Tien jaar geleden lanceerde Microsoft een van de meest succesvolle consoles ooit, nu besliste Microsoft dat het geen Xbox 360’s meer zal produceren.
Dat maakte Phil Spencer vandaag bekend op Xbox Wire. De resterende voorraad van Xbox 360 consoles zal worden verkocht en de console zal ondersteund blijven door Microsoft. Dit wil zeggen dat je nog steeds online zal kunnen gamen en nieuwe games zal kunnen blijven kopen. Dat laatste toch zo lang er voor worden uitgebracht. Xbox Live Gold leden krijgen nog steeds hun maandelijkse Games en Deals with Gold.
Phil wilde aan de hand van deze mededeling ook alle Xbox-community leden bedanken voor al die jaren dat ze op de 360 gespeeld hebben en game reeksen zoals Gears of War groot hebben gebracht.
Last November, we celebrated a major milestone, as the Xbox 360 console turned 10 years old.
The Xbox 360 helped redefine an entire generation of gaming at Microsoft. I am incredibly proud of all of the work and dedication that went into development of the Xbox 360 hardware, services and games portfolio over the last decade. And I’m grateful to the fans for their continued passion and support.
Franchises like Gears of War were born on the 360, and established blockbusters like Halo really came into their own during this console generation. Xbox 360 was also the foundation for industry-leading technical innovation like Kinect, and the start of system updates and dashboard refreshes based on fan feedback.
Thanks to the Xbox 360, we evolved Xbox Live from the original Xbox into the thriving online gaming community it is today. And the console became a beloved gaming and entertainment hub with over 78 billion gaming hours played, nearly 486 billion Gamerscore on 27 billion achievements and over 25 billion hours spent in apps over its lifetime.
From the original Zero Hour launch event, to the incredible reaction received last year at E3 when we announced that you could play your Xbox 360 games on Xbox One, the soul of Xbox 360 was about putting gamers at the center of every decision we make – and we apply this principle across our business to this day.
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.
We know that many of you became gamers on Xbox 360 and are still active, so it’s important to us that while the overall Xbox gaming experience will evolve and grow, we will continue to support the platform you love in multiple ways.
I want to personally thank the Xbox community – that includes the vast and diverse audience of gamers, developers and publishers who brought so much passion and creativity to the Xbox 360. You are the heart of what we do at TEAM XBOX, and you have been critical to the success of Xbox 360.
-Phil Spencer
