Saying Goodbye To Xbox’s Best Generation

The Xbox 360 store has officially closed. Join me as I take a walk down memory lane of Xbox’s greatest generation

[P_Bomb]

Lotsa good game shoutouts in the article. Truly a memorable gen.

[OtterX]

Yep, I truly enjoyed my 360 (until the red rings). At least they took chances back then. Say what you will about the Rare titles on it, I personally enjoyed Kameo and the Viva Piñata games a lot. Although far from perfect, I still had fun w Perfect Dark Zero as a launch title. They actually made an effort towards jrpg fans w Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon. They weren't just games that were bought out, they were actively assisted in development.

It all went downhill after the Kinect focus. They chased that Wii money, no longer invested highly in building their own new properties like they used to.

It was an end of an era. The OG XBox was a good era too. We will never see that level of greatness from them again bc XBox has become more and more run by the clueless suits in the board room until their passion for creative innovation became sucked dry.

[darthv72]

Even with RR I didnt let that stop me from enjoying the games. Into each life a little rain must fall... but you dry off and keep going. I didnt stop playing PS1 when I had to resort to flipping the system over to play. I didnt stop playing PS2 when the DVD laser died. I didnt stop playing PS3 when I got the YLoD and I certainly didnt stop playing 360 because of RRoD. I either got them fixed or got replacements because the games are what kept me coming back.

Now it seems many others are fickle when it comes to such situations... but my loyalties lie with the games, not the hardware. And i still play all of those because I have some really great games and experiences that i still enjoy to this day that are NOT possible any other way.

I am not going to let the 360 store closing keep me from enjoying what i have. So to me, its not the end of an era because those games continue to live on every time i press start.

[Demetrius]

Xbox is run by a bunch of politician like mfs nowadays and others who are legends in their own mind.

[P_Bomb]

My 360 bundle was arguably the best bundle I ever got! Came with Halo 3, Halo Wars, Gears 2, Alan Wake and Fable 3. At a good price too. Good times.

[just_looken]

just going to leave crowbcat's video showing just a hand full of all the amazing games that came out that generation.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Crowbcat stopped with skyrim which was not the end of great ip's on 360.

I still play and enjoy my ps3 hot shots gold gran turismo are way better than the ps4/ps5 version's.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

360 was amazing

[Jin_Sakai]

I really enjoyed and miss the 360/PS3 generation. So many great games come out of that generation.

[darthv72]

...and so many never progressed beyond that generation. Motorstorm and Resistance deserved better than one (gen) and done.

[pwnmaster3000]

Agreed or what about lost odyssey (top 5 jrpg that gen) or unpopular opinion too human( lost potential).

I feel like that gen had way more creativity and passion.

[just_looken]

The ps3/360 gen was the hardest gen for devs to make games with the lack of tools and the custom ps3 architecture but like jin/darth said so many great ips created/died there.

Now we got console that are just glorified prebuilt pc's with very little new ips's and overall very little games made for this gen so many last gen port jobs.

You think it would be the opposite and we see all those ps3 ips on the playstation 5 but nope.

[EazyC]

It was probably the apex of "traditional" videogames, before they became a service-based model.

[Neonridr]

The 360 was my first and only MS console. So many great games on that device.

[ChasterMies]

Shout out to blades as the UI. No ads! Shout out to the 4 Halo games, 4 Gears of War games, 3 Mass Effect games, 3 BioShock games, 3 Bethesda RPGs, and 2 GTA releases.

[pwnmaster3000]

I still play mass effect till this day. It’s a tradition to play the trilogy once a year.
That was the reason why I bought the 360. Halo and mass effect.

I really hope the mass effect trilogy continues.
BioWare made a universe with infinite amount of potential for multiple games. It’s to good to just go away.

Every one of those games you listed hit a peak for me. Even Bethesda games eventually hit a peak but for some reason mass effect holds a special place where I will never get bored of.

[ChasterMies]

I played the Mass Effect remaster trilogy this spring. Ten years later, this trilogy puts modern games to shame.

[pwnmaster3000]

100% I’m honestly surprise no game has been able to mimic the Mass effect trilogy formula.

I wish there was more space games like mass effect.
Tried No man sky on game pass and is not for me and starfield is a big disappointment. Actually bought it because I was so excited.
Still looking.

I hope the Sony narrative driven game set in space can fill it.

[Einhander1972]

360 was the only Microsoft console I owned.

The first 360 I had the games crashed so I returned it the next day.

The second one was the worst console I ever owned. The first thing I noticed was that the power button didn't work right and needed to be pressed at the top of the button because the bottom part was manufactured wrong and was stuck.

The next thing was I had the model with the noisy disk drive there the arm made a grinding sound common of cheap cdr drives at the time, but it also was the type that lowered the disk before it stopped spinning so all my 360 disks have circular scratches on them.

I stopped using it it shortly after a got my PS3 but I still managed to acquire 50 or so game disks.

I tried using it at some point after it had sat in storage for a few years and of course it RROD'd, making it the only console that I own that doesn't work. All my Nintendo, PlayStation and even my 3D0 and Turbografx 16 still work.

And people talk about BC, but I was buying up mostly rare Japanese games so pretty much nothing I own for the system got BC updates.

I will remember it as the generation where Microsoft bragged about selling more consoles without pointing out that PS3 launched approximately a year and a half later, and people bragging about how many xbox's they bought because of RROD. Oh yeah and ads for Toyota McDonalds Ford and other BS that was unrelated to gaming on the UI.

360 actually sucked hard but for some reason a lot of people want to pretend it was good even though PlayStation offered so much better hardware and software.

[Einhander1972]

Oh yeah, it's also the console that gave us paid online and brought the plague that is DLC. And they actually locked features on the console like some video playback and other stuff behind a paywall.

I stand by my feeling that Microsoft is the worst thing that happened in gaming and that without them gaming would have turned out much better than it has.

[JEECE]

It's nice to see someone point this out. That generation (360/PS3) is fondly remembered as this golden era (and there were many good games during that time), but it is also the generation that either started or planted the seeds for almost all the negative aspects of the games industry that we bemoan today.

I will note though that I'm pretty sure paid online started with the original Xbox, not the 360. But since it had such a small install base and many people then didn't even have high speed Internet, you could make the case that the 360 is the console that got a broad audience to accept paid online.

[darthv72]

sounds like you have some really bad luck. You should have started with the OG Xbox... you might have developed an appreciation for the brand going forward. Lots of great experiences to be had on the original that then continue on with the 360. I can see how holding onto such animosity because of your 360 experience has made you the way you are towards the brand. They could cure cancer and yet you'd still hold it against them because you had a bad time with the 360.

[Einhander1972]

No, trust me I didn't like Microsoft WAY before that.

From the day Microsoft announced the xbox i knew it would end up like it has.

The only thing the 360 did was reinforce what I already thought.

And my experience with xbox was normal, every early 360 had RROD, and the disk scratching thing happened on every 360 that had one of the two drives they used. And everything else like paid online DLC ads and paywalling features were also things everyone experienced.

The only thing that was unique to me was the first console that crashed and the button being poorly manufactured...

360 was an unmitigated piece of crap compared to all the other consoles.

Edit:

Oh and the crappy proprietary HDD that they stuck $50 laptop dirves into a housing then upcharged them 4-5x. Kind of like the Series expansion cards that house a Gen 3 SSD that they charge 3x the cost of a PS5 SSD that's twice and fast and twice the storage.

Microsoft just sucks, supporting them is and always has been supporting the ruination of gaming.

[Einhander1972]

Here is a picture of my 360 with the controller and a copy of a crappy OS.

https://ibb.co/dt7z0vy

[darthv72]

Well... I still think you could have given it more of an effort to enjoy. It really is a good platform. If you could ever differentiate between the corporate side (MS) and the platform side, then you will find peace in playing the games that made it popular.

And here is a pic of my 360 collection: https://cdn.consolevariatio...

[Einhander1972]

I bought it and around 50 games, i don't know how much effort you expect. I only have regret about putting money into the xbox economy. I got a PS3 and never looked back. And clearly history has been on my side ever since.

The very next console Microsoft offered was an always online monstrosity that blocked resale and game trading by trying your disk to your account. And if that wasn't bad enough they also tried to add an always online spybox they were going to use to monitor what you said so they could sell it to marketers and who knows who else, you couldn't even disable or unplug the kinect.

And the next generation after that is cursed with subscriptions dragging it down and series s holding tech back because it's basically a last gen console they put an SSD in.

I'm confident the problem isn't me, it's the people who keep Microsoft in the industry that are the problem. The people who defend them time after time when they blatantly lie to the supporters faces.

Seriously quit supporting them...

[darthv72]

What im saying is nobody goes to the effort of having a system and 50 games to just toss it aside because something else comes along. Unless that person wasnt really interested in the first place. And like you have said, you already had a bias against MS even before they got in the game so despite your investment, it was all for naught. Its more of a, you did it to say you did unlike others who could enjoy both or all three 7th gen platforms.

And honestly the 7th gen seemed to be the most balanced of any prior or later generations when it comes to variety and diversity of libraries across platforms. There was enough titles that were different to warrant having all three. It made for a good variety to choose from but was painful on the wallet to have to spread the $$ around.

[Einhander1972]

Xbox sold me a console that broke, even if i wanted to play those games I can't.

And the lack of variety and diversity is a Microsoft problem. That's why they have to pay to get games that are or were exclusive to PlayStation and spend 100b+ to keep games off PlayStation.

Microsoft makes gaming worse for everyone

[0hMyGandhi]

My 360 red ringed, so I took it apart, and fashioned a better heat ventilation duct using an Apple Jacks cereal box. I didn't have any other issues beyond that. I absolutely adored my 360. Having owned an ps2/xbox/gamecube before that and a n64/ps1 before that, the 360 still was one of my favorite experiences with a console.

I loved the xbox live arcade. I loved that with 100 bucks, you could get your own game on their platform through their XNA game dev pipeline. I loved that most games had free demos (remember those?) that you could download, with Bioshock being an absolute masterclass in teasing the player about this unique world they've stepped in to.

I love the controller, cross game chat, and the blade interface was slick and polished.
Yes, this was the gen where devs and their publishers started to experiment with dlc (ahem....Horse Armor....) but it wasn't all that bad. When you bought a 360/ps3 game...the actual GAME was ON the disc. You didn't have basically the game's entire filesize to download when you booted it up for the first time.

Again, we can agree to disagree on certain things, though it sounds like you've had quite a bad run with your 360s and that sucks. None of my friends had any other issues beyond the RROD problem, but maybe we were just lucky.

[ocelot07]

Xboxs best and only great generation. OG Xbox was alright. xb1 and series has been a disaster.

[Reaper22_]

XB1 wasn't that great at first but caught on a bit late but series x is certainly not a disaster. It's still my favorite.

[VersusDMC]

RIP to the only console i bought instead of a playstation. Went to the store to buy a PS3 but the price and Gears of War made me go 360 first.

[Demetrius]

I still enjoy being on the 360, that time hasn't ended to me cause I still got gems to play, next game I'm getting is the simpsons movie game on it also got to get around to getting spiderman web of shadows

[Agent75]

Nothing will beat the 16bit gen, Mega Drive versus Super Nintendo, but Xbox 360 and PS3 are up there, but preferred the Xbox 360. After that gen, every other gen died. Xbox One and PS4 didn't touch previous gen, Series X has been dead from launch, PS5 hasn't exactly thrown out a stack of AAA games.

[Flewid638]

That's not even what the sales numbers of subsequent gens indicate. Not that you had to like them, but saying they all died after 16-bit is false.

[darthv72]

I get the gist of what he is trying to say. That even though the unit sales of the 8th gen systems exceeded the previous... the games did not have that same charm and innovation that the 7th gen did. It really is that simple how the games of the 7th are still admired today while the 8th (and even into the 9th) tend to lack any sort of memorable substance. Some games do (like bloodborne) but many others of the 8th are kind of forgettable.

[generic-user-name]

If you're to criticise PS5 for lack of AAA games then how do you not praise PS4 for the huge AAA library it had?

[andy85]

I look back on the 360 fondly. Always remember getting it for the first time and loading up Tomb Raider and it being beyond belief graphically when moving from a PS2. Laughable really seeing it now but this was 2006 on a 720p TV. Project Gotham Racing as well. Looked awesome.

[Inverno]

It's scary the amount of games left behind in the PS360 gen, games that are digital only which might never get to be emulated if data doesn't exist on someone's console who's willing to donate said data. This is probably the only honest argument against console exclusivity.

[Flewid638]

That one brief moment in Xbox history that the platform was decent. RROD and all.

[PRIMORDUS]

You can torrent/usenet the whole 360 rom collection, play them on PC with an emulator or just mod your 360 to play 360 roms. You will keep the games forever. Big win. 😎

[sagapo]

For me the best generation when it comes to exclusives on 360. Both 360 and PS3 had awesome ones though. Great era for gamers imo.

[Reaper22_]

Xbox 360 is the GOAT in my book. I still go back and play some of the classics on it. Thanks to Microsoft for delivering on giving us a great console that will continue to cherish.

[The Wood]

The best competitive gen xbox ever had in spite of rrod. More bangers more mindshare more sales. Having both or even all 3 consoles was a viable option a due each consoles usp's

[Rebel_Scum]

I miss the summer of games promotion where they released 4 great indies in the span of a month. Felt like a real event.

[EazyC]

The last "great" console gen imo.

[SimpleSlave]

While I preferred the Original XBOX generation myself, for having such a unique identity and being superior to the PS2, the 360, at that time, was fine. Sadly, with the 3 Red Ring, having to pay to play Online and the normalization of Microtransactions, the 360 was more of a harbinger of all bad things to come to the console landscape.

[hiawa23]

Wait, who is saying goodbye as many like me never stopped playing our 360s especially those games that are not on back compat.

[Father__Merrin]

Ps360wii era was my final full on gaming gen, absolute joy pre ordering all the day ones and special editions it was the gen Where all the new type of games came out and 360 was part of that.

[CrimsonWing69]

It really was their best, hell my fav console of that gen.

It baffles me to know need that they can’t recapture that glory. How hard is it to look back and see why the 360 worked and NOTHING else they’re doing is?

[darthv72]

Just like SEGA. Genesis (MD) was their 2nd and their best. Everything else they did after (while also being better than the previous) paled in comparison when it came to popularity and success. Saturn was their 3rd and Dreamcast was their 4th (and final) platform release. MS is currently on their 4th platform release as well. They say they have it in them for one more... that remains to be seen.

[CrimsonWing69]

Their Showcase this summer showed some great looking exclusives, but the brand is shot. They aren’t consistent or at least they have yet to prove it. We’ll see, I buy all platforms regardless so I can play exclusives, but some just collect dust, if you know what I mean.

[XBManiac]

😔