Microsoft's second hardware release, the Xbox 360 ("three-sixty"), was first unveiled on MTV on 12 May 2005 with major launch and game information revealed at the E3 Expo shortly after. The Xbox 360 hit retail in North America on 22 November 2005, 2 December 2005 in Europe, and 10 December 2005 in Japan.
It exists as the very first entrant to the list of 'next-generation' consoles, which will include the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii at the close of 2006, and it incorporates backward compatibility with certain original Xbox games, a content download extension of the Live service called Xbox Live Marketplace, a built-in DVD drive, portable 20Gb hard drive, and HDTV functionality. An HD DVD drive is expected by Christmas of 2006.
Before its release, the Xbox 360 was known as the 'Xenon', 'Xbox Next', 'Xbox 2', and 'Nextbox'. The Xbox 360 is fast approaching 5.0 million units sold.
Click here to learn more about the Xbox 360.
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