Xbox 360 Is Five Today

TSA Staff 29 Comments

We remember the Xbox 360 launch like it was yesterday. It wasn’t, it was five years ago, but it feels like it was much more recent than that. Some of us skipped the console at launch, but at least one member of the team remembers seeing the demo of Fight Night 3 running on one shortly after and had to grab one as soon as he could…

Microsoft have forwarded over a hugely excited bit of PR to celebrate the 360’s birthday, too, and whilst we’ll spare you the majority of the fluff, it’s worth having a look at the bullet-points which list the things Microsoft’s second did first:

  • HD gaming and Achievements.  Can’t argue there, especially as it’s safe to assume their talking about HD console gaming.  And the games – the “biggest exclusives and entertainment” according to Microsoft, including Halo, Gears of War, Forza Motorsport and Fable.
  • New Xbox Experience.  The NXE, back in 2008, brought the excellent Xbox Live Party system, Avatars and a brand new dashboard.
  • Sky TV.  You could watch live TV back in 2009 via the Xbox 360’s Sky player, and there was Zune Video, Last.fm, Facebook and Twitter too.
  • Kinect.  Yep, it might well be “an entirely new way to play” but despite positive reviews, Kinect isn’t for everyone, not yet. Microsoft say Kinect is “already topping Christmas wish lists everywhere” and has sold “more than 2.5 million units worldwide in less than one month,” targetting five million by the end of the year.

Microsoft say over 45,000,000 Xbox 360 consoles have been sold worldwide, and the machine has been the number one console in Europe and the US for the past five months.  Spin?  Perhaps, but impressive figures none-the-less.

Happy birthday indeed!

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29 Comments

  1. I wonder if they count all the rrod replacements in that figure?

    • Wow, and the first comment, too. Who had first comment? Come on up to the stage to pick up your prize.
      ;)

    • What is up with these comments!?

    • Probably, without selling faulty consoles, i dont think this would be so high

    • Your stole my comment. I challenge you to a duel sir.

  2. I wonder how many of those 45 million consoles have broken, though?
    I remember picking up my launch 360 with my dad (13 at the time), and it RROD’d within 2 hours. I have fond memories of games like Crackdown on it’s replacement, though :)

    • if the RROD stats are to be believed, and replacements are included in that figure, then you can deduct about 30%……so 13.5 million.

      • Exactly and that’s where people go wrong with these stupid stats, you could literally half how many Consoles MS have supposedly sold because of the RROD.

        I have had 2 360’s die on me and i know of around 15 people who have had the same fate.

        The only thing besides killing PC gaming that i can attest MS of doing is their Live platform.

      • “about 30%”
        “literally half”
        LOL.

      • Sorry but he said 30 i said half and i stand by that comment.

      • I’ve heard that Failure rate is at 54% now.

    • The shocking RRoD rate is perhaps not really as relevant as some people think.

      Every faulty 360 that MS receive is refurbed and shipped to someone else (apart from a stock level), who then probably sells it and puts the money towards a new one, therefore the majority of faulty one’s are still expanding the base through pre-owned sales

      Far more relevant is the number of active consoles

      We’re probably never going to find that out, but looking at the 55/45 split in multi-platform sales (unless you cherry pick a couple of titles like Batman with the Joker etc…) it’s obvious there is a slight edge in one consoles favour.

      In the US the 360 obviously leads the sales charts and in core European countries (the big 8 apparently) it also leads the PS3 and has done for 5 months now. the picture is different worldwide with Sony leading the way which is giving them a higher run rate & closing the gap…. you’d be hard pushed to say things aren’t going to end up pretty equal which is an astonishing achievement for both companies. a) For MS to keep pace with the mighty Sony with the their second console release securing amazing relationships with all 3rd parties b) For Sony to have caught up with the ~8m sales lead that MS had with the year early release.

      So, both win, although a few people on either side of the fence can’t see that.

      • True, although i got fed up with mine braking and bought a brand new one..

      • Careful CC….JesseDeya might hear you.

      • 2 360 both broke 2 ps3 still going strong.

  3. still got my launch ‘core’ machine running strong :)

    • I got mine a couple of months after launch and it’s still running fine, apart from the death screen that comes up every so often when you turn it on.
      Well it was the last time I switched it on about 6 months or so ago.

  4. I’ve only replaced one console but heard many stories of lots more for some people. For me its xbox 1, ps3 1

    • Like wise, this household only had one 360 in two years (now sold).
      On the otherhand I’ve had 4 PS3’s in two years.
      As far as exclusives go, well, thats easy when you have deep pockets, and a platform thats easier and quicker to code for.
      I feel that the complexities of the PS3, especially early on, that developers resisted PS3 exclusives. It was harder, took longer and was more expensive for a smaller market share… but thats all changed/changing.

  5. Impressive sales for the past 5 months, some of that is obviously people picking up the recently launched slim as a replacement like they did when the PS3 spiked after the slim launched, but that upward trend pre-dates the launch 360s so something is obviously working for them.

    Personally I find that at odds with my own and public perception, although perhaps its because we’re insulated in the TSA bubble from what’s going on elsewhere

  6. How did they forget their biggest achivement?!?! Making people pay for XBox Gold subscriptions!

    • and supplying an online framework that actually works on launch weekends!
      Seriously, those who only experience PSN and then bash Live are fools. Yes, it’s a paid service but thatt’s the difference between walking to the shops in the rain and getting a taxi – one’s free but it’s probably not the best experience.

      • This comment makes me wish TSA had “like” buttons.
        I love a good metaphor.

      • I HAD gold then moved to PSN. Personally will never spend money for online gaming ever again (i Hope!). I don’t play ever minute of every night so there may be issue for some, but I’ve never had many problems with PSN, certainly nothing worse than when I had GOLD. I was dropped from connections and failed to log in at times with GOLD as well as PSN. Only difference for me was the £100+ a year I was paying.

      • Umm, seriously? I can name several high profile games that were either borked or suffered server overload on LIVE during launch. BF1942, BFBC2, Forza 3 and CoD BLOPS just to name a few. Ironically with BF1942, it was the PSN that was fixed first because the closed bubble of LIVE prevent EA from implementing new servers quicker.

        If you’re happy with Live great, but in my experience the PSN is just as reliable. X Game Chat and Party play are different issue however.

  7. It has sold well for the past 5 months, and part of that was the price slashing of the old model by retailers to clear it as soon as the slim was announced. This happened with the PS3 Phat too.

    Interestingly, in 2009 the PS3 Slim launched in September and went on to outsell the X360 by over 2.5 Million units globally (using the ‘ever reliable’ VG Chartz), yet in this calendar year where the X360 slim launched in June, it is actually still being outsold by the PS3 at this point (PS3 over a million units clear – VGChartz).

    In effect, the 360 has claimed back some lost ground on the PS3, but not nearly as much as it lost over the past two years.

    Given the two consoles are both so close in global sales (~45.5mil for Xbox and ~41.5mil for PS3) and given the Xbox’s undisputed horrific failure rates in the early years, it is my honest guesstimation that there are actually more _WORKING_ PS3s out there than X360s, regardless of total numbers sold… err… shipped… err… you know.

  8. But are they still making a profit or are still trying to cover their losses with the the orginal xbox?

  9. Yes I think Microsoft won this next-gen round but I hope Sony will listen to the Gamers and DEV’s with the creation of the next console and will win next time..

    No first day next playstation buy for me do after ps1, ps2 and ps3.. but then again no xbox-current/nextgen ever ;)

  10. Happy Birthday!

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