience
The 360 meant so much to me as a kid and it still does to this day. I grew up in a Playstation house, I had a PS1 and the adults all played on a PS2 in the living room.
When my family and I had moved, we got PS2 since the one at the other house technically belong to my aunt and uncle who lived with us at the time. I remember playing Guitar Hero 3 and Smackdown vs. Raw with my dad on the PS2 in those days.
I vaguely remember in 2007 my dad came home with the Xbox 360 Arcade and I was fucking stoked. I still have memories of replaying the Arcade disc and loading the video that introduced you to the 360.
I played arcade games like Cloning Clyde, played the early levels of Call of Duty 2 on repeat (because I don't think I ever saved the game), and later played (then got grounded from) Call of Duty 4.
It was at one point I went to my Uncle's house in early 2008 (i think?) and he showed me Halo 3 for the first time.
I was already a big fan of Halo 2 (which I played when I was roughly 5) and Halo 3 just blew me the fuck away. I later convinced my parents to rent it from Blockbuster and crushed the campaign in a single sitting.
I played the campaign over and over again, went online and played multiplayer. Played custom games with randoms and friends from school. My best friend at the time and I used to stay up all night to make our own Halo 3 Machinimas in custom games and forge. God it was a good time.
My parents eventually bought me my own copy that I still hold onto to this day (despite several moves, I made sure this game survived). I think I got it for my birthday one year as one of the first achievements I ever got was on my birthday in 2009 (though that may be the first time I got my own XBOX LIVE account).
One of the signs that I should have gotten tested for Autism was the fact I used to bring the game manual with me everywhere. I remember infodumping to my mom in restaurants about what was in the manual like it was holy scripture. Bless that woman for letting me have my fun, I feel like most parents would have told me to shut the hell up after the 4th time of bringing the manual.
I later got introduced to Left 4 Dead and that game was another obsession. This was during the big zombie craze where media was SWAMPED with zombie stuff, the movie Zombieland, Call of Duty: Nazi Zombies, Left 4 Dead, etc.
I remember sitting in front of a TV at my Uncle's house chugging can after can of Raspberry Brisk and playing endless amounts of Left 4 Dead and eating tacos. Occasionally he, some of his friends, and I would do a LAN party and play Left 4 Dead campaigns. I always got stuck with Zoey, but it was okay because I had a childhood crush on her (and Cortana, so I was stoked that the same voice actress played both characters).
I played a lot of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Halo 3, Gears of War 2, and World at War in the early years, mostly Halo 3.
I would often play the game with my dad that was to my dad what Halo 3 was for me, Rock Band. My dad and I both loved Guitar Hero, but when Rock Band released, well lets just say that should have been the clue that my dad was also on the spectrum. We played that game, its sequels, and its spinoffs SO much. My dad was particularly obsessed when The Beatles Rock Band came out. I got Green Day Rock Band for my birthday or Christmas one year from my parents (they were and still are my favorite band so I was pretty damn stoked for this game).
Coming into the 2010s, my gaming rotation became Rock Band sessions with my Dad, Minecraft Xbox 360 edition, Halo: Reach, Black Ops 1 and 2, as well as a handful of Indie games like Total Miner: Forge, Castle Miner Z, Avatar Drop, etc.
There was this time where my best friend in Middle School would play Black Ops zombies together. When the Resurrection map pack came out (the one that had Moon and remastered versions of World at War Zombies maps) my parents couldn't really afford to buy me a headset, $10 for a month subscription to Xbox Live, and a $10 map pack, so my best friend, since his parents were loaded, gave me like $40 to get the map pack, xbox live, and a headset. My parents weren't sure where I got the money, and I lied to them saying I found it in a bush since if I had told them I had gotten it from my buddy they would have made me give it back. But I walked to the GameStop about a mile away and grabbed the stuff I needed.
I remember the times my dad would come home from work, and come to me and say "Hey Punk, wanna go shoot some shit?", which was code for "wanna play Call of Duty?". This was basically my dad and I's version of playing catch. Because Black Ops had bot lobbies and split screen, this made it easy for my dad and I to just kinda hang out and mindlessly shoot NPCs.
There was a low period in my life in about 2011-2012, where the 360 kinda kept me sane when I was in middle school in the early 2010s. My parents were separated and I was living with my dad, uncle, and grandma at the time.
I and my dad slept on a couch for most of that time. My uncle wanted to introduce me to Skyrim, but he wanted me to first beat The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. So he set up a HD CRT on a coffee table that sat in front of the couch I slept on and handed me Oblivion. This was the game that I think really opened me up as a gamer. I fell in love with this game and spent so much time playing it. It kept me happy in a really rough era of my life where my parents were functionally getting poorer and poorer.
I actually disliked Skyrim when I first played it, the graphics and UI were so different compared to Oblivion that after escaping that initial cave, I went back to Oblivion and 100%'d it. I later did return to Skyrim and enjoyed it a lot.
Eventually my parents got back together, I played games like Assassins Creed III, Saints Row 3 and 4, and Black Ops 2. I actually started getting into PC gaming around this time as a birthday or Christmas present (I can't fully remember) and was finding myself playing my 360 less and less. I mostly played PC my freshman year of high school.
In 2014 my dad died, and gaming was kinda my comfort. I didn't play my 360 much, instead opting for long sessions of Garry's Mod and Payday 2 on my PC. I once decided to throw on the Wii the summer before my Sophomore year of high school and beating my first Zelda game, Skyward Sword. I occasionally played on a PS3 I got from my Grandma for my birthday and played Destiny a lot with my Uncle.
I then got an Xbox One for Christmas in like 2015 from my uncle with Halo: The Master Chief Collection. And that kinda marked an end of primarily playing on my 360.
Years later, and I slowly started to get back into 360 gaming, playing titles I hadn't before like Fallout: New Vegas. I was starting to get into retro gaming, and found myself returning more to the 360.
I eventually found this group that played Halo 3 and Reach multiplayer through this revival project and was playing regularly with them.
I got my hands on my dad's Star Wars special edition 360 and had it cleaned up and hard modded so I could play and host Halo 3 multiplayer games as well as get my old stats back for Halo 3 and Reach.
Hard modding breathed new life into my 360 experience where I could download archived games onto it and play it off the consoles hard drive. I play on it quite often now thanks to my Halo 3 group which became my main general gaming group.
Criticisms
As much as I love this console, there is plenty to critique about it.
For starts, the Red Ring of Death which functionally bricked many consoles I had over the early years before the slim models came along. It was a pain in the ass to deal with. It was such a huge problem that Microsoft lost millions because of it. The Red Ring of Death was to the 360 what the PSN Hack was to the PS3.
The peripherals were kinda trash, there used to be a time where you'd have to get an external DVD drive if you wanted to watch DVDs, whereas the PS3 let you watch Blu-Ray since day 1.
Another criticism I have is Xbox LIVE itself. Not the service itself per se, but the mere fact you had to pay monthly to play online. This was something that the PS3 had over the 360. Of course with the 8th generation of console, both gaming companies joined in on the paying for online bandwagon with PC and Wii U being the only consoles that didn't charge for online (but who tf was playing Wii U online?).
Microsoft points were a fucking stupid currency. Instead of just paying money to buy games and stuff, you had to buy Microsoft points. Which basically held your money hostage. They eventually did away with that system, but it was basically the precursor to V-Bucks, Robux, and CoD Points.
The Kinect was also a dogshit peripheral that barely justified it's own existence. The 360 tried so hard to compete with the Wii that I think this hubris is what led to the 360s downfall. Don't get me wrong, Avatars were fun, but it was basically foreshadowing of things to come.
A final, more personal criticism is the constant UI revisions. I loved the blades dashboard, still do, and wish they had kept it for the console's lifespan much like how the PS3 stuck with it's UI. Hell, if 360 just stuck with the NXE dashboard after the advent of Avatars, I would be fine with it. But I guess there wasn't enough ad space for Microsoft to shove in your face so they stuck with their garbage Metro UI.
The Legacy and Today
The 360 started off great, but due to various poor decisions during the latter years in the 2010s, and Sony finally getting their shit together, the PS3 overtook it in sales. However, I think more people look more fondly on their 360 comparatively since I think the PS3 overtook the more casual gaming audience.
The storefront got shut down some years back, which kinda crippled many aspects for players that didn't get on the train and get games prior to its closure. However, thanks to the modding scene the 360 has a new life through various archival and Sunrise projects.
If you're considering getting a 360 in the modern age, I say do it and get it modded either through exploits like Bad Avatar or preferably through hard modding. Physical games are cheap, and most of them hold up pretty well.
If you do, be sure to add me! GT: AnAbsurdPirate