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Xbox 360

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Xbox 360 - Launch

Announcement

The Xbox 360 was first officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, on a program called MTV Presents: The Next Generation Xbox Revealed. The show was hosted by actor Elijah Wood and featured a musical performance by the band The Killers. The Xbox 360 was also featured on the cover of TIME Magazine's May 23, 2005 issue.

Detailed launch and game information was divulged later that month at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) as well as demos running on "Xbox 360 Alpha development kits.

Release

The Xbox 360 was released on November 22nd, 2005 in North America, just over four years after the launch of the original Xbox, where it sold out. It was also released on December 2, 2005, in Europe and December 10, 2005, in Japan. This made the Xbox 360 one of the fastest home console successor launches in gaming history. 

Complete Launch Dates & Pricing

DateLocationXbox 360 System PriceXbox 360 Core System Price
November 20, 2005 Japan JP¥39,795 JP¥29,000
November 21, 2005 Canada United States CD$499.99 US$399.99 CD$399.99 US$299.99
December 2, 2005 Eurozone Norway Sweden UK Latvia Finland Ireland Portugal €399.99 NOK3395,- SEK3995:- £279.99 Ls320.00 €409.99 €409.99 €409.99 €299.99 NOK2595,- SEK2995:- £209.99 Ls240.00 €309.99 €309.99 €309.99
February 2, 2006 Colombia Mexico COP$1,200,000 MXN$4999 COP$900,000 MXN$3999
February 24, 2006 South Korea ₩419,000 ₩339,000
March 16, 2006 Hong Kong Singapore Taiwan China SG$660.00 NT$13888 HK$2,340.00 SG$535.00 NT$10888
March 23, 2006 Australia New Zealand A$649.95 NZ$799.99 A$499.95 NZ$499.95
July 7, 2006 Chile CLP.329.990 CLP.259.990
September 25, 2006 India Rs.23,990 Rs.19,990
September 29, 2006 South Africa R3699 R2699
November 3, 2006 Czech Republic Poland CZK11900.00 1699.00zł CZK8999.00 1299.00zł
December 1, 2006 Brazil R$1,799 (US$899) not released
February 10, 2007 Russia RUB15,699 (US$640) RUB10,999 (US$450)
February 26, 2008 Peru S/.2249.00 (US$762) not released
October 28, 2008 United Arab Emirates AED1,799 (US$490) not released

Launch Games

There were a total of 18 launch titles available at the North American launch, 16 at the European launch, and 6 at the Japanese launch.

In North America, the best-selling title at launch was Call of Duty 2, which had an attach rate of 77%. The most successful first-party title was Perfect Dark Zero.

Worldwide, the best overall selling launch title was Call of Duty 2, which has sold over 1.8 million copies in total, followed by Need for Speed: Most Wanted (over 1.1 million units sold) and Perfect Dark Zero (over 700,000 units sold).

TitleNorth AmericaEuropeJapan
Amped 3 Yes Yes No
Call of Duty 2 Yes Yes No
Condemned: Criminal Origins Yes Yes Yes
Every Party No No Yes
FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup Yes Yes Yes
Gun Yes Yes No
Kameo: Elements of Power Yes Yes No
Madden NFL 06 Yes Yes No
NBA 2K6 Yes No No
NBA Live 06 Yes Yes No
Need for Speed: Most Wanted Yes Yes Yes
NHL 2K6 Yes No No
Perfect Dark Zero Yes Yes Yes
Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie Yes Yes No
Project Gotham Racing 3 Yes Yes No
Quake 4 Yes Yes No
Ridge Racer 6 Yes No Yes
Tetris: The Grandmaster ACE No No Yes
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 Yes Yes No
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland Yes Yes No

Launch Sales

Microsoft were unable to build up a sufficient supply of consoles to satisfy the demand at launch which, although it allowed them to launch several months earlier than would otherwise have been possible, led to shortages in North America and Europe.

Sales in North America during the month of launch came to a total of over 325,000 units, and the initial supply of 300,000 to Europe also sold out.

The Xbox 360's performance in Japan however was much less impressive. It sold just over 60,000 units in the first 2 days, but only 1000,000 by Q2 of 2006.

Despite selling out at launch in North America and Europe, Microsoft were forced to lower their 2.75-3 million 90 day target to 2.5 million units.

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Xbox 360 History

Development

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Quick Details

Alternative name(s) X360, 360
CPU 3.2 GHz PowerPC Tri-Core Xenon
Generation: 7
Graphics 500 MHz ATI Xenos, 10mb eDRAM.
Media DVD
Memory 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM clocked at 700 MHz
Name code X360
Storage 4GB-320GB
Type: Home Console
Website xbox.com

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