QuickOverview

The Xbox 360 is the successor to Microsoft's Xbox video game console, developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, Samsung and SiS. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and game information divulged later that month at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The Xbox 360 is the first console to provide near-simultaneous launch across the three major regions, and to provide wireless controller support at launch. The console sold out completely at release and by end of 2006 had sold 10.4 million worldwide to retailers. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii. Its Xbox Live service allows players to compete online and download arcade games and content such as game trailers, TV shows, music videos, or rented movies.

Overview

Development

Known during development as Xenon, Xbox 2, Xbox Next or NextBox, the Xbox 360 was conceived in early 2003. In February of 2003, planning for the Xenon software platform began, and was headed by Microsoft VP 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. The following month, IBM signed on to develop the triple-core CPU for the console. Before the launch of the Xbox 360, several alpha development kits were spotted using Apple Power Mac G5 hardware. Games running on these were reported to be using 25-30% of the actual system's power. Microsoft chose to use these systems for their PowerPC architecture, which is similar to that of the Xenon CPU used in the system. On October 24, 2005, Microsoft shut down Xbox Live for a day to upgrade it for the Xbox 360.

Launch

The promotional campaign for Xbox 360 began on March 14, 2005, with the opening of an alternate reality game called OurColony. Throughout March and April it offered challenges to its community, rewarding solutions with cropped pictures of the console and game screenshots. The end of OurColony came on May 12, 2005, with the release of a video where J Allard of Microsoft showed off the Xbox 360 console. The official unveiling of the Xbox 360 occurred the same day on MTV in a program called MTV Presents: The Next Generation Xbox Revealed. In October of 2005, a similar alternate reality game was created, Hex168, to promote the system before launch.

The Xbox 360 was released on November 22, 2005, in the United States and Canada; December 2, 2005, in Europe and December 10, 2005, in Japan. It was later launched in Mexico, Colombia, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, India, Brazil, Poland, and Czech Republic. Microsoft has additionally announced official launches in: Hungary, Slovakia, and the Philippines. In its first year on the market, the system launched in 36 countries, more countries than any console has launched in a single year. Due to its early launch, the Xbox 360 has a one-year lead on both of its competitors, Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii.

Xbox Live

With the launch of the Xbox 360, Microsoft's online gaming service, Xbox Live went through a major upgrade, adding a basic non-subscription service, Silver, to its already established premium subscription-based service, Gold. Xbox Live Silver is free of charge and allows users to create a user profile, join on message boards, access Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade and Marketplace and talk to other members. An Xbox Live Silver account does not generally support multiplayer gaming; however, some games that feature their own subscription service can be played with a Silver account. Xbox Live supports voice communication along with video communication, a feature possible with the Xbox Live Vision.

Xbox Live Gold has the same features as Silver, plus online game playing capabilities. Microsoft has allowed for previous Xbox Live subscribers to maintain their profile information, friends list, and games history when they make the transition to Xbox Live Gold. To transfer an Xbox Live account to the new system, users need to link a Windows Live ID to their gamertag on Xbox.com. When users go to add an Xbox Live enabled profile to their console, they need to provide the console with their passport account information and the last four digits of their credit card number, which is used for verification purposes and billing. An Xbox Live Gold account has an annual cost of US$49.99, CD$59.99, £39.99, or €59.99. As of December 31, 2006, Xbox Live has over 5 million subscribers.

Marketplace

The Xbox Live Marketplace is a virtual market designed for the console that allows Xbox Live users to download purchased or promotional content. The service offers movie and game trailers, game demos, Xbox Live Arcade games, gamer tag images and Xbox 360 Dashboard themes as well as in-game weapons, items, and costumes. These features are available to both silver and gold members on Xbox Live. A hard drive or memory unit is needed to store products purchased from Xbox Live Marketplace. In order to download priced content, users are required to purchase Microsoft Points for use as scrip. Some products are free to download. Users are able to view items available to download on the service through a PC via the Xbox Live Pipeline website. An estimated seventy percent of Xbox Live users download items from Marketplace.

Arcade

Xbox Live Arcade is an online service operated by Microsoft that is used to distribute arcade video games to Xbox and Xbox 360 owners. In addition to classic arcade games such as Ms. Pac-Man, the service offers some new original games like Assault Heroes. In addition it features games from other consoles, such as the PlayStation's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and PC games suchs as Zuma. The service was first launched on November 3, 2004, and offers games for about US$5 to $15. Items are purchased using Microsoft Points, a scrip used to reduce credit card transaction charges. On November 22, 2005, Xbox Live Arcade was re-launched with the release of the Xbox 360, in which new games and features were offered. The games are generally aimed toward more casual gamers; examples of the more popular titles are Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting, and UNO.

Video

On November 6, 2006, Microsoft announced Xbox Live Video, an exclusive video store accessible through the console. Launched in the United States on November 22, 2006, the first anniversary of the Xbox 360 launch, the service allows users in the United States to download high-definition and standard-definition television shows and movies through Xbox Live onto an Xbox 360 console for viewing. At launch the service offered 800 hours of standard footage, and 200 hours of high definition. With the exception of short clips, content is not currently available for streaming, and must be downloaded. Microsoft has also partnered with AT&T to add IPTV functionality to the console, giving users the ability to stream 2 simultaneous HD and 2 simultaneous SD channels. Movies are available for rental. They expire in 14 days after download or at the end of the first 24 hours after the movie has begun playing, whichever comes first. Television episodes can be purchased to own, and are transferable to an unlimited number of consoles. Downloaded files use 5.1 surround audio and are encoded using VC-1 for video at 720p, with a bitrate of 6.8 Mbps. Content is offered from MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, Turner Broadcasting, CBS for television; and Warner Bros., Paramount for movies along with others.

Dashboard

The console's graphical user interface is the Xbox 360 Dashboard; a tabbed interface that features four "Blades". It can be launched automatically when the console boots up without a disc, or when the disc tray is ejected; or the user may choose to launch a game automatically if a disc is inserted. A simplified version of it can also be accessed at any time via the Xbox Guide button on the gamepad. This simplified version shows 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. Much like modern operating systems, the console replaces the dashboard with a Screen of Death if it encounters a serious error.

The Base Kernel Version of the dashboard is 2.0.1888. The first major update, version, 2.0.2857, was released on June 13, 2006. This version gave users the option to resume DVD playback from where it was last stopped as well as the option to boot to either a disc or the dashboard. New slideshow options were added for Photo Viewing, which can save folder layout between sessions. Xbox Live Marketplace was reorganized and users can now have concurrent downloads, allowing multiple downloads as background tasks.

Dashboard version 2.0.4532.0 was released on October 31, 2006. It allows the Xbox 360 to output video at 1080p and installs support for Zune and the external HD DVD drive attachment. WMV files can be streamed from a computer through the use of Windows Media Connect or connected USB device. Windows Media Player 11 was added as a supported streaming program. Xbox Live Arcade can now be set to automatically download trial versions of any newly released titles. Cosmetic changes to the dashboard were also made.

The current dashboard version, 2.0.4548, was released on November 30, 2006. It improves performance on wired headsets when used with a wireless controller and fixes video output issues on VGA connections.

Microsoft XNA

Microsoft XNA is a set of tools and technologies that includes XNA Studio, which provides versions of key production tools such as asset management, defect tracking, project automation and work lists. These tools are designed to work together to automate common development tasks and present interfaces tailored to the different functions within the team. John Carmack stated at QuakeCon 2005 that the Xbox 360 has "the best development environment I've seen on a console". Microsoft XNA also includes other components such as the XNA Framework and XNA Build.

Anyone can develop a game using XNA Game Studio Express, an IDE for homebrew developers, which was initially released in beta form on August 30, 2006. A second, near feature complete beta version was released on November 1, 2006. The final feature complete version, 1.0, was released on December 11, 2006. It targets the XNA Framework only to provide managed content and for a US$99/£65GBP yearly subscription fee users can join a "creators club" which lets them share their content with others. There is also a 4 month subscription to the "creators club" which costs £30GBP.

Backward compatibility

For more details on this topic, see List of Xbox games compatible with Xbox 360.

Backward compatibility is achieved through software emulation of the original Xbox. Emulated games offer graphical enhancements because they are rendered in 720p, 1080i, or 1080p HD resolution with anti-aliasing enabled rather than the Xbox standard of 480p; anti-aliasing is also applied when the output resolution is 480p. Some games also benefit from an improvement in the rendered draw distance, possibly due to the system's greater memory bandwidth. However there are also games that do not perform well in emulation; these often exhibit a lower framerate on the Xbox 360, as well as various sound bugs and occasional gameplay glitches. A hard drive and the downloading of an emulation profile is needed in order to play original Xbox games. Updated emulation profiles can be obtained through Xbox Live, by burning a CD with profiles downloaded from Xbox.com, or by ordering an update disc from Microsoft. The full list of backward-compatible games is maintained at Xbox.com. The current U.S. list includes 298 games (about 30% of the total Xbox game library, as of the December 14, 2006, update); fewer titles are backward compatible in European and Japanese markets, with 295 and 71 titles respectively. Microsoft has stated that they intend to release more emulation profiles as they become available, with a goal of making the entire Xbox library playable on the Xbox 360. They have since made multiple statements indicating that this may never be complete, and the rate of updates to the backwards compatibility list is in line with this stated attitude.

Game library

The Xbox 360 launched with a number of games. One such, Call of Duty 2 was the console's best selling game for 2005, selling over a million copies. Only five other games sold this amount 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. Second-party developer Rare had two games at launch: Perfect Dark Zero, which was Rare's first major commercial success after their acquisition by Microsoft; and was believed by some to be the console's flagship launch title; and Kameo: Elements of Power. Only six games were initially offered in Japan, and eagerly anticipated titles like Dead or Alive 4 and -eNCHANT arM- were not released until several weeks after launch. Games more suitable to the region are planned or have since been released, such as Chromehounds, Ninety-Nine Nights, and Phantasy Star Universe. Microsoft-backed Mistwalker has since released Blue Dragon in the region, and currently has two other Japanese-style games in development, Lost Odyssey and Cry On. On October 19, 2006, over 10,000 pre-orders of a limited-edition Blue Dragon bundle sold out in Japan on the first day. The pack, priced at JP¥29,800 includes the Xbox 360 core system with a copy of Blue Dragon, along with a table calendar, Blue Dragon faceplate, and five miniature character figures.

E³ 2006 was the first large-scale show after the console's launch and there, the first trailer for Halo 3, the sequel to the original Xbox's best selling game. Fable 2, a sequel to the Xbox's best-selling RPG, was also shown, along with Alan Wake, Mass Effect and Too Human. Bill Gates spoke of plans to integrate several Microsoft services into one entity with Live Anywhere. This service will allow multiplayer games and communication possible between Xbox 360 and the upcoming Windows Vista operating system for the PC. Shadowrun was the first game announced to be compatible with Live Anywhere. Several games originally released on PC have also been released on the Xbox 360, such as F.E.A.R. and Quake 4. Grand Theft Auto IV was shown and will be the first title in the series to be released for the Xbox 360 the same day as its PlayStation 3 counterpart. At X06, Microsoft announced new titles, along with information on future releases. Splinter Cell: Conviction, set to release after Splinter Cell: Double Agent, was announced to be exclusive to the Xbox 360, as were Bioshock and Banjo-Kazooie 3. At the event, Halo Wars was also announced, along with an Untitled Halo Project. Microsoft is publishing sequels to some of its more successful franchises on the original Xbox, such as Forza Motorsport 2, Project Gotham Racing 3 & 4, and Fuzion Frenzy 2. In addition to sequels, they have published original games based on new IPs such as Viva Piñata and Gears of War.

Components and Accessories

Xbox 360 also has a built-in 100BASE-TX RJ45 ethernet port, suitable for connecting to Xbox Live, and three USB ports.

Up to four controllers are supported by the Xbox 360, in the wireless form. However, there is a maximum of three wired controllers, as the Xbox 360 only has 3 USB slots, 4 including the HD DVD player with the USB in the back of the console being used for the player. Despite this, a USB hub can be used to extend the maximum number of wired controllers. The wired version of the controller can also be used as PC gamepad because it uses a USB connection, directly connected to the controller; the wireless controller cannot because it uses a wireless signal. A wireless receiver set to be released in 2007 will plug into the PC, allowing wireless Xbox 360 accessories to be used on the PC. An optional wireless force feedback racing wheel for racing games was released on November 1, 2006.

The Xbox 360 controller is significantly different from the original Xbox controllers, the Duke and the S models. The black and white buttons have been replaced by bumper buttons, which are on the shoulder of the controller, just above the triggers. It is noticeably smoother, has a white-gray theme, and is very small and ergonomically built. The wireless version runs on 2 AA batteries. The life remaining on these batteries can be checked by pushing the Xbox Guide Button and looking in the upper margin for a battery with up to 4 bars.

The Xbox 360 can connect to Xbox Live through an optional wireless network adapter on a home network through a wireless router. The Universal Media Remote can be used to control several functions of the console, including the Windows Media Center functions if connected to the network. Various other components for the console exist, such as decorative faceplates to change the physical appears of the console, wired or wireless headsets for communication over Xbox Live, and an Xbox 360 branded webcam called Xbox Live Vision.

Physical appearance

The Xbox 360 is similar in form factor to its predecessor. It is slightly slimmer in every dimension, and the Xbox 360 is white and slightly concave, whereas the original Xbox was black and noticeably convex. It was designed by Astro Studios in cooperation with Hers Experimental Design Laboratory. The front of the console features a "ring of light", which displays 4 illuminated quadrants either in red or green. When the lights turn red, the console has encountered a technical problem; the number of sectors illuminated informs a user what category the error falls into. The Xbox 360 has a weight of 3.5 kg (7.7 lb), about 350 grams lighter than the original Xbox. The console uses an external power supply with a 5 amp/100-120 volt AC input and DC output of 203 watts. An estimated 2 W of power are used while the console is in standby mode, a yearly usage of 17.52 kWh. Saving the console size and weight, the power supply displaces 1300 cm³.

Xbox 360 technical problems

Much like modern operating systems, the Xbox 360 displays a Screen of Death if it encounters a serious error. In addition, the "ring of light" display on the front of the console itself changes from green to red, the amount of sectors illuminated informing a user what category the error falls into. On September 29, 2006, Microsoft released a statement saying that they will waive the cost for repairs on all Xbox 360 consoles made before January 1, 2006, and refund any fees already paid. On December 21, 2006 the warranty for all consoles purchased in Canada and the United States was extended from 90 days to one year.

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