Goodbye Xbox 360

It's a very sad day today as after today the Xbox 360 Marketplace will be closed forever. In this episode I reminisce and talk about what made the Xbox 360 such a special machine. Goodbye Xbox 360.

Timestamps:

00:00 - 02:20 - Launch of the Xbox 360
02:21 - 03:12 - Putting my Xbox 360 into an Arcade Cabinet
03:13 - 05:06 - OG Xbox Backward Compatibility
05:07 - 09:47 - Xbox 360 gets hacked
09:48 - 14:00 - Xbox 360 Partnernet and Leaks
14:01 - 15:55 - Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA)
15:56 - 17:45 - The Games
17:46 - 20:11 - The future/emulation with Xenia
20:12 - 21:38 - Conclusion & Outro

Social Media Links :

#Xbox360 #XboxMemories

[ModernVintageGamer]

Tell me your favorite Xbox 360 memories

[Destroyah]

It's unreal that this digital storefront stayed alive longer than two generations of Nintendo shops.

[acepedro]

"Goodbye, Xbox 360..."
"Guys, I'm still working."
"It's almost like I could still hear his voice..."

[Binyotrobenski]

The phrase “you just had to be there” seems completely apt when talking about the 360. So many memories, both single player and online. RIP to an absolute legend. We never had it so good.

[Davitron_]

And let’s not forget that Microsoft really wanted you to be online chatting with your friends. They bundled a headset with every console.
The entire package was just incredible.
So much fondness for the 360.

[JonThysell]

I moved to Seattle in 2008 for a contract job, and wasn't really into gaming that much anymore. Ran into a high school friend who was a PM at Bungie, and she raved about how good games were now. Fast forward a few months when my contract ended and my agency refused to assign me to a new job, even though they were still paying me. So I bought a 360 and a co-worker and I spent two months playing Gears all day while collecting a paycheck. Eventually someone checked the numbers and we got laid off. My next job was as a tester for Zune, and after that they hired me full-time for the new Xbox Live Studios team (Netflix app, ESPN app, etc.) which eventually got merged into the 360 software team proper. I worked for Xbox for 6 years, helped ship a half dozen 360 dashboard updates and was on the Xbox One launch team. I credit the 360 with not only getting me back into gaming, but also bootstrapping my career.

[legacyoftheancientsCc]

I'm not going to lie, I'm a bit teary about the closure. I still have my Xbox 360 and most of my games on disc, many still in orange GameFly sleeves. The 360 came to me during an incredibly hard period in my life. Bedridden and in a haze of painkillers, I spent months playing through Bioshock, Fable 2, Halo 3, and more. My cousin, who spent most evenings and weekends keeping me company, came up with creative ways to help me pass the time. We "went" to the beach in Just Cause, complete with a heat lamp to simulate the sun, coconut suntan lotion, a picnic cloth, and a cooler with sodas and sandwiches. We had a beach day right in my bedroom (thankfully, she didn't bring a bag of sand) :D

I have a very special fondness for the Xbox 360. It currently holds the second spot on my top three favorite consoles, right behind the SNES and above the PS4. I think I'll buy a couple of used 360s to have backup parts just in case.

[jesusmgw]

The VGA output was a saviour. As a broke student, in 2009 I bought an used 360 for 60$ and an used 19 inch LCD monitor for 20$ (which I still use as a backup to this day). That got me going for years in the videogaming department.

[RADRICHX]

My favourite part of the 360/PS3 era is all the weird physics engines and mechanics that games tried to utilize in some way.
Whether it's GTA IV and The Force Unleashed's use of Euphoria, or Far Cry 2's Dunia. Or even something like Alone in the Dark (despite it's reputation) playing around with fire and light.
There were many games that tried to do interesting things with new tech in ways you don't really see often these days.

RIP Xbox 360 Marketplace, you wonderful library of oddities

[fcukugimmeausername]

Someone should ask Don Mattrick what options there are now for consumers who don't want a always online Xbox.

[repatch]

Was a member of the verification team at ATI for the Xenos chip. Part of the work I was involved with was verification of the whole system, including the CPU and south bridge. Lots of very fond memories of that work. The dicey bit was we were ALSO working with Sony! One trip I was on included visiting Tokyo to support Sony, and then flying to the valley to support MS. Being part of the team meant we received launch versions of the console. Each of my colleagues hit the RROD. I've still got the OG and it never RRODed! Good times!

[fmdesperado]

I was a PS3 guy, but I can appreciate what the 360 did for the community. Good times. I'm gonna miss those days.

[braydenlykinslol]

I got my Xbox 360 when I was 6 years old, 2009. I remember when me and my friends would always play splitscreen on it. Recently, one of my best friends passed away. We grew up on that console together.

[AluVixapede]

RIP to a real one. Gone but not forgotten.
The 360 actually got my mom interested in gaming. She didn't play too many games, but, she liked Skyrim a lot, which was cool.

[tsalikaki]

I actually didn't show up to work one day in 2007 just to go buy a 360. My boss saw me on the street and I said "You know what? There are these days that you just need to dedicate to your well being. Just bought myself an xbox!" She laughed and brushed it off and never mentioned my missing work again. I owned one of the very early lcd's that didn't have an hdmi so after careful research, I bought the vga cable to go with it. I was so mind blown with the high res graphics that I sold my ps2 which through composite looked like crap. I loved my 360 till early 10's. Never bought a console since then till the pandemic, when I bought a series S. Super well priced for the casual gamer (i'm 42 now) and very reliable. Greetings from Greece!

[UnmatchedSkills]

VGA support on X360 was a GOATED move. A lot of people didn't have HDTVs yet in 2005-2006... but you know what almost everyone had? An HD VGA compatible flatscreen PC monitor somewhere in the house. It blew my mind when I first hooked up to my HP w2007 pc monitor. Got all of my friends picking up a VGA cable after that.

[Jamesssssssssssssss]

Never played a Halo game before Halo 3. So when it came out in 2007 my brother and I were on summer vacation and did as many "jobs" two 13 year olds can do. Cleaned cars, cut grass, news papers. Eventually we saved up enough for the Halo 3 360, 2 of the cool Todd McFarlane drawing controllers. It was soo worth it, Halo 3 blew us away. Then Gears, F.E.A.R, Bioshocks, Summer arcade games, ect.... Some of the best times I had were doing that time. It was a distraction from the stress of the financial crisis.

[celeryslice]

I’m now an artist on Skate at EA, and the Xbox 360 was pivotal for me. Forza, skate, Half-Life 2, Portal 2.. all amazing 360 titles that really influenced my life today.

[DecimationStudiosGameDev]

My favorite memory of the Xbox 360 would have to be when I got my first Elite model which was a Zephyr and I played Halo 3 on my 15th birthday. That model red ringed a year later, which got me to get my 2nd console, my Jasper Elite, and honestly that one stuck with me for some time and I babied it in its box after getting the slim and using that to play online with friends up until 2021 until I sold that one. I had a lot of great memories with the Xbox 360 from playing Halo 3 Matchmaking to Counter Strike GO to TF2 on the Orange Box, and of course the Call of Duty games. Party chat was a great feature, and game updates were to the point, they didn't take forever. The Xbox One wasn't the same and I don't really care for the series X/S

I still own my 2nd Xbox 360, but I've gotten another phat model from 2010 and I have an RGH that's the RE5 edition and looks 100% stock on the outside.

Of course, what I'm using now is my XNA Xbox 360 Development Kit. I also have a regular grey kit as my backup dev kit since that was my first one that I acquired last year, where as my XNA Final Dev Kit I managed to acquire back in april. Happy to say now that I'm using the dev kits and an old version of Unity 5 to create homebrew games for modded Xbox 360 consoles. I have a game out now that you can download for free on my blog, I have the trailer uploaded on my channel here, and I'm already working on my next project.

Honestly, I couldn't ask for such a better console to exist. Even when XBL shuts down, there will be alternative networks for the Xbox 360, and I will be using my consoles and kits until they stop working for good.

[kinglear]

Though I do love the 360, what I miss the most is the business practices and the overall era it lived in. When the internet gave us hopes and dreams for the future with DLC and indie games and re-releases of old games, before turining into predatory business practices and shipping unfinished products with gigantic day one patches.