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Xbox 360 Logo
Xbox 360
Xbox 360
Manufacturer Microsoft
Type Console
Release Date November 22, 2005 (NA)

December 2, 2005 (EU)
December 10, 2005 (JP)

Discontinued
Media DVD
Save Format 20, 60, or 120 GB Hard Drive or 64, 256, or 512 MB Memory Card
Input Options Xbox 360Controller
Special Features Xbox Live, HDTV ready, plays DVDs and CDs, connectivity to MP3 players, cameras, and computers
Units Sold 29.58 million as of March 25th, 2009
Top Selling Game Halo 3: 9.37 million as of March, 2009
Variants Xbox 360 Elite
Competitor(s) PlayStation 3
Wii
Predecessor Xbox
Successor None


Xbox360package

"Xbox 360" package

Xbox360core

"Core 360 System" package

360 Live interface

Xbox Live interface

Xbox360 controller headset

Console, controller, headset, and camera

Xbox360 allsides

Xbox 360 from all angles.

The Xbox 360 is the second Video game console from Microsoft and the first seventh-generation console. Releasing mere weeks, apart the 360 was given a near simultaneous launch for North America (November 22, 2005), Europe (December 2, 2005), and Japan (December 10, 2005).

Xbox 360 Price

The premium package is currently $299.99 and comes with a detachable 60-GB hard-drive, a wireless controller, faceplate, headset, a component HD AV cable, an Ethernet cable, power cord, and for a limited time, a remote controller.


The 360 Arcade is $199.99 and includes a wireless controller and 256 MB memory card.

The 360 Elite is $399.99 and includes a black Xbox 360, black controller, black headset, 120GB hardrive and more.

Press conference summary

"Let's talk about VelocityGirl. We all know someone like her. She might pick up a controller every once in a while over at a friend's house but really gaming is not a central part of her existence.

It's an important question that we've struggled with in this industry for the last 20 years; how do we get the VelocityGirls of the world reconnected to our industry and back into the games.

But maybe most exciting, the Marketplace is going to be a way to get VelocityGirl reengaged with our market and reengaged with games. Because on the Marketplace, she's going to be an active member of the community, the community of people that play games like Tony Hawk.

Now, she might never pick up a controller, never take a run in the halfpipe but she'll be able to design and sell stickers, shirts, boards, sound tracks and even design her own skate park for those hardcore gamers like Striker."[The hardcore gamer mentioned earlier in the press conference]

Launch titles

According to IGN this is the launch list

Hardware specifications

Significantly, the Intel x86 processor of the Xbox has been replaced by a custom IBM-designed processor based on the PowerPC architecture.

A side-by-side comparison between Xbox 360 and PS3 can be seen here: [1]

According to the official Xbox website, the final specifications of the system are:

Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU "Xenon"

  • Three symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz
  • Two hardware threads per core; six total
  • VMX-128 vector unit per core; three total
  • 128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread
  • 1MB L2 cache (Lockable by Graphics Processor)

Custom ATI C1 Based GPU "Xenos"

  • 337 Million transistors total
  • 500 MHz parent GPU (90nm process, 232 Million Transistors)
  • 10 MB daughter eDRAM Framebuffer (90nm process, 105 Million Transistors)
    • 256 GB/s internal memory bandwidth to internal logic for AA, 32GB/s to parent GPU (2GHz x 64bit Bus)
  • 48-way parallel floating-point dynamically-scheduled shader pipelines (ALU's for Vertex or Pixel Shader processing)
  • Unified shader architecture (This means that the pipelines are shared between pixel pipelines and vertex shaders; for example, 42 pixel pipelines : 6 vertex shaders.)
  • 16 Filtered & 16 Unfiltered Texture samples per clock
  • Polygon Performance: 500 million triangles per second
  • Pixel Fill Rate: 16 gigasamples per second fillrate using 4X MSAA
  • Shader Performance: 48 billion shader operations per second (96 billion shader operations per second theoretical maximum)
  • Dot product operations: 9 billion per second (Microsoft figure)

Memory

  • 512 MB 700MHz GDDR-3 RAM (unified memory architecture)
  • Memory Bandwidth
    • 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth
    • 256 GB/s eDRAM internal memory bandwidth
    • 32 GB/s GPU to eDRAM bandwidth
    • 21.6 GB/s frontside bus

Overall System Floating-Point Performance

  • 1 TFLOPS

Audio

  • Multichannel surround sound output
  • Supports 48khz 16-bit audio
  • 320 independent decompression channels
  • 32 bit processing
  • 256+ audio channels

Controller

360 controller

Controller up close

The Xbox 360 has the ability to support four wireless controllers. Additionally it can support three wired controllers through the use of its USB ports (two in front, one in back). The wired controller cords are nine feet in length and are breakaway similar to those used with the Xbox.

The controller for the Xbox 360 is a similar yet improved version of the Type-S gamepad for the original Xbox. The Xbox 360 controller adds the new feature of the Xbox guide button, which has the appearance of the Xbox 360 emblem and is surrounded by a ring of light. Pressing the Xbox guide button will bring the Xbox 360 out of sleep mode or instantly bring up the "Xbox Guide". The ring of light lights up to designate what controller "port" the gamepad is currently using and which console (if more than one) the controller is connected to. The black and white buttons have been redesigned as shoulder buttons, now referred to as bumper buttons, located above the left and right triggers. The rear of the controller has been redesigned to include a new port where the player can connect a headset. The new port replaces the two non-standard USB connectors on the front of the Xbox controller.

Xbox Guide

The Xbox Guide is a tabbed interface that contains several features such as:

  • Xbox Live
  • Marketplace
  • Favorites List
  • Custom Playlists
  • Friends Lists
  • and more

Physical Dimensions and Weight

  • The Xbox 360 weights 7.7 pounds or 3.62 kg
  • 309mm wide x 83mm high x 258mm deep
  • 12.15" wide x 3.27" high x 10.15" deep

Miscellaneous

  • Support for WMV HD DVD Video, Standard DVD-video, DVD-Rom, DVD-R/RW, CD-DA, CD-Rom, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG photo CD
  • Media Center Extender capability
  • All games support a 16:9 aspect ratio and 720p, 1080i, and 1080p video modes
  • Standard-definition and high-definition video output supported
  • At least 4x Anti-Aliasing will be enabled at all times
  • Customizable face plates to change appearance
  • 3 USB 2.0 ports
  • Support for 4 wireless controllers
  • Detachable 20, 60, or 120 GB hard drives
  • Wi-Fi ready (802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g), using an Xbox 360-specific or third-party wireless bridge accessory. Xbox 360 consoles will automatically detect and link with other Xbox 360 consoles within range.

Packages

Name Info Image
Saint Row Bundle On September 8, 2007 a xbox 360 bundle with Saint Row was released in Europe for 439 Euros SaintRow bundle
Trusty Bell Bundle On June 14, 2007 Microsoft released a Trusty Bell bundle for Japan. It includes a Xbox 360, wired controller, copy of Trusty Bell and a special DVD soundtrack Bellsbundle
Best of Halo Bundle In January 2009 Microsoft released a Best of Halo Bundle, which includes a Xbox 360 pro, a wireless controller, a one month xbox live silver account, Halo 3 and Halo wars. The bundle cost $350 USD and will be sold in europe Halobundle
Game of the Year Bundle In May 2009 Microsoft released a Game of The Year Bundle, which includes a Xbox 360 elite, Halo 3 and Fable 2. The bundle cost $399 USD GOTYbundleXbox
Gears of Wars Bundle On June 4, 2009 a Gears of Wars bundle is released for Australia. The bundle inculdes Gears of Wars, Gears of Wars 2, a Xbox 360, and a controller. The bundle cost AUD$449 . GEARSbundle

See also

External links

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