A Brief History of the XBox 360
It has been called many things. Revolutionary. Slick. A home wrecker. Widow maker. Of course, the subject at hand is the XBox 360. Many people own one. Some, more dedicated, gamers own multiple consoles. Parents will rush department stores to buy XBox 360 games for their kids. Nationwide tournaments have cropped up around specific games played on the XBox 360 console. The console allows you to do anything from fighting in the UFC to racing a stolen car - for which you will never go to jail, because this is all virtual.
But how, exactly, did the XBox 360 come about?
The Beginning
The XBox 360 is the console that took the place of the original XBox. Its main competition? PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii - two other major players in the seventh generation of consoles. The console itself had a variety of names during its development.
Some possibilities included XBox Next to NextBox, and even Xenon. However, XBox 360 seemed to be a bit more easily marketed, and thusly the name stuck.
First ideas for the 360 came about in 2003, with planning beginning in Februrary of 2003.
Throughout the rest of 2003, many higher ups in the gaming industry signed on to help with the development of the 360. Sega’s former president signed on early in the project, and ATI developed the graphics processing unit later that year. Prior to release, even Apple got in on the action, as several Alpha development kits were caught using the PowerMac G5 hardware.
Launch
November 22, 2005 was the release date for the XBox 360 in the United States. Fans everywhere rushed out not only to buy the console, but also to buy XBox 360 games, which were already being released in a small flood. Two versions were available upon original launch, the XBox 360 package or the XBox 360 Core package. Several other packages have come along since then, to include the Elite model.
But gamers around the world are getting ramped up yet again as Microsoft plans to release yet another version of the XBox 360. This one with the more simple name of XBox 360 S.
But don’t let the release of a newer version dictate whether or not you buy XBox 360 games. You will still be able to play all the same games on the XBox 360 S. This isn’t like the change from XBox to XBox 360. So go on out and buy XBox 360 games - buy some for your friends, too. You’re all certain to be gaming to your heart’s content now that you know where your XBox 360 came from.