Xbox 360

From Sega Retro

Xbox 360 logo.png
Xbox360.jpgXbox360S.jpg
Xbox 360
Manufacturer: Microsoft
Variants: Xbox 360 S, Xbox 360 Elite, Xbox 360 E
Release Date RRP Code
Xbox 360
JP
Xbox 360
US
Xbox 360
EU

The Xbox 360 is a video game console created by Microsoft as the successor to the Xbox. It was referred to during development as "Project Xenon," "Xbox 2," and "Xbox Next", before being released in late 2005 to start the seventh generation of video game consoles. The Xbox 360 found itself competing with the PlayStation 3 and Wii for the next several years. It was succeeded by the Xbox One in 2013.

Overview

The Xbox 360 stands as a traditional upgrade over its predecessor, the Xbox, with vastly superior technical specifications, a more online-orientated focus and a multitude of new features straight out of the box from wireless controllers to (later) cloud hard drive storage for downloads. Though initially plagued by severe hardware issues, the Xbox 360 frequently led its generation in terms of sales, and a strong (and extended) line of first and third-party games eclipsed the prior successes of the original Xbox.

The Xbox 360 ran unopposed for roughly a year, when it was inevitably joined by the Wii and PlayStation 3, the former opting for radical changes in gameplay, and the latter trying to dethrone the Xbox 360 from a hardware perspective and repeat the success of the PlayStation 2. In the end, the Wii outclassed its rivals in terms of sales, but its shift in marketing strategy led to the perception that it was competing in an entirely different market (one Microsoft would try to capitalise on with its "Kinect" Xbox 360 peripheral), with the Xbox 360 instead competing directly with the PlayStation 3.

Although from a technical perspective the story is meant to be very different, sales of the Xbox 360 remained roughly on-par with the PlayStation 3 throughout the generation. Like the Xbox before it, Microsoft largely failed to make an impact in Japan, but its success in other markets, particularly North America, kept it in the race. This was also fueled in part by the generation's top games coming from western publishers - Electronic Arts, Activision and Ubisoft, causing Japan to have less of an impact in the video game market.

Sega support

Like other third-party publishers, Sega chose to back the Xbox 360 in roughly equal measure to the PlayStation 3, with very few "big" Sega titles opting for one console over the other (the only major example of this being the Yakuza series and other Japan centric games). In its early years, the company usually prioritized the console in western markets, but the playing field was leveled after 2008; games intended for a worldwide release were guaranteed to release on both it and the PlayStation 3 later into its life, similar to their strategies with the PlayStation 2 and the original Xbox.

Many Sega Mega Drive conversions by Backbone Entertainment were brought to the console's Xbox Live Arcade service under the Sega Vintage Collection brand; a select amount of these were later pulled from the service, either due to similar conversions eventually being available on the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection, also developed by Backbone, or a preference toward newer Sega Ages Online releases of the same games.

Sega also released digital releases of two games from the original Xbox, Puyo Pop Fever and Sega Soccer Slam, as part of the "Xbox Originals" initiative between December 2007 and 2009. Various Xbox 360 games were also released as digital downloads in part of the similar "Games on Demand" initiative, which superseded "Xbox Originals", though two more original Xbox games, Panzer Dragoon Orta and Gunvalkyrie, saw releases on the system in 2018 and 2021 respectively, as part of a similar backwards compatibility programme on the Xbox One and later the Xbox Series X.

The introduction of Microsoft's motion-controlled Kinect in 2010 also attracted support from Sega for two games, Rise of Nightmares and Sonic Free Riders, with the latter releasing as a launch title for the peripheral.

List of Sega games for the Xbox 360

Xbox Live Arcade

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Xbox Originals

Kinect

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Backward compatible Sega games

By region

Gallery

Promotional images

References


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Nintendo
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Sony
PlayStation (1994) | PlayStation 2 (2000) | PlayStation Portable (2004) | PlayStation 3 (2006) | PlayStation Vita (2011) | PlayStation 4 (2013) | PlayStation 5 (2020)
Microsoft
Xbox (2001) | Xbox 360 (2005) | Xbox One (2013) | Xbox Series X (2020)
Mobile
iOS | Android | Windows Phone
Other
Atari 2600 (1977) | Intellivision (1979) | ColecoVision (1982) | Atari 5200 (1982) | PC Engine (1987) | CD-ROM² (1988) | Super CD-ROM² (1991) | R-Zone (1995) | Game.com (1997) | WonderSwan (1999) | Neo Geo Pocket Color (1999) | N-Gage (2003) | LeapFrog Didj (2008) | Stadia (2019)