X-Box 360 (Groß-Deutschland)

The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft, and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sega's Dreamcast HD, and Nintendo's Revolution 2 as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles.

Some major features of the Xbox 360 are its integrated Xbox Live service that allows players to compete online, download arcade games, game demos, trailers, TV shows, and movies, its HD-DVD integration, and its Windows Media Center multimedia capabilities. The Xbox 360 also offers region specific access to third-party media streaming services such as Netflix in the USA or Sky TV and BT Vision in the UK.

The Xbox 360 was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and game information divulged later that month at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). The console sold out completely upon release in all regions except in Japan,[4][5][6] and, as of October 2009, nearly 34 million units have been sold worldwide.[1] The Xbox 360 is currently available in two configurations—the "Arcade" and the "Elite"—and each has its own selection of accessories.

HD-DVD integration
When Sony came up with the Blu-Ray drive system and its Playstation 2 hardware featuring that drive system, X-Box had already launched, but Microsoft developed an HD-DVD drive add-on to enable movie and game playback on its machine. An integrated X-Box 360 HD was released in 2006 in time for Christmas for $399, while the prior X-Box Elite model went for $349. Also bundled were three HD-DVD movies. Aiding the new format was the news that Halo 3 would be an HD-DVD exclusive, and a Halo 1/2 HD Edition would also be released. Sales of these games alone pushed sales of the new X-Box over 2.3 million within a four month timeframe, increasing adoption.

By 2007, Microsoft stopped shipping the non-HD equipped X-Box, making all future models based on the HD-DVD capable machine. More and more games were released in the HD-DVD format, including Final Fantasy XI Online, with X-Box Live integration, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and Fable II.