Xbox 360

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Microsoft tasked AKQA with creating the graphical user interface or GUI. The console's GUI is the Xbox 360 Dashboard; a tabbed interface that features five "Blades" (formerly only four blades). It can be launched automatically when the console boots up without a disc, or when the disc tray is ejected. However, 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, or returning to the primary Dashboard from the game.

Since the console's release, Microsoft has released several updates for the Dashboard software. These updates have included adding new features to the console; enhancing Xbox Live functionality and multimedia playback cabilities; adding compatibility for new accessories; and fixing bugs in the software. The latest Dashboard update, revision 2.0.5787, was made available on September 20, 2007.

Microsoft XNA

Main article: 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".^[43] 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.^[44] The final feature complete version, 1.0, was released on December 11 2006.^[45] For a US$99/GB£65 yearly subscription fee users can join a "creators club" which lets them transport code onto their 360 and share their content with others. In the UK, there is also a 4 month subscription to the "creators club" which costs £30 GBP.

Backward compatibility

Main article: 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^[46] (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,^[47] 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 are automatically obtained through Xbox LIVE, or alternatively they can be burned to a CD with files downloaded from Xbox.com, or by ordering a free update disc from Microsoft. The full list of backward-compatible games is maintained at Xbox.com.

The current U.S. list includes 394 games as of the July 12 2007, update; fewer titles are backward compatible in European and Japanese markets, with 295 and 101 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.^[48]

Game library

Main article: List of Xbox 360 games

The Xbox 360 launched with a number of games. The console's best-selling game for 2005, Call of Duty 2, sold over a million copies.^[49] Five other games sold as well in the console's first year in the market: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter,^[50] ,^[51] Dead or Alive 4,^[52] Saints Row^[53] and Gears of War.^[54] As of October 18 2007, Halo 3 is the Xbox 360's best-selling game with 3.3 million copies sold in the U.S.^[2] First-party developer Rare had two games at launch: Perfect Dark Zero and . Only six games were initially offered in Japan, and eagerly anticipated titles like Dead or Alive 4 and Enchanted Arms 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. At the Lepzig game convention in 2007, Microsoft revealed details of PGR4, Rock Band, Tom Clancy's EndWar, Dark Sector, FIFA 08, Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare and Tony Hawk's Proving Ground.

E3 2006 was the first large-scale show after the console's launch and the first trailer for Halo 3, the sequel to the original Xbox's best selling game, was shown there. 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 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. , set to release after , 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 published 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.

Hardware and accessories

Hardware

Main article: Xbox 360 hardware

The main unit of the Xbox 360 itself has slight double concavity in matte white or black. It features a port on the top (when vertical, left side when horizontal) to which a custom-housed hard drive unit can be attached in sizes of either 20, or 120 GB. Inside, the Xbox 360 uses the triple-core IBM designed Xenon as its CPU. Graphics processing is handled by the ATI Xenos which has 10 MB of embedded eDRAM. Its main memory pool is 512 MB in size.

Accessories

Main article: Xbox 360 accessories

Many accessories are available for the console including both wired and wireless controllers, a wireless steering wheel, headsets, a webcamera, an HD DVD player, two sizes of memory cards, two sizes of hard drives, and more, all of which are styled to match the console.

Technical problems

Main article: Xbox 360 technical problems

The Xbox 360 can be subject to a number of possible technical problems. Since the console's release in 2005, the console's reliability gained a bad reputation by the general public, and in the press through articles portraying its poor reliability and relatively high failure rates.^{[55][56][57][58]}

Microsoft has subsequently introduced design revisions, and upgraded the 360's manufacturer's warranty to alleviate the problem.

General Hardware Error (Three Red Lights)

In the case of a hardware failure, the ring of light display on the front of the console itself changes from green to red, a case known as the "Red Ring Of Death".^[59] The notification quickly became common and infamous.^[60] In response to high levels of Three Red Light errors, Microsoft released a public letter of apology^[61] and extended its warranty to cover users experiencing the Three Red Light error for three years. As of July 5th, 2007, any user experiencing a general hardware error indicated by the three flashing red lights will be covered by a 3 year warranty from date of purchase.^[62]

According to the German computer magazine c't the main reason for the problems is that the wrong type of lead free solder was used, a type that when exposed to elevated temperatures for a long time becomes brittle and can develop hair-line cracks that are almost irreparable. They also revealed that representatives of the three largest Xbox 360 resellers in the world, (EB Games, Gamestop and Best Buy) told c't that the failure rate of the Xbox 360 is between 30 and 33%, and that the largest repair shop in Britain, Micromart, stopped repairing Xbox 360s because they were unable to fully repair the defective systems and because the Xbox 360 has a "fatal design flaw".^[63]

Disk scratching

On April 14, 2007, the Dutch TV program Kassa, as a reaction to over a thousand customers complaining that their Xbox 360s had scratched their game discs, broadcast a program in which they discussed an investigation they had launched. The test indicated that some Xbox 360s, equipped with Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology (TSST) DVD players, scratch DVDs spontaneously, even when the Xbox 360 is placed on a stable surface, rendering the DVDs unplayable. A technician from Kassa earlier had found the main reason for the problem. The affected drives do not have the usual four protective pads around the laser disks lens, to prevented the lens from contacting, (and thus scratching) the disk. Some other technicians independently also found out that the drives do not have the protective rubber pieces inside the body of the drive that prevent the disc from tipping and hitting the laser head. Though in the Original Xbox, and commercial versions of these drives, these disc protection measures were found."^[64] A reseller (BOL.com) that was sued by one of the gamers that took part in the Kassa program, attended the broadcast and provided replacement equipment to the user. Additionally, they informed Kassa "that they had contacted the 1% of users who reported the problem with the offer of replacing all their game discs and consoles." Microsoft itself, however, refused to take part in the program, although the day before the program broadcasted they sent Kassa a formal letter in which they told them the customers can contact them whereupon they will "examine the console and make appropriate repairs if necessary in order to restore the console to full working order. and also wrote that “…it is possible that scratches may originate from frequent use."^{[65][64][67][68]}

In the beginning of June 2007, the European Commission started an investigation into these scratching problems.^[69]

On July 26 2007 several law firms announced they are investigating a class action suit concerning the scratched disks.^[70]

Warranty extensions

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.^[71] On December 21 2006 the warranty for all consoles purchased in Canada and the United States was extended from 90 days to one year.^[72]

After many complaints about "general failure errors" Microsoft announced changes to their warranty coverage on July 5, 2007. This increased the standard one year manufacturer's warranty to three years for general hardware failures indicated by the three red lights. Hardware failures indicated by one red light and an error message also require repair and are covered. It is also retroactive to any previously purchased systems; original launch consoles are covered until November 2008. Additionally, any customers who have previously paid for repairs for general hardware failures will be reimbursed in full.^[73][74] It has also been reported that Microsoft will spend over $1 billion repairing Xbox 360s.^[75] In addition, Peter Moore stated in his open letter that "to address this issue, and as part of our ongoing work, we have already made certain improvements to the console," indicating future systems received some design improvements.^[76]

The current Xbox 360 manufacturer's warranty covers all manufacturing defects for one year, covers errors indicated by three flashing red lights for three years, and includes a 90 day warranty for included accessories.^[77]

Implemented solutions

Currently Microsoft takes extra measures to cool the GPU by adding a heat pipe to an extra heat sink, in an attempt to counter the heat issues.

Planned solutions

Microsoft moved to the 65 nanometer manufacturing process (from 90 nm) for its Xbox 360 CPU in the autumn of 2007 with its "falcon" motherboard revision. Xbox 360's with the new falcon motherboard are expected to arrive in the shops somewhere in December 2007. ^[78][79][80] This will reduce the amount of heat the console produces, meaning it can run cooler, which might alleviate some hardware issues. The Xbox 360's GPU is expected to receive a die-shrink to 65nm in August 2008.^[81]

Sales

Quarter	Units shipped
Q4 2005	1.5 million[82]
Q1 2006	1.7 million[83]
Q2 2006	1.8 million[84]
Q3 2006	0.9 million[85]
Q4 2006	4.4 million
Q1 2007	0.5 million[86]
Q2 2007	0.8 million
Cumulative totals
to Q2 2007	11.6 million[87]

The Xbox 360 began production only 69 days before launch.^[88] As a result, Microsoft was not able to supply enough systems to meet initial consumer demand in Europe or North America.^[89] Many potential customers were not able to purchase a console at launch. This lack of availability caused Xbox 360 bundles to sell on eBay at inflated prices; some auctions exceeded US$6,000. Forty thousand units appeared on eBay during the initial week of release; this was 10% of the total supply.^[90] By year's end, Microsoft had shipped 1.5 million units, including 900,000 in North America, 500,000 in Europe, and 100,000 in Japan.^[91]

At E3 in May 2006, Bill Gates announced that Microsoft would have a head start of 10 million units by the time Sony and Nintendo enter the market.^[92] Microsoft later specified that goal and estimated shipments of 10 million units by the end of 2006,^[93] a target it passed by 400,000 units. As of May 18 2007, 5.4 million consoles have been sold to consumers in North America, and as of July 18 2007, 420,000 units in Japan. Although the console is a success in the United States and Europe it continues to struggle in Japan, placing third in the Japanese market.

During an earnings call in January 2007, Microsoft's CFO downgraded estimated Xbox 360 sales for the first half of 2007. Cumulative sales from the system's launch until June 30 2007 were predicted to reach 12 million units, down from 13 to 15 million units estimated earlier. Microsoft later announced they shipped 11.6 million units cumulative to June 30 2007.<ref name="cumulative Xbox 360 sales to Q2 2007" /> On October 4, 2007, Microsoft stated that Xbox 360 sales have more than doubled when compared with the weekly average before the Halo 3 launch.^[94]

Based on newly released figures, the Xbox 360 outsold the Wii for the month of September, helped in part by the spike in sales seen after the launch of Halo 3, which sold 3.3 million copies in the U.S. in a 12-day period. The Xbox had sales of 528,000 units for September, while the Wii had sales of 501,000 units.^[95]

Region	Units sold
United States	6.3 million as of September 1, 2007[0]
Japan	420,000 as of July 18, 2007

However, despite these sales figures, Microsoft's gaming division is losing money. Up to 2005, the Xbox gaming division had lost over $4 billion dollars.^[97] However, Microsoft expects the console will start making money in 2008.^[98] The losses are due to the market strategy of selling consoles below cost in order to obtain market saturation and turn a profit on software and peripherals that have a much higher profit margin.^[99][100] Also notable is that Microsoft expects it needs to spend one billion dollars for repairs or replacements of bricked Xbox 360s.^[75]

Homebrew development

Main article: Free60

Free60 is the successor to the Xbox Linux Project that put Linux, BSD, or Darwin on the new Xbox 360. The dashboard released on January 9 2007 (version 2.0.4552) might hinder installation of current sold units.

Notes

1. ^ ^a b c d  On included video cable. The Elite and Pro versions come with the Component HD AV cable, and the Core version comes with the Composite AV Cable.
2. ^  The Elite comes with a separate AV dongle for users using HDMI exclusively for video and who need audio from separate cables.

References

•  • [ e] Selected home game consoles
First generation
Magnavox Odyssey • Pong • Coleco Telstar
Second generation
Fairchild Channel F • Atari 2600 • Interton VC 4000 • Odyssey • Intellivision • Arcadia 2001 • Atari 5200 • ColecoVision • Vectrex • SG-1000
Third generation
NES • Master System • Atari 7800
Fourth Generation
TurboGrafx-16 • Mega Drive/Genesis • Neo Geo • SNES
Fifth generation
3DO • Amiga CD32 • Jaguar • Saturn • PlayStation • Nintendo 64 • Virtual Boy
Sixth generation
Dreamcast • PlayStation 2 • GameCube • Xbox
Seventh generation
Xbox 360 • PlayStation 3 • Wii

External links

Official sites

• Official Xbox/Xbox 360 Website
• Gamerscore Blog—Official PR and Marketing Team Blog
• Xbox Development Team Blog
• Xbox Live Video Offerings In HD, Up-to-date listing of all Xbox Live content in High-definition (movies, TV shows, trailers, clips, etc.)

•  • [ e] Microsoft consoles

Consoles: Xbox • Xbox 360 Games: Xbox Games • Xbox 360 Games (Demos) • Backward Compatible Games • Platinum Hits • Xbox Live Arcade Titles (Upcoming) Online Services: Xbox LIVE (Arcade • Marketplace) • Microsoft Points • Games for Windows - Live • Live Anywhere Peripherals: Xbox 360 Accessories • Xbox Live Vision • Wireless Headset • Wireless Racing Wheel Promotional: OurColony • Official Xbox Magazine • Xbox Exhibition • "X" Show • Xbox Rewards Tools: Xbox Development Kit • Microsoft XNA Misc.: Microsoft Game Studios • Xbox 360 Launch • Xbox 360 Technical Problems

•  • [ e] Microsoft
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Education and recognition	MCPs MSDN MSDNAA MSCA Microsoft Press Microsoft MVP Microsoft Student Partners
Board of directors	Ballmer Cash Dublon Gates Gilmartin Hastings Marquardt Noski Panke Shirley