History of video games/Platforms/Xbox 360

Development
The Xbox 360 was preceded by the original Xbox. Development on the Xbox 360 started in 2003 as project Xenon. From 2003 to 2005 the dev kit for the Xbox 360 was based on an Apple PowerMac G5 desktop computer.

The Xbox 360 exterior was designed by three different studios.

Launch
The Xbox 360 was launched on November 22nd, 2005.

Prime
Early Xbox 360 consoles would often scratch disks or overheat to the point of bricking the console. In light of high failure rates, in 2007 Microsoft extended the Warranty of the Xbox 360 to three years, ultimately costing Microsoft $1.15 billion dollars. The sheer scale of the recall was so massive that a significant portion of that cost, $240 million dollars, was solely dedicated to paying for the logistics of shipping consoles. Legal action resulting from the high failure rates on the Xbox 360 would eventually lead to the US Supreme Court case Microsoft Corp. v. Baker.

The Xbox 360 S was released in 2010. The price of Xbox Live also increased in 2010.

The Xbox 360 E was released in 2013.

Legacy
The Xbox 360 was followed by the Xbox One.

Xbox 360 production ceased in 2016. 85 million Xbox 360 consoles were sold.

Compute
The Xbox 360 is powered by a custom three core IBM 64-bit PowerPC CPU named Xenon, clocked at 3.2 gigahertz. The CPU has 165 million transistors. The CPU also contains eFuses to prevent firmware rollbacks.

The Xbox 360 GPU is a custom ATI design clocked at 500 megahertz, with 10 megabytes of dedicated RAM.

The Xbox 360 has 512 megabytes of unified GDDR3 RAM clocked at 700 megahertz. The Xbox 360 RAM is shared between the CPU and GPU.

Storage
Most Xbox 360 units have removable hard drives.

Xbox Live
In 2020 Xbox Live cloud saves were made available to free Xbox Live users on the Xbox 360.

Other system software
A software emulator was used for limited backwards compatibility with original Xbox games.

The Xbox 360 contained a version of Neon, a light synthesizer developed by Jeff Minter, who is also known for his work on the games Tempest 2000 and Tempest 3000.

Software development
Despite using a 64-bit CPU, ExtremeTech suggests that much of the code for the Xbox 360 was 32 bit.

2005

 * Perfect Dark Zero
 * Kameo
 * Project Gotham Racing 3
 * Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved

2006

 * Gears of War
 * Viva Piñata
 * Blue Dragon - JRPG

2007

 * Halo 3
 * Lost Odyssey - JRPG
 * Mass Effect
 * Jetpac Refuelled
 * Forza Motorsport 2
 * Fuzion Frenzy 2

Shadowrun
One of the first games to have cross platform multiplayer between Xbox 360 and PC.

Read more about the 2007 Shadowrun video game on Wikipedia.

2008

 * Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
 * Fable II
 * Gears of War 2
 * Too Human
 * Go! Go! Break Steady

2009

 * Halo 3: ODST
 * Halo Wars
 * Earth Defense Force 2017
 * Forza Motorsport 3

2010

 * Halo: Reach
 * Fable III
 * Alan Wake

2011

 * Gears of War 3
 * Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
 * Forza Motorsport 4

2012

 * Halo 4

Goldeneye 007 Remake
A nearly completed and highly anticipated, yet ultimately unreleased remasted version of Rare's innovative N64 title Goldeneye 007 was leaked in February 2021.

Preservation
There is a WikiBook on the Xbox 360, with notes on development, undocumented commands, and motherboard replacement.

External Resources

 * Video Game Console Library - Xbox 360 page with technical info.