Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft’s Xbox division, said earlier today on the official Xbox blog that they’ve decided to stop manufacturing new Xbox 360 consoles. Microsoft will continue to sell its existing inventory of 360s but once those are gone, it’ll bring an end to a storied console that’s more than a decade old.
With rumors of a successor to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 making the rounds, the news shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone.
The Xbox 360 will be remembered as a key cog in console gaming history, proving that the original Xbox wasn’t a fluke.
Microsoft announced the Xbox 360 in May 2015 and held a massive launch event in November at a “secret” location in the Mojave Desert. The 360 served as the launching pad for several franchises including Gears of War. Others, like Forza and Halo, really came into their own on the 360.
The Kinect motion-sensing device also got its start on the Xbox 360.
Over the years, gamers have amassed nearly 486 billion Gamerscore points from 27 billion achievements while putting in over 78 billion hours of gameplay (plus another 25 billion spent in apps).
Spencer said that despite stopping production, they’ll continue to support the 360. Specifically, Microsoft will still offer and support Xbox Live services (keeping servers online and active, for example), sell games and accessories, support hardware (presumably, warranties) and continue to offer backward compatibility on the Xbox One.
https://www.techspot.com/news/64515-after-more-than-10-years-service-microsoft-putting.html
