The Timeless Appeal of the Xbox 360

Alex DS. from Link Cable Gaming writes: "Released in 2005, the 360 holds a special place in many gamers’ hearts. The system sold extremely well and was home to some of the best games of its generation, both from Microsoft themselves and third-party studios, making it a great system to get into no matter what kind of games you like to play."

[Darkborn]

I had a friend that had 4 RROD's in like 3 years and still bought a 5th one. He bought each one and never sent them in for some reason. After two I would have been done with it personally.

[Orchard]

That’s pretty silly of him given they were doing free repairs/replacements for years on end.

I had one RROD 360 and two YLOD PS3’s and never paid for any of them to be fixed/replaced.

Looking back at 360 and PS3 though, my god, modern games consoles (gen8+) are so much more reliable than they ever were.

[ColtPSSX]

It really was. I had both console brick on me.
This new consoles are amazing compare to them. I bought my PS4 6 years ago.
Took it on business trip all over the world. Still going strong. Never had an issue.
Same with my Xbox. Crazy.

[Orchard]

Yeah the reliability of modern consoles really is something compared to the past ones. My 2013 PS4 is still going as strong as day 1 - and I wouldn't say I've taken great care of my consoles.

Before PS4 and XB1, every console I've had post-SNES/Genesis has failed on me at least once.

[ColtPSSX]

True, because PS2 (my fav console of all time) broke on me a couple of times and same with the og Xbox. I’m glad they are making it more stable.

[Darkborn]

@ colt I took my ps4 overseas with me when I was deployed and I was surprised how it still worked. It's crazy how much they have improved overt time.

[darthv72]

When it comes to systems getting repaired, I only had to pay for a Wii and a PS3 to get fixed. 360 I got fixed for free.

right now I recently got a white super slim ps3 for $40 that has a bad power supply. I can do that myself thanks to yt vids.

[oldenjon]

I had my 360 RROD just outside of the 1 year extended warranty, and Microsoft wouldn't fix it. Total bullshit. I never had a console brick during it's expected life time. That's when I switched from being an Xbox gamer to a PS gamer.

[darthv72]

^^nice try there jon. Everyone knows it was 3 years, not 1.

[oldenjon]

@darthv72 Try at what exactly? I'm not a PS fanboy, they just burned any trust I had with the xbox brand. And actually, we're both wrong. The one year warranty was extended to 3 years from original purchase date. So they gave you 2 years. Mine RROD'd just outside the extended warranty. I've never had a console brick that early. They should have extended the warranty through the generation with a blunder like that.

[ColtPSSX]

Yeah that was the bad thing about 360.
I had 4 RROD myself.
One of them occurred not even a year of owning one.
While my PS3 only did it once.

I played both of them equally, but it goes to show how bad it was for the 360. Good console in terms of games tho.

[franwex]

I had 3 RROD. The last one was out of warranty, so I had to buy a new one. But I got a used one.

My PS3 ylod on me once and had to pay Sony for repair. Ps2 disc read error or my 3 or 4 times, but I learned how to fix it after paying Sony twice to fix.

[Sayai jin]

I still have my original 360 from 2003 and never had RROD. I brought a few more 360 for my children and 3 out of 4 got RROD. I had only one of my PS3 get the YLOD, but got an automatic swap out for a new one.

[wiz7191]

Idk I only had 2 , maybe because I actually took care of my console. I had friends who had RROD and their consoles were all dusty and dirty

[Darkborn]

I only mentioned the RROD issue because a lot of the sales were from that. I had multiple friends that had several RROD. It does not mean the 360 was a bad Gen In terms of games, but the 360 had millions of extra sales due to the issue.

The dislikes lol. It's a true story. You can dislike my facts, doesn't mean their wrong.

[darthv72]

RRoD was certainly an easy culprit for many of the rebuys. Like other systems prior... things happen and people get a replacement. but then there are those who do buy a new one just because. Like because they wanted a new design or specific model or that it is cheaper to have a spare. I myself am guilty of that (wink wink).

I only had one RRoD system and it was my original 05 launch edition Pro. It got fixed [for free] but I retired it and got an elite and used that for a while until my buddy gave me his slim. That is the one i still use to this day for grabbing the GwG 360 titles. Overall though i have 17 individual 360 systems and all of them are different in design. Maybe some are going to get RRoD but i wouldnt know, i dont use them. only collect them (and the controllers).

Lately i have turned my attention to PS4 systems. Im up to 15 different ones now. i know... i got too much time on my hand.

[Godmars290]

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha- ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha...

(The PS3 bungle that allowed 360 to claim the gen - till MS stopped reporting sale numbers as the sales gap between the two consoles began to shrink.)

[porkChop]

Why is it funny?

1. The 360 was an excellent console with plenty of great exclusives. It was hit after hit. That was Xbox at their best. They were firing on all cylinders until the last couple years of that gen.

2. Correct me if I'm wrong, but MS stopped reporting sales because the gen was over. At that point both the 360 and PS3 were barely selling any units. It's not about any gap closing.

Between the two, MS were the real winners that gen. The PS3 did end up selling more eventually, but it didn't matter. MS more than tripled their OG Xbox userbase, while Sony's userbase was cut in half compared to the PS2. That's a massive achievement.

[CS7]

Its N4G… the Sony fanboys here are ridiculous.

I never even owned an xbox but i can tell the 360 had some great games!

In the early days of PS3 I was so jealous of Bioshock and Mass Effect.

[ColtPSSX]

@CS7
For some one who never owned an Xbox it seems like you favor it more then Nintendo and Sony from your comments history

[Godmars290]

1 - It had COD, Halo and GTA exclusive content which pulled in many interested in such game and caused MS to get lazy because of largely if not only pandering to that type of gamer. Literal example was the 360 not "firing on all cylinders" years before the end of its cycle.

2 - MS stopped reporting numbers because the sales gap was shrinking. Just like they "ended the gen" because they wanted to move on to the XB1 when Kinect was mandatory and the PR focus was "TV-TV-TV!" Again, by that point they'd bought into their own hype and manipulations, mistakenly thought they own the industry, and tried to exploit it even as things blew up in their face.

You can give MS the win that gen, but given what followed and their current status, about when they launched OG Xbox, can you honestly say that "win" means anything?

[lellkay]

the 360 was amazing, don't know why you are laughing. The PS3 was better by the end, but the 360 spanked it for years.

[Darkborn]

So many people bought several 360's due to RROD. plus they did get less sales overall and launched a year early.

[thesoftware730]

The 360 had some really amazing games for the time.

Who gives a crap about sales and all that other jazz..fucking amazing system at the time.

I remember booting up Bioshock for the first time..never seen anything like it on console before..when the plane crashed and you were in the water, it looked so good I wasnt aware that I was in control and it was the actual game playing.

Gears also was mindblowing graphically at the time...didnt know console games could look that good..man 360 was great.

[porkChop]

I remember the first games I played on 360 were Gears of War and Saints Row. The visuals blew me away. Not just the graphical effects, either. The boost in image clarity going from SD to 720p was enormous.

[ActualWhiteMan]

Same exact experience my dude. It still looks just as good on a PC at 120fps today. Recently booted up remastered for a spin.

[ColtPSSX]

Was never a fan of gears but games like
Lost odyssey
Blue dragon
Mass effect
Bio shock.
Etc really brought me in.

They really need to bring back lost odyssey. That was such a good JRPG.
I remember my 360 RROD during my play through of that game. Man I was so Piss.

[porkChop]

God I loved Lost Odyssey. It's backwards compatible at least, but it really needs a remaster. It's such a great game that Xbox continues to ignore. Xbox wasn't known for JRPGs back then, I get it. But tons of JRPGs launch on Xbox now, so it's a good time to bring the game back.

[Melankolis]

It was an excellent console. Great performance and appealing exclusives. I was a aware of the RROD issue so i decided to wait patiently for years after the price dropped and the release of the Jasper version (150w) in mid 2009.

[Knightofelemia]

It wasn't my favorite console in fact it was my very least favorite console Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Gears of War brought me to the 360 Gears 2 is still my favorite title. I only keep one around because my uncle gave me his old 360 after breaking down the console and adding new thermal paste I still barely use it. I didn't like the fact the thing was an easy bake oven with blinking lights and Microsoft took so long to admit there was an issue with the system. The system when it came out lacked wifi you needed an adapter, the machine also lacked an HDMI port that came out in later units. I love my PS3 and there will be fans who love the 360 I am not one of those 360 fans.

[ActualWhiteMan]

20GB PS3 launch console also lacked Wi-Fi and was still $100 more. Atleast Microsoft had a Wi-Fi option with the adapter, the 20GB PS3 console never could be officially wireless.

[Knightofelemia]

I don't know the specs of the 20gig PS3 every time I see one on Ebay its for parts and if it works it fetches a pretty penny. My first fat PS3 was a 40gig then I moved to a slim PS3 and it still runs like a tank compared to the 5 XB360's I owned thanks to the RROD. Microsoft kept giving me a refurbished XB360 after the 5th one was repaired I traded it off towards games for my PS3. I got into Xbox late but I prefer the OG Xbox over the XB360 easier to repair I prefer XB1 over the XB360. Only time I will use a XB360 is if both my OG Xboxes and XB1 die and I need the 360 to play OG Xbox games and to play 360 games my XB1 can't if it died. I still prefer the PS3 over the XB360 blu ray vs DVD and I hate disc swapping.

[Orchard]

360 is probably the console I had the most fun with post PS1/2. I still look back on it with fond memories of all the great games and new experiences on the console itself (OS and services).

Also seeing games in HD for the first time was insane.

[G3ng4r]

You can't have anything resembling "endless" with build quality that low. I had been concerned about ps2 but those are outliving 360's. There are many great games on the 360 but I didn't play them because fallout new vegas was all it took to kill mine. My condolences to probably 50% of those who bought the first model.

[AuraAbjure]

I think the first native HD game on the 360 was Gears of War 2, but I could be wrong.

[TheEnigma313]

Gears 1

[AuraAbjure]

You don't say? Well that explains why it was so gorgeous. Honor of Kings:World running on Unreal Engine 5 looks crazy good too 😵

[SoulWarrior]

I had a lot of fun with the 360 for a few years, put a lot of time in to Oblivion, Bioshock, ME and a few others, somehow avoided the dreaded RROD in that time, but 2009 onwards the games really started to dry up and it showed when going in to the X1 era.

[RavenWolfx]

I loved my 360 and owned over 100 physical games for it, but man... Timeless? I had a total of 5 Xbox 360s due to Red Ring of Death or Disk Read Errors. And compared to SNES, a truly timeless console, I cannot agree.