It played host to Gears of War, Halo 3, Mass Effect, BioShock, and countless others, and now Microsoft has announced that more than a decade after its debut, production of the Xbox 360 is to cease. That means that, once current stocks of hardware have been sold, the US giant's best selling console to date will be no more.
The news was broken in a blog post by Xbox boss Phil Spencer (no, not the bald guy off Location, Location, Location), with the company claiming the Xbox 360 "helped redefine an entire generation of gaming at Microsoft."
"I am incredibly proud of all of the work and dedication that went into development of the Xbox 360 hardware, services and games portfolio over the last decade," continued Spencer in the post. "Xbox 360 means a lot to everyone in Microsoft. And while we've had an amazing run, the realities of manufacturing a product over a decade old are starting to creep up on us. Which is why we have made the decision to stop manufacturing new Xbox 360 consoles."
It's easy to forget now, but when Xbox 360 made its debut back in 2005, Microsoft was playing catch up in the console wars. Sony's PS2 had blown away everything before it at the start of the decade, putting Nintendo firmly in the shade and causing SEGA to pull out of console hardware altogether. Microsoft's original Xbox, though successful, had also failed to dent PlayStation's lead.
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Xbox 360, however, launched a year ahead of the initially troubled PS3, helping it to establish a firm base with gamers particularly in the US by the time Sony got its act together. While Nintendo's wand-waving Wii stole much of the limelight last generation, Microsoft's Xbox 360 eventually outsold it, with the last official figures placing it at around the 78 million mark back in late 2013.
But Xbox 360's domination wasn't just about the games. It was also the trigger behind Microsoft's mammoth online gaming community, Xbox Live, becoming the market leader, and in its latter years at the top, Kinect's motion-sensor technology breathed new life into the ageing system by making you jump around like a loon in front of your TV set. Though now considered to be redundant, Kinect on Xbox 360 was at the time the fastest selling piece of consumer electronics ever released.
The challenge for Microsoft now, of course, is to throw that momentum behind Xbox One. Though the latest Xbox is actually selling at a faster rate than its predecessor at the same stage of its life, Xbox One's estimated global tally of 20 million puts it well behind the 40 million systems sold Sony's PS4 is currently hurtling towards, according to VGChartz.
Also, with no announcement on any Virtual Reality headset forthcoming and Nintendo's next system - currently code named NX - rumoured to be hitting the shop shelves before the end of the year, the challenges for Xbox One are as stark now as they were for Xbox 360 ten years ago.
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Words by Keith Andrew
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Xbox, Phones and Gadgets, Microsoft, PlayStation, Technology