After a decade of production, Microsoft is ending the manufacture of new Xbox 360 units.
In a statement on the Xbox Wire , Microsoft’s Phil Spencer stated, “Xbox 360 means a lot to everyone in Microsoft. And while we’ve had an amazing run, the realities of manufacturing a product over a decade old are starting to creep up on us. Which is why we have made the decision to stop manufacturing new Xbox 360 consoles. We will continue to sell existing inventory of Xbox 360 consoles, with availability varying by country.”
Spencer acknowledged that the Xbox 360 is still an active console in terms of its playerbase and pledged to support the console’s ecosystem, including ongoing access to Xbox Live, Games with Gold and Deals with Gold. Xbox 360 hardware will still be supported as well.
Xbox recently introduced backwards compatibility to the Xbox One, meaning that gamers with a full library of games on Xbox 360 will not lose access to most of their games should they choose to upgrade.
The decade-long run for the Xbox 360 is another feather in the cap of a production run marked with notorious failures (red ring of death, the Kinect, etc.) and epic achievements (literally - ba dum tish). Xbox 360 was widely acknowledged to be the winner of its console generation, though Sony’s PlayStation 4 continues to pull ahead in sales currently. By contrast, Nintendo is reported to be discontinuing the Wii U later this year, just four years after launch.
Do you plan to snatch up one of the few thousand Xbox 360s still out in retail stores, or do you still use your own Xbox 360? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below.
