DirecTV TiVo DVR, non-HD

The Xbox 360 is the successor to Microsoft's Xbox video game console, developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, Samsung and SiS. more...

Home
Amplifiers
Audio Accessories & Cables
Cable TV
DVD Players & Recorders
Digital Video Recorders, PVR
ReplayTV
TiVo
DirecTV TiVo DVR, HD
DirecTV TiVo DVR, non-HD
Other TiVo DVRs
TiVo DVR / DVD Recorder
TiVo Series2 DVR
UltimateTV
Gadgets & Other Electronics
Home Audio
Home Theater Projectors
Home Theater in a Box
Radios: CB, Ham & Shortwave
Satellite Radio
Satellite TV
Telephones & Pagers
Televisions
VCRs
Vintage Electronics

Information on the console first came through viral marketing campaigns and 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 have a near-simultaneous launch across the three major regions, and the first to provide wireless controller support at launch. The console sold out completely at release and by the end of September 2006 had sold 6 million consoles worldwide.

The Xbox 360 was the first home console to be released in the seventh generation of game consoles and competes against Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii. Its Xbox Live service allows players to compete online, download games and additional content.

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 showing J. Allard of Microsoft showing 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.

Read more at Wikipedia.org