New Xbox Experience

Further information: Xbox Live#The New Xbox Experience

At E3 2008, at Microsoft's Show, Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg and Marc Whitten announced the new look Xbox 360 called "The New Xbox Experience". The idea of the update is to allow people who cannot navigate the current Blade GUI, to navigate throughout the console easily. The GUI uses the Twist UI (used in Windows Media Center, Zune). The Blade interface is still used in the new Xbox Guide. The new guide allows you to do everything you could do from the Dashboard itself, whether it's ejecting a disk or browsing the Marketplace, thus making it easier to navigate throughout the system.

As well as a GUI update, many new features have been put into the system's software. Firstly, the update offers the ability to install games from the disk to the hard drive, theoretically reducing load times and disk drive noise. However, the game's disk must remain in the system to run its installed version. A new Community system is also built in, allowing the creation of digitalised Avatars. These Avatars can then be used for multiple activities such as sharing photos or playing Arcade games like 1 vs. 100. The Xbox 360 dashboard is completely redesigned in the Autumn 2008 update resembling Windows Media Center.

Multimedia
Xbox 360 Wireless Controller
Xbox 360 Wireless Controller

The Xbox 360 supports videos in .wmv-format, as well as high-definition .wmv-videos, H.264, MPEG-4, and PlaysForSure WMV videos. The Fall 2007 dashboard update added support for the playback of MPEG-4 ASP format videos.[44] The console can also display pictures and perform slideshows of photo collections with various transition effects, and supports audio playback, with music player controls accessible through the Xbox 360 Guide button. Users may play back their own music while playing games or using the dashboard, and can play music with an interactive visual synthesizer.

Music, photos and videos can be played from standard USB mass storage devices, Xbox 360 proprietary storage devices (such as memory cards or Xbox 360 hard drives), and servers or computers with Windows Media Center or Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or higher within the local-area network in streaming mode.[45][46] This is possible with video files up to HD-resolution and with several codecs (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV) and container formats (WMV, MOV, TS).[47]

In the UK the Xbox 360 will be enabled to download and display BT Vision video content. [48]

XNA community

XNA Community is a future feature where Xbox 360 owners can receive community created XNA Creators Club developed games made with Microsoft XNA Game Studio. The games are written, published, and distributed through a community managed portal. XNA Community will be a channel for console videogame delivery over Xbox Live that can be free of royalties, paid-software development kits, publishers or licenses.[49][50]

Games

Main article: List of Xbox 360 games
See also: List of Xbox games compatible with Xbox 360 and List of Xbox Originals

Halo 3
Halo 3

At the 2008 Game Developer Conference, Microsoft announced there would be over 1000 games available for Xbox 360 by the end of the year.[51] The 2007 Game Critics Awards honoured the Xbox 360 platform with 38 Nominations and 11 Wins - more than any other platform.[52] By March 2008, the Xbox 360 had reached a software attach rate of 7.5 games per console -- a record for any console in history, in EU the rate was 7.0 while its competitors were 3.8 (PS3) and 3.5 (Wii).[53]

The Xbox 360 launched with 14 games in North America and 13 in Europe. The console's best-selling game for 2005, Call of Duty 2, sold over a million copies.[54] Five other games sold as well in the console's first year in the market: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter,[55] The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion,[56] Dead or Alive 4,[57] Saints Row[58] and Gears of War.[59] Gears of War would become the best-selling game of the console with 3 million units,[60] before being surpassed in 2007 by Halo 3, with 8.1 million units.[3]

Six games were initially offered in Japan, and eagerly anticipated titles such as Dead or Alive 4 and Enchanted Arms were released only a few weeks later.[61] Games more suitable to the region were planned or have since been released, such as Chromehounds, Ninety-Nine Nights, and Phantasy Star Universe.[62] Microsoft also had the support of RPG developer Mistwalker, founded by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. Mistwalker's first game, Blue Dragon, was released in 2006 and had a limited-edition bundle which sold out quickly with over 10,000 pre-orders.[63] Blue Dragon became the best-selling Xbox 360 game in the region, with over 200,000 units. Mistwalker's second game, Lost Odyssey also sold over 100,000 copies.[64]

The Xbox 360 has managed to gain a simultaneous release of titles which were initially planned to be PS3 exclusive, including Devil May Cry,[65] Ace Combat,[66] Virtua Fighter,[67] and Final Fantasy XIII.[68], or PS3 timed exclusives, such as Grand Theft Auto 4.[69]

At E3 2007, Microsoft announced that Disney movies would be coming to Xbox 360 Live Marketplace. Gears of War was announced to be coming to the PC. New trailers were shown for Halo 3 and Halo Wars. A Halo-themed Xbox 360 was also announced. Details on Civilization Revolution and Fallout 3 were given. BioShock, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and Assassin's Creed for Xbox 360, as well as Crysis for the PC were demoed. At E3 2008, Microsoft announced a number of titles for their 2009 line-up, including Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Fable II, and Resident Evil 5,Saint's Row 2, among other games. A television-style gaming feature known as Primetime was shown with a game based on the game show 1 vs. 100 shown as an example, there were also hints at a "Big Brother" type game and also a "Deal or no Deal" one. Final Fantasy XIII was also announced to be released for Xbox 360 in Europe and North America.

The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft, and was developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, and SiS. The integrated Xbox Live service allows players to compete online and download content such as arcade games, game demos, trailers, TV shows, and movies. The Xbox 360 is the successor to the Xbox, and competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles.

The Xbox 360 was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and game information divulged later that month at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). The console sold out completely at release in all regions except in Japan,^[4][5][6] and, as of July 17, 2008, 20 million units have been sold worldwide according to Microsoft.^[1][2]Arcade" console, the "Premium" console, and the "Elite" console, each having its own selection of included and available accessories. Another version of the Xbox 360, called the "Core" which was available from launch, has since been discontinued for retail and replaced with the "Arcade". The Xbox 360 comes in three different versions: the "

Manufacturer Microsoft Product family Xbox Type Video game console Generation Seventh generation era First available November 22, 2005 (details) CPU 3.2 GHz PowerPC Tri-Core Xenon GPU 500 MHz ATI Xenos Media DVD, CD,
Add-on: HD DVD (discontinued) System storage 20, 60 or 120 GB hard drive, 64, 256 or 512 MB memory cards Controller input 4 maximum (wired or wireless or combination of either) Connectivity 3 × USB 2.0, IR port, 100 Mbit Ethernet, Add-on: Wifi 802.11a/b/g Online service Xbox Live Units sold Worldwide: 20 million (as of July 17, 2008)^[1][2] (details) Best-selling game Halo 3, 8.1 million (as of January 3, 2008)^[3] Backward
compatibility 465 original Xbox games (requires hard drive and the latest update) Predecessor Xbox