the main xbox news thread

here i will post news about xbox.
(admins do not un lock please)

The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft, and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. As of January 2011, there are over 50 million Xbox 360 consoles worldwide.[2]

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.[7][8][9]

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, music and movies and its Windows Media Center multimedia capabilities. The Xbox 360 also offers region specific access to third-party media streaming services such as Netflix and ESPN in the US or Sky Player in the UK.

At their E3 presentation on June 14, 2010, Microsoft announced a redesigned Xbox 360 that would ship on the same day.[10] The redesigned console is slimmer than the previous Xbox 360 model and features integrated 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, TOSLINK S/PDIF optical audio output, 5 USB 2.0 ports (compared to the 3 from older versions) and a special AUX port.[11] Older models of the Xbox 360 have since been discontinued.[12] The first new console to be released features a 250 GB hard drive, while a later, less expensive SKU features 4 GB internal storage.

With the announcement of the Xbox 360 S, Microsoft have said that they believe that the console is only mid-way through its life-cycle and will continue through 2015.[13][14][15] In 2009, IGN named the Xbox 360 the sixth greatest video game console of all time, out of a field of 25.[16]

Xbox Live (trademarked as Xbox LIVE[2]) is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Corporation. It is currently the only online gaming service on consoles that charges users a fee to play multiplayer gaming. It was first made available to the Xbox system in 2002. An updated version of the service became available for the Xbox 360 console at that system's launch in 2005. The service was extended in 2007 on the Windows platform, named Games for Windows – Live, which makes most aspects of the system available on Windows computers. Microsoft has announced plans to extend Live to other platforms such as handhelds and mobile phones as part of the Live Anywhere initiative.[3] With Microsoft's new mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7, full Xbox Live functionality is integrated into new Windows Phones that launched in late 2010.[4]

The Xbox Live service is available as both a free and subscription-based service, known as Xbox Live Free[5] and Xbox Live Gold respectively, with several features such as online gaming restricted to the Gold service. Prior to October 2010, the free service was known as Xbox Live Silver.[6]

Kinect for Xbox 360, or simply Kinect (originally known by the code name Project Natal),[8] is a "controller-free gaming and entertainment experience" by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game platform. Based around a webcam-style add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360 console, it enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller, through a natural user interface using gestures and spoken commands.[9] The project is aimed at broadening the Xbox 360's audience beyond its typical gamer base.[10] Kinect competes with the Wii Remote Plus and PlayStation Move and PlayStation Eye motion control systems for the Wii and PlayStation 3 home consoles, respectively.

Kinect was launched in North America on November 4, 2010,[8] in Europe on November 10, 2010,[3] in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore on November 18, 2010[5][11][12] and in Japan on November 20, 2010.[13] Purchase options for the sensor peripheral include a bundle with the game Kinect Adventures and console bundles with either a 4 GB[14][15][16] or 250 GB[17] Xbox 360 console and Kinect Adventures.[14][15][16][17]

In December 2010, it emerged that Microsoft was bringing Kinect technology to Windows PCs, when Korean game developer GamePrix announced that its PC MMORPG Divine Souls would be one of the first games to use the console hardware as a controller. [18]