Amongst the most successful of game consoles available today is arguably the XBox 360.
Microsoft released their original XBox, first in North America over ten years ago in late 2001 to an eager public.
Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo and their Game Cube and Dremacast from Sega were the main competition for the new XBox in an already competitive market. But the XBox was so much more advanced.
By 2002 Europe and the rest of the world were able to get their hands on these consoles. They could never be described as faultless as with all consoles, there were problems.
The fall of 2002 saw the introduction of XBox Live which was a milestone in gaming enabling gamers to play video games with one another online.
This step by Microsoft saw sales of the XBox take off.
However, complexity of the console and the games themselves meant that there were issues.
The “Red Ring of Death” is one of the phrases amongst others, which refers to the four lights on the XBox console, which irritatingly illuminate when issues arise.
After the introduction of the all new XBox 360, the original XBox was taken off the market in 2005.
The XBox 360 when combined with Live really took gaming to the next level, and higher. It left Sony and the other console manufacturers with their trousers down.
Sony was caught napping and were late to launch their rival console, the PlayStation 3 aka PS3. The PS2, although a great console, was no match for the new Microsoft console.
Also slow in getting their live version PlayStation Network up and running it left the door wide open for the Microsoft XBox and they took a serious market lead by a considerable length.
The fact that the PS3 plays, Blu-ray has helped sales of the console, but recent problems with their PlayStation Network has seen sales drop markedly again in favour of the compeyiyion, in particular the XBox 360.
Utilising XBox Live, the serious gamer is never spoiled for choice. Being able to play around the clock 24/7 is something that has seriously caught on.
Today millions of gamers around the world are doing what they like best. Playing with the latest XBox video games such as Gears of War or Halo with their XBox 360 consoles.
The future looks very good for the XBox 360. There are always rumours and gossip and the next big upgrade is said to be the XBox 720, but this is neither confirmed nor denied by XBox.
Looks like we’ll just have to wait……………………………