Show of hands: how many of you bought an Xbox 360 in its first month or so of release, five long years ago? Alright, now how many of you still use that same Xbox regularly, with zero RRoDs getting in your way? Yeah, we thought so. The Xbox 360 has been an astounding success for Microsoft and for gamers, a particularly strong feat when you consider that it was Sony's race to lose going into this console generation. Still, when you talk Xbox history, it's hard not to see that huge red smudge on an otherwise stellar record. In hindsight, perhaps it was wise for Microsoft to do such a stellar job of taking the console online, beyond all the obvious reasons: the overheating hunk of plastic and silicon in our entertainment center didn't really mean much anymore, sentiments-wise. Instead it was our Gamertags and Gamerscores and cutesy Avatars that really mattered, the true "heart" of our console. We can't even count how many Xboxes we churned through in the past five years, with only Microsoft's most recent attempt finally solving some of the machine's egregious noise issues, but most of us stuck with the Xbox all the way through because that's where our friends were. Cute trick, Microsoft, but let's pick a slightly less expensive way to fail for the next generation, alright? Oh, and happy birthday Xbox; we'll meet you at 8pm with the pizza and the wine and the Black Ops... you just bring the sexy.
Want to re-live a bit of the launch day insanity? Check out this little trip down Engadget memory lane:
Boy, didn't we look young and naive back then? The world was our oyster. There were so many Halos yet to come.
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