After a successful ten-and-a-half-year run, the Xbox 360 is officially saying goodbye. One might even say it’s turning around 360 degrees and walking away.
Announcing the news on the Xbox Wire today, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer wrote a few paragraphs about the console’s success. And it has indeed been successful, selling upwards of 78 million units as of 2013. Thanks to strong third-party support and some early stumbling by Sony (“five hundred and ninety-nine US dollars”), the Xbox 360 came out strong to surpass its predecessor and give Microsoft an edge for most of last console generation.
“Xbox 360 means a lot to everyone in Microsoft,” Spencer wrote. “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. We will continue to sell existing inventory of Xbox 360 consoles, with availability varying by country.”
Xbox Live will remain active, Spencer said, as will the Xbox 360’s various stores and online services. The Xbox One also supports backwards compatibility for some 360 games, and Microsoft has been gradually adding new games to the list over the past weeks and months.
The Xbox 360 leaves behind one hell of legacy, full of memorable gaming moments both good and bad: achievement collecting, Kinect, exclusive DLC, red rings of death, Halo, Gears of War, Mass Effect and Lost Odyssey.
(Photo by Philip Sowels/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Comments
15 responses to “Microsoft Ends Xbox 360 Production”
“One might even say it’s turning around 360 degrees and walking away.”
So it’s walking in the same direction it started in?
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/why-they-call-it-an-xbox-360
Glad I didn’t point that out first… Wasn’t aware of that meme.
Ditto.
Oh, I’m sorry.
Everyone point and laugh at the uncool guy who brought common sense to a memefight.
Came to say the same thing lol
But what about the people that dont have internet access, how will they play games now
…huh?
Sorry if I missed it, but how does xb360 stopping production prohibit people playing offline games? Or was there a joke here…
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/06/microsoft-no-internet-connection-you-can-still-buy-an-xbox-360/
The same way they always have, by rubbing two sticks together.
“Fortunately we have a product for people who aren’t able to get some form of connectivity. It’s called a cup on a stick with a ping pong ball attached to it with a piece of string.”
what are you saying? i havent had a connection for almost 2 years. i’ve dealt with it.
I wonder how many they produced were replacements for broken consoles. I went through 3 consoles myself.
same, pretty much why I won’t be buying a Xbone any time soon. I got burned hard by shitty MS hardware.
time to buy up old stock