Microsoft announced some pretty heavy news recently on April 20, 2016. The day marks the end of an era – the end of the Xbox 360, to be exact. The company will keep the servers and support going for now, but production on the Xbox 360 is to cease. That’s right – there will never, ever, be another Xbox 360 made.
Microsoft made this decision based on the fact that the Xbox 360 is simply too outdated to keep producing, and that they want to focus on the newer Xbox One and creating newer technologies to compete with the rest of the next generation gaming movement. Phil Spencer, the current head of Microsoft’s Xbox Division, had this to say –
“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.”
The now-ten-year-old console was extremely popular since its release, boasting the sale of 84 million units. Xbox 360 players also helped create a few other incredible figures, such as: 78 billion gaming hours played, approximately 486 billion gamerscores achieved, 27 billion achievements unlocked, and 25 billion hours spent using apps.
Phil Spencer continued,
“The Xbox 360 helped redefine an entire generation of gaming at Microsoft,” Spencer said. “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.”
Xbox 360 games will continue to be made backwards-compatible for the Xbox One, and despite the current on-going support for Xbox 360 servers, it seems as though the old console is finally dead.
The Xbox One is here to take its place.
What do you think of this? Sound off below!