The Xbox 360 is the second   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  systems .

Some major features of the Xbox 360 are its integrated Xbox Live service that allows players to  play together online, download  game demos, arcade games,  trailers, TV shows, music and movies and its Windows Media Center  multimedia system capabilities. The Xbox 360 also offers region specific access to third-party media streaming services such as Netflix and ESPN in the USA or Sky Player in the UK.

The Xbox 360 was officially unveiled on  Music TV   on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and video game information divulged later that calendar month at the Electronic Entertainment Expo  better known as E3  . The console  complete sold out  upon release in all  areas  except in Japan. As of June 2010, there are over 41.7 million Xbox 360 consoles worldwide .

At their  Electronic Entertainment Expo  presentation on June 14, 2010, Microsoft  debuted  a redesigned Xbox 360 that would ship on the same day. The redesigned console is  sleeker  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 three  from older  models  ) and a special AUX port. Older models of the Xbox 360 have since  stopped production  . The  newest  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  Slim  , Microsoft have said that they believe that the console is only halfway  through its life-cycle and will continue on through 2015.

In 2009, IGN named the  360  the sixth greatest  game  console of all time , out of a field of 25 .