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Microsoft is ending Xbox 360 production more than 10 years after its debut

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Re: Microsoft is ending Xbox 360 production more than 10 years after its debut

#91

Post by remarkEon »

pdabbadabba wrote: post #65
asimuvPR wrote: post #24

IMO, the amazing thing about the 360 was how they were able to successfully continue selling it in spite of having the ring of death issues[0]. I know people who would go and buy a new machine when theirs died without thinking about it twice. One even gave me their 360 when the ONE came out. Microsoft sure knows how to build brand loyalty. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_technical_problems

For many, I think there was a pretty simple explanation: Halo. The hardware was a little iffy, but XBox has always had the mother of all console exclusives upon which to build their ecosystem. (Though the significance of the Halo franchise seems to have faded a bit in recent years.)

Yeah Halo was it for me, and probably the only real reason I own an Xbox One (although we'll just say that Halo 5 leaves something to be desired...) I think Microsoft has stumbled recently with console exclusives. A lot of people felt that Titanfall[1] was kind of a bait and switch. People paid $60 or whatever for what was essentially a multiplayer-only game. (The sequel will not be an Xbox exclusive.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanfall

Re: Microsoft is ending Xbox 360 production more than 10 years after its debut

#92

Post by nickpsecurity »

vhost- wrote: post #80
sogen wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ah the PS2, what a sturdy built console, a department store nearby kept selling those for years (like pancakes)

I still have one sitting in front of me. And it's for one game: Metal Gear Solid.

AMEN to that! I also keep them for a machine with lower subversion risk. Unlikely given most didn't even use the Ethernet. Fortunately, I've got other options for now so I can remain a MGS, Final Fantasy 7, and whatever machine. :)

Re: Microsoft is ending Xbox 360 production more than 10 years after its debut

#93

Post by MichaelGG »

pdabbadabba wrote: post #63
MichaelGG wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that why they can bombard the entire UI with ads? Every single page has tons of ads, and MS misleadingly only notes one of them as "Advertisement" (autoplay video). I disconnected my Xbox360 from the Internet because it's faster that way, and cleaner. I see the Xbox One is pretty bad, too, and this "ads everywhere" has leaked into Windows 10 (though you can turn them off a bit).

> this "ads everywhere" has leaked into Windows 10 (though you can turn them off a bit). Where? I've been using Windows 10 everyday for months and haven't seen an ad. There was that one time that something resembling a Tomb Raider ad was served to users' lock screens, but I never saw it myself and I've never seen anything else. Maybe it depends on which version of Windows 10?

Mainly the start menu. Just because they aren't "random ads" like a Coke video, doesn't mean they aren't ads. Showing offers to buy software is definitely an ad.

I think there's pop-ups for Office as well as pre installed "apps" that are just links to buy.

Re: Microsoft is ending Xbox 360 production more than 10 years after its debut

#94

Post by justinlardinois »

vblord wrote: post #20
justinlardinois wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The S and E models don't have that problem. I've heard some of the later chipsets for the original model also fixed the problem. From what I've heard, the 360 was original designed with an environmentally-friendly (read: not lead) solder that had never really been used in a major product. The original design already had heat problems and the solder turned out to be easily melted.

I must have had S or E... because I never had that problem. My kids and I still play it to this day.

The original model is the one with the memory card slots on the front (and the only one that comes in white). The S came out in ~2010 has an angled, thinner-in-the-middle design, and the E (came out when the Xbox One was announced) looks like a smaller Xbox One with rounded corners.

The problems I mentioned weren't universal, but they were about as close to it as you could be. Maybe you had an S or an original model that was later in its production.

The 360 has a one year general warranty, but the red ring problems were so widespread that Microsoft added a three year warranty for red rings specifically.

Re: Microsoft is ending Xbox 360 production more than 10 years after its debut

#95

Post by kalleboo »

sremani wrote: post #2

I am not a hardware guy, but honestly, they should mini-fy XB360 and make it appleTV competitor but with a huge game library.

Sony tried to do something similar with the PlayStation TV https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_TV

Re: Microsoft is ending Xbox 360 production more than 10 years after its debut

#96

Post by nitrogen »

arcticfox wrote: post #85
Eric_WVGG wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lock screen, start menu, "growl" notifications…

You're really making a mountain out of a molehill, I can hardly find ads on W10 if I try. Never actually noticed one before.

Maybe they're just really subtle ads, and thus (to some) more insidious?

Re: Microsoft is ending Xbox 360 production more than 10 years after its debut

#97

Post by winthrowe »

scarface74 wrote: post #69
WorldMaker wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The living room is typically the biggest screen in people's homes, the screen they spend the most time with, and the screen they are the "fondest" for as it is the home for much of their entertainment. Why wouldn't Microsoft want to be at the center of that? Microsoft wants to "own" all of your screens, by being the friendly operating system and development tool provider for them, so of course the battle of the livin…

Is that really true? I would think that most people spend more time on their phones than watching TV.

It may not be true anymore, but it certainly was when the Xbox division was first conceived.

Re: Microsoft is ending Xbox 360 production more than 10 years after its debut

#98

Post by FussyZeus »

WorldMaker wrote: post #64
asimuvPR wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's a good point, and I get that . But these days there are more smaller screens that they don't control because their mobile phone strategy was a huge failure. I would focus on controlling the smaller screens because that's where most entertainment and things happen. Typing this from my android phone .

I have so many opinions on this and could quickly devolve this into a long winded tangent, but the short answer is: Yes, there are many screens and Microsoft clearly has strategies for all the fronts, mobile included. Also, just because Microsoft is down , don't count them out just yet in the mobile screen front. Microsoft has the best leverage right now, of any company/platform, to turn wins on any screen into possi…

I owned a Lumia Icon for about a year not terribly long ago, about the time WP 8.1 came out. My observations:

- The Update system was extremely confusing, I had a hell of a time just figuring out how to update to 8.1, including needing a firmware update, figuring out how to apply a firmware update, then doing it three times over because I had that many. While the system eventually notified me of the system update, it remained silent on the firmware.

- The UI language was fantastic, seriously I loved the way the phone handles information. The only issue there is that many apps like Facebook and what have you totally ignored it, and Microsoft let them on anyway. What good is building a UI like that if you're going to let the developers just do whatever they want anyway?

- The app store in general is extremely limited. I realize Microsoft can't do anything here but I'm holding them partially responsible because of how late they were to this game.

- My Icon would get very hot with only regular use. A quick flip through twitter or even just some websites and the back of the device became uncomfortably warm.

- The keyboard is AMAZING. Seriously Microsoft knocked it out of the park on that one.

- The device felt well built and (aside of the heat issues) never presented as though it was poorly made. Connectors were solid, battery life was very good, and the bright colored interfaces with the white-on-black text make it genuinely a pleasure to use.

Eventually I had to face reality and bail (too limited on capabilities, plus I'm an iOS developer and at the time they just released the 6, the first decently sized iPhone) and went that way. That said should I change careers I'd definitely look the Windows Phone way again.

Re: Microsoft is ending Xbox 360 production more than 10 years after its debut

#99

Post by Unklejoe »

pdabbadabba wrote: post #65
asimuvPR wrote: post #24

IMO, the amazing thing about the 360 was how they were able to successfully continue selling it in spite of having the ring of death issues[0]. I know people who would go and buy a new machine when theirs died without thinking about it twice. One even gave me their 360 when the ONE came out. Microsoft sure knows how to build brand loyalty. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_technical_problems

For many, I think there was a pretty simple explanation: Halo. The hardware was a little iffy, but XBox has always had the mother of all console exclusives upon which to build their ecosystem. (Though the significance of the Halo franchise seems to have faded a bit in recent years.)

Halo is what sold me. Also, I was "in to computers", so the fact that Microsoft was making a video game console was pretty cool to me.

I was 11 years old when the first Halo game came out, and I got the original XBox/Halo for Christmas that same year.

Before that, I was playing Final Fight on Sega CD. So going from that to Halo was a real eye opener. I had never experienced emotion like that in a video game before. The music was EPIC, the story line was immersive, and the graphics were excellent for the time.

Halo is considered (by me) to be the first game of the new era. Sure, there were other successful "3D" FPS games that were out before Halo, but the original Halo hit all the marks and was the first taste of modern gaming for a lot of people. Many of my friends went from playing Mario/Sonic/etc... straight to Halo. It represented a massive leap in graphics quality, so much so that even games of today don't look _much_ better than Halo to me.

Halo is the only reason I purchased an XBox 360 and XBox One.

Re: Microsoft is ending Xbox 360 production more than 10 years after its debut

#100

Post by teamfrizz »

JohnTHaller wrote: post #57
sremani wrote: post #2

I am not a hardware guy, but honestly, they should mini-fy XB360 and make it appleTV competitor but with a huge game library.

If it wasn't going to eat into Xbox One sales, I'm sure Microsoft would consider it. The Xbox 360 makes a far better media center than the Xbox One does. The apps on the 360 crash less then on the One and dealing with crashed apps on the 360 is much more reliable. For example, when your YouTube app crashes/hangs on the Xbox One, returning to the menu does nothing as the app pauses/runs in the background. You can hit…

Xbox one dev here - can confirm what my sibling said about the quit button. It immediately suspends (quits) the process. I've poured many hours into the product lifetime cycle of my game.

On the other hand, if you don't hit quit, than hitting home and opening a bunch of other apps is exactly what you'd have to do to get the constrained (minimized) app to force quit while in the background.

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