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Show of hands: how many of you bought an Xbox 360 in its first month
or so of release, five long years ago? Alright, now how many of you
still use that same Xbox regularly, with zero RRoDs getting in your
way? Yeah, we thought so. The Xbox 360 has been an astounding success
for Microsoft and for gamers, a particularly strong feat when you
consider that it was Sony's race to lose going into this console
generation. Still, when you talk Xbox history, it's hard not to see
that huge red smudge on an otherwise stellar record. In hindsight,
perhaps it was wise for Microsoft to do such a stellar job of taking
the console online, beyond all the obvious reasons: the overheating
hunk of plastic and silicon in our entertainment center didn't really
mean much anymore, sentiments-wise. Instead it was our Gamertags and
Gamerscores and cutesy Avatars that really mattered, the true "heart"
of our console.
We can't even count how many Xboxes we churned through in the past
five years, with only Microsoft's most recent attempt finally solving
some of the machine's egregious noise issues, but most of us stuck
with the Xbox all the way through because that's where our friends
were. Cute trick, Microsoft, but let's pick a slightly less expensive
way to fail for the next generation, alright? Oh, and happy birthday
Xbox; we'll meet you at 8pm with the pizza and the wine and the Black
Ops... you just bring the sexy.
Want to re-live a bit of the launch day insanity? Check out this
little trip down Engadget memory lane:
Live Xbox 360 shot!
Engadget's live coverage of the Xbox 360 launch
Xbox 360 hands-on preview
Unpacking the Xbox 360
Xbox 360 gutted!
Engadget Podcast 053 - 11.22.2005
Xbox 360 backward-compatibility list (1.0) released
Boy, didn't we look young and naive back then? The world was our
oyster. There were so many Halos yet to come.
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