Microsoft Stops Xbox 360 Production, Servers To Stay Online

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft Stops Xbox 360 Production, Servers To Stay Online

Posted by msmash on Wednesday April 20, 2016 @04:26AM from the it's-time-to-let-go dept.

Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it has stopped manufacturing new Xbox 360 consoles. "Xbox 360 means a lot to everyone in Microsoft," wrote Phil Spencer, Xbox chief. "And while we've had an amazing run, the realities of manufacturing a product over a decade old are starting to creep up on us." The company says that it will, obviously, continue to sell the existing inventory of Xbox 360, a gaming console it launched on November 22, 2005. Xbox 360 game servers will also remain functional, the company said. Microsoft also assured that services such as Games with Gold and Deals with Gold will continue on Xbox 360, and if your console runs into a hardware issue, Xbox Support will take care of it. The Xbox 360 is currently available for purchase at $199.99, for a 500GB model with a copy of Forza Horizon 2. Microsoft added Xbox 360 backward compatibility to its current generation Xbox One console last year.

54 of 75 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Better headline: by fibonacci8 · 2016-04-20 04:27 · Score: 2, Funny

Microsoft does a 360 then walks away.

--
Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
1. Re:Better headline: by dhalsim2 · 2016-04-20 04:55 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, that would be a better headline, except if they did a 360, they would still be walking forward. ;)
2. Re:Better headline: by sexconker · 2016-04-20 05:10 · Score: 1
  
  Moonwalk. This has been known for years.
Still making them? by johnsmithperson123 · 2016-04-20 04:29 · Score: 2

They were still making them? I would have thought they would have killed it off as soon as XB1 came out.
1. Re:Still making them? by Higaran · 2016-04-20 04:31 · Score: 1
  
  I agree, I would have thought that at the most once the XB1 was a year old they would have stopped, just use up most of the parts they already had ordered or something.
2. Re:Still making them? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2016-04-20 04:53 · Score: 2
  
  It's particularly surprising because they had presumably wrung all the BoM reductions out of the design that they were reasonably going to be able to (barring a likely-but-unhelpful "we'll be able to implement the entire thing in a single $3 chip in 20 years!" stuff). They had already increased the integration of the major chips, done several redesigns of the board and chassis, and tinkered with what ports and peripherals were and weren't included.
  
  Unless they were willing to go all in for a legacy product and move all the custom ICs to a cutting edge process or something, they probably ran out of savings some time back; and may well have been starting to pay more for certain things(they only included 512MB; but GDDR3 isn't exactly getting more common).
  
  I could see keeping it around, especially to cater to the price sensitive demographics and markets, after the new console comes out; but I'm a bit surprised that they didn't hit the point where stamping out a new Xbox360 actually cost more than stamping out whatever the cheapest Xbox One costs; at which point there wouldn't be much reason to continue making them.
3. Re:Still making them? by ItsJustAPseudonym · 2016-04-20 05:52 · Score: 1
  
  Adoption of XBox Ones was rather slow, with the stupid mandatory Kinect feature, and the "must phone-home" feature which was later abandoned after negative feedback from the market. They kept the X360s going to keep their revenue-stream going.
4. Re:Still making them? by RogueyWon · 2016-04-20 07:30 · Score: 1
  
  There's usually a market for successful consoles (and the 360 was successful) for a couple of years after their successors are launched, particularly if that successor has no or limited back compatibility.
  It's basically about people buying replacements for broken consoles. The 360 has never, to put it mildly, had a good reputation for reliability (even if later versions were much better than the early ones). People will have large software libraries for their 360s, much of which is still not playable on the XB1 (and nor is there workable emulation of commercial games on PC). So there will be a continuing level of demand for the 360, despite the XB1's growing software library and installed base.
  The PS2, an even more successful console (which also had hardware-reliability issues), only finally ended production in January 2013, less than a year before the launch of the PS4, even though production numbers had fallen pretty low by the end.
5. Re:Still making them? by Qzukk · 2016-04-20 09:01 · Score: 1
  
  Speaking of the playstation, the mini PSOne came out after the PS2 (in Japan) and proceeded to outsell it for the rest of the year.
  
  --
  If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
6. Re:Still making them? by Ravaldy · 2016-04-20 09:45 · Score: 1
  
  Adoption of XBox Ones was rather slow
  Similar rate to the PS4 just lower number due to the foreign market favoring Japanese products over American.
  Reference: http://bgr.com/2015/02/18/ps4-...
  
  with the stupid mandatory Kinect feature, and the "must phone-home" feature
  For most buyers it was a bonus, not a downfall. I can't find the numbers but they got tones more female users than PS4. The main reason was the dance games available at release. WII obviously has the biggest female fan base.
  The "must phone home was" more a /. complaint than a main stream complaint. Don't take me wrong, it did become concern for all because the tech users screamed loud enough to the media. It's important to note that the perception of phone home was never removed as most people I know to this point still think its part of the product. I'd argue that a cell phone is far worst than any game console one can plug in his house but to each his own fears.
  
  They kept the X360s going to keep their revenue-stream going.
  That's all it is. They kept publishers happy, their clients and their stock holders. It was a common sense decision considering the major R&D cost were behind them and the engineering and maintenance team striped down to bare minimum.
Demand? by poison1701 · 2016-04-20 04:29 · Score: 1

I'm not a gamer but I am curious what the demand for this console is considering the next generation system has been available for several years?
1. Re:Demand? by Jozxyqk · 2016-04-20 04:40 · Score: 1
  
  There are still some media-center uses for the 360 that haven't (yet?) carried over to the XbOne.
2. Re:Demand? by Lumpy · 2016-04-20 04:41 · Score: 3
  
  It's cheap. and there is a buttload of dirt cheap used and low price games out there for it.
  Honestly it's why the Playstation 2 sold really well for 2 years after the 3 came out.
  
  --
  Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
3. Re:Demand? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-20 04:46 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  The $200 price tag, mostly. In the past it was a good idea to wait until around now in the product cycle to pick up a console, when it's cheap and the market is flooded with used games that were dumped in favor of the new generation. Of course, with online play being important to so many games now, it's not as good of a deal as it used to be. Even if the servers are still up and you can play online with a used copy, the communities will be mostly dead.
4. Re:Demand? by CronoCloud · 2016-04-20 05:16 · Score: 2
  
  The PS2 was still selling fairly well, for an old console, in 2012! It sold better than the Vita! IIRC, they stopped selling them a year later.
5. Re:Demand? by Captain+Splendid · 2016-04-20 05:57 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, this. For all the crap Microsoft get around here, the 360 was a very decent entry in the console family tree. The comparisons to the PS2 are quite apt.
  
  --
  Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
6. Re:Demand? by Froboz23 · 2016-04-20 08:23 · Score: 2
  
  This is a good site for tracking console sales: www.vgchartz.com
  
  According to their data, approximately 6000 XBox 360s were sold in one week.
  
  How many PS3 systems were sold in a week? Over 9000!!
  
  But these numbers are a tenth of the sales compared to the newer generation systems.
  
  --
  Take off every Sig. For great justice.
Re:This just in! by MightyYar · 2016-04-20 04:50 · Score: 2

Car analogy... naturally.
Now imagine that you have purchased many accessories for you 2006 F-150, and that the total cost of these accessories far exceeds the cost of the original vehicle. Some of these accessories are of the type which will never wear out. Now the F-150 breaks. You can spend a small fraction of your total investment to buy the old 2006 model, or you can start all over again with the shiny 2016 model.

--
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Re:question by Higaran · 2016-04-20 04:57 · Score: 1

Oyua, enough said. The king of gaming PC's has always been Microsoft because windows works better with vast amount of various hardware out there. One could make the argument that more people play games on their phones and tablets now than on PCs, which is probably true, but most people still see the guy sitting playing on his PC or console when they hear the word GAMER.
Amazing they still haven't hit $99 by HalAtWork · 2016-04-20 05:45 · Score: 1

Those stingy bastards

--
Twinstiq, game news
OUYA, GameStick, Steam Machine by tepples · 2016-04-20 05:46 · Score: 1

OUYA and GameStick consoles run Android/Linux, and Steam Machine runs a customized Debian GNU/Linux.
Compare Apple TV and PlayStation 4, which run a FreeBSD-based operating system.
Re:question by Solandri · 2016-04-20 05:55 · Score: 2

Linux is based on Unix, which attempts to isolate the user from direct access to any hardware. Remember, Unix was originally developed for the client-server environment back in the 1970s. You had one huge, expensive computer, which everyone in the company used together via their own terminal. The last thing you wanted was one person getting direct access to the hardware. The entire way Unix (and Linux) is designed, from user accounts to permissions to protection rings, is based on this philosophy of isolating and abstracting the hardware from the user.

Most consoles roll their own OS so they can have direct access to the hardware. They hearken back to the DOS days when the PC was a Personal Computer with only a single user, so of course whatever program you happen to be running at that moment should get complete control of the hardware.
Re:This just in! by Junta · 2016-04-20 06:15 · Score: 1

If you have an 2006 F-150, all sorts of crap can go wrong with it and you can get repairs for most all scenarios, despite long being out of warranty. Even model unique parts like body panels.
If an xbox360 breaks out of warranty, you are expected to buy a new one. Now this wouldn't be so bad if things functioned like Gamecube->Wii->Wii-U or PS1->PS2 or the PC industry, where newer vintages can let you use older content. However game consoles tend to be less backwards compatible. Hopefully things are now 'boring' enough as MS and Sony settle into x86 that backwards compatibility won't be a difficult thing moving forward. However your best bet remains PC gaming for backwards compatibility (I can still play mid-90s games on a brand new PC, with some software help that needs not include significant emulation).

--
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
A real better headline by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-20 06:17 · Score: 5, Insightful

Microsoft Stops Xbox 360 Production, Servers To Stay Online FOR NOW
1. Re:A real better headline by Ravaldy · 2016-04-20 06:42 · Score: 1
  
  As long as it's lucrative. No company in the right mind would leave servers on at a loss. What I think is more important is what will they do when they decide to disconnect the servers. Will they offer 3rd parties to take it over or will they just let it die. I figure we will know within 5 years.
2. Re:A real better headline by FlyHelicopters · 2016-04-20 06:51 · Score: 1
  
  No company in the right mind would leave servers on at a loss.
  I don't agree... if Microsoft is smart, they will leave the 360 servers on until the XBox Two (or whatever it is called) comes out.
  There is value in appearing to support your products for longer than when you just sell them. It gives assurance to people buying an XBox One today that it will get support until the XBox Three comes out.
3. Re:A real better headline by malditaenvidia · 2016-04-20 07:11 · Score: 1
  
  There's also the thing where people are paying for those servers via live subscriptions. They can't disconnect them at all even if they wanted to.
4. Re:A real better headline by tlhIngan · 2016-04-20 08:26 · Score: 1
  
  I don't agree... if Microsoft is smart, they will leave the 360 servers on until the XBox Two (or whatever it is called) comes out.
  There is value in appearing to support your products for longer than when you just sell them. It gives assurance to people buying an XBox One today that it will get support until the XBox Three comes out.
  Well, the only reason Microsoft killed Live for the original Xbox was limitations that were causing issues for the Xbox360 Live users (limited Friends list, etc). So Microsoft discontinued Live on the original Xbox because those limitations were holding back the Xbox360.
  Plus, at the time, the number of people using original Xbox games numbered around 1000 or so (900 of them for Halo 2, the rest were recording single or double digit participants). Compared to over a million people playing Xbox360 games online.
  So it was an easy decision - let 1000 users hold back a million plus users or end support. I think of those 1000, most of them were Xbox360 using backwards compatibility to play Xbox games, and not actual Xbox consoles.
  So it depends how many play online Xbone vs. Xbos360 and when they dwindle then Microsoft will end support.
5. Re:A real better headline by dadelbunts · 2016-04-20 08:30 · Score: 1
  
  I doubt they will go down anytime soon. MS just released Left 4 Dead 2 as backwards compatible on XBONE like 2 weeks ago. And many backwards compatible games they have released already heavily depend on those servers.
6. Re:A real better headline by Ravaldy · 2016-04-20 09:49 · Score: 1
  
  There's also the thing where people are paying for those servers via live subscriptions. They can't disconnect them at all even if they wanted to.
  When the forecast that the revenue from the subscriptions will be lower than (cost + minimum markup), then they will announce "end of service" and will prevent subscription renewals. They are allowed to do it and they will at some point. What I'm more interested in knowing is if they'll offer 3rd parties the opportunity to take it over.
7. Re:A real better headline by Ravaldy · 2016-04-20 10:01 · Score: 1
  
  if Microsoft is smart, they will leave the 360 servers on until the XBox Two (or whatever it is called) comes out.
  Good companies will sit with key people, asses current cost, ongoing revenue from services and estimate the marketing benefits of going beyond expectations.
  The marketing assessment is probably the most important part. They need to understand their demographic. If only 2% of their user base is still using the old servers, how many of them can we rally back in with the next gen Xbox?
  They need to identify the following:
  - Server hosting cost (equipment, power, staff, engineers and software developers). It costs a lot more than most would think. Probably upwards of $1.5M / month just to keep it up and running and secured (minimal user base)
  - How many will buy a next gen Xbox because MS was nice by keeping servers up?
  - How many will buy a next gen Xbox because MS disconnected their old servers?
  I suspect most Xbox 360 will be dysfunctional or collecting dust by the time the servers go down. I figure another 3-5 years at most.
  https://slashdot.org/comments....
8. Re:A real better headline by shione · 2016-04-20 14:13 · Score: 1
  
  Just look at what this same company did when they abandoned games for windows live and you have your answer there.
9. Re:A real better headline by timftbf · 2016-04-21 01:12 · Score: 1
  
  I wonder as well how they're splitting the plan between game servers and content servers.
  I don't give two hoots about online multiplayer, it just doesn't interest me, but I'd like to still be able to download patches and DLC. There are games I'd like to play that I either haven't bought yet, or have bought but haven't yet got around to playing...
10. Re:A real better headline by Ravaldy · 2016-04-21 03:43 · Score: 1
  
  So I guess XBox360 users have good times to look forward to considering games for windows live is still up for those who own games on that platform.
11. Re:A real better headline by shione · 2016-04-23 02:35 · Score: 1
  
  Do you use games for windows live because I don't think you do. ms took down the gfwl authentication servers a while ago. You can still download your games but the online part is broken unless you patch it to run another distribution service like steam where the developers have made such a patch. Even then, it's a hit and miss what still works. For example when you bring resident evil 5 over to steam you still lose online co-op. ms really dropped the ball on consumers and developers/publishers alike when they abandoned gfwl.
Re:question by Junta · 2016-04-20 06:18 · Score: 1

Ouya was a low end cell phone in a cube. This had something more to do with things than the Linux half of it. For games that support both, SteamOS represents a fine experience. Sony seems to do just fine without Windows.
Windows is neither the only thing capable of delivering a solid experience nor is it incapable of delivering a solid experience itself.

--
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Re:question by CronoCloud · 2016-04-20 06:19 · Score: 1

They don't use Linux because of licensing.
Sony does use open source, and has done so since the PS2 days. PS2 dev kits were Red Hat based
PSP's have "some" open source code in them, BSD licensed, things like libungif, libtiff, and the BSD networking stack IIRC.
The PS3's OS is FreeBSD derived but not BSD itself, it's not using a BSD kernel
http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...
Same goes for the Vita:
http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...
The PS4, however, is running actual FreeBSD:
http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...
Out of Steam? by westlake · 2016-04-20 06:24 · Score: 1

OUYA and GameStick consoles run Android/Linux, and Steam Machine runs a customized Debian GNU/Linux.
Does anyone, anywhere, have good numbers for Steam Machine sales? Because I can't find anything that suggests any movement there. Sales through Amazon.com are at rock bottom. Alienware ASM 100 Desktop Console
Not a chance. by Stray1 · 2016-04-20 06:33 · Score: 1

I have absolutely zero faith MS will keep these servers alive for more than a year and a half. I assume by this time 2018 they will be sending notice all Xbox 360 game servers will be shutting down. They'll keep them running just long enough to sell their overstock.
Backwards compatible? Not really by T.E.D. · 2016-04-20 06:46 · Score: 4, Informative

The "backwards compatibility" is nothing but a big steaming pile of marketing.. Xbox One isn't even in the slightest backwards compatible with 360 games.
Instead, what they are doing is slowly porting 360 games to the Xbox One, one by one. If you happen to have a 360 game on their list of ported games, you put the CD in the Xbox, just to prove you actually own it. Then the Xbox One will download the entire ported game from their servers to its hard-drive, and allow you to play it.
Don't go buying an Xbox One thinking you can use any old Xbox 360 game you might own. 3 moths ago we did that, and found a whopping 0 of our old 360 games had been ported.
Someone remind me what the word is when you purposely inaccurately describe something, because it will make your product sound more appealing than the accurate description will? I forget these days.
1. Re:Backwards compatible? Not really by malditaenvidia · 2016-04-20 11:18 · Score: 1
  
  Sony is doing the same, except they're charging full price for those ports.
2. Re:Backwards compatible? Not really by Nyder · 2016-04-20 11:22 · Score: 1
  
  ...
  Someone remind me what the word is when you purposely inaccurately describe something, because it will make your product sound more appealing than the accurate description will? I forget these days.
  Fraud.
  
  --
  Be seeing you...
3. Re:Backwards compatible? Not really by danomac · 2016-04-20 11:38 · Score: 1
  
  This non-backwards-compatible also extends to hardware - if you have any custom 360 wired controllers they don't work at all with the Xbox One.
4. Re:Backwards compatible? Not really by bloodhawk · 2016-04-20 15:17 · Score: 1
  
  This is simply not true. They are NOT porting the games one at a time at all, what they are doing is they have what is effectively a virtual machine running which needs to be tweaked and tuned to handle each game individually as the architecture between the 360 and the one is so significantly different. The games themselves are NOT being ported.
5. Re:Backwards compatible? Not really by Gussington · 2016-04-20 22:56 · Score: 1
  
  Someone remind me what the word is when you purposely inaccurately describe something, because it will make your product sound more appealing than the accurate description will? I forget these days.
  Lies.
6. Re:Backwards compatible? Not really by T.E.D. · 2016-04-21 01:13 · Score: 2
  
  The hardware and software though is so significantly different that each game has to have specific configuration within the emulator and a lot of work to make each game work.
  For some reason I don't remember having to change out our old Xbox 360 out for another one when we changed games.
  You're talking with someone who has actually worked on a emulator from scratch (M68020 with custom hardware). What you describe above? Where the supposed VM doesn't match the original machine enough to run its software without significant extra work, custom to each piece of software? That's not a true emulator of the hardware.
  That's porting the software.
7. Re:Backwards compatible? Not really by SuiteSisterMary · 2016-04-21 06:25 · Score: 1
  
  and found a whopping 0 of our old 360 games had been ported.
  How many are currently available?
  Also, can you reference ANYTHING Microsoft has ever put out that would make anybody think that there wasn't a whitelist of compatible games? The Xbox BC for the 360 was the same way, as I recall, though I think it was more a whitelist of games tested as working satisfactorily.
  
  --
  Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
8. Re:Backwards compatible? Not really by im_thatoneguy · 2016-04-21 06:49 · Score: 1
  
  If they were actually porting games they would be spending a fortune and you would be getting 1-2 games per year. It's definitely a backwards compatibility emulation layer.
  All emulators need validation. There are so many undocumented hacks and tricks developers use that there is no perfect emulator. So they need to test the game and release patches to ensure there aren't any game breaking quirks. That takes a little bit of time but it's not a "port" which would mean rewriting for the new platform. Load up any emulator's website like SCUMM and you'll see a list of games that work and games that have problems and games that flat out don't work.
  http://www.scummvm.org/compati...
9. Re:Backwards compatible? Not really by T.E.D. · 2016-04-22 04:11 · Score: 1
  
  Also, can you reference ANYTHING Microsoft has ever put out that would make anybody think that there wasn't a whitelist of compatible games?
  Sorry, but I am not your personal Google monkey. Pay me for my time, or go do your own research.
  Its really pretty simple. They used the term "Backward Compatability". Yes, Microsoft itself calls it that. That term has a meaning. What they have done does not match that meaning. These are all facts.
  What people (yourself included) do with this information is their own business.
10. Re:Backwards compatible? Not really by T.E.D. · 2016-04-22 04:26 · Score: 1
  
  All emulators need validation. ... Load up any emulator's website like SCUMM and you'll see a list of games that work and games that have problems and games that flat out don't work.
  In fact, that's one of the dead giveaways. For a true emulator, that's the kind of list you'd expect; here's software that works, here's software that is known not to work, here's software that works but has issues, and anything not listed is unknown.
  If things are ported one-by-one, you'd expect just a simple list of what works. Which is exactly what MS has.
  Also, if they were simply emulating off of a VM, you'd be playing the games that work off of your CD, and you might even be able to try some that aren't on their list, and they may or may not work.
  Instead, it just used the CD to make sure you own the game, and then downloads the "real" game program in its entirety from their servers. That tells you it isn't the same data as is on the disk. In other words, they ported the game to whatever machine (real or virtual) is running it. You can't just try any old game and see what happens, like you could do if they were simply emulating.
11. Re:Backwards compatible? Not really by SuiteSisterMary · 2016-04-22 04:50 · Score: 1
  
  Sorry, but I am not your personal Google monkey. Pay me for my time, or go do your own research.
  
  Actually, the correct answer is 'No, I cannot reference anything Microsoft has ever said that would indicate that it was a universal, automatic thing for every title. They've always made it clear that it was exactly the opposite.'
  
  --
  Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
game servers will also remain functional by stooo · 2016-04-20 07:44 · Score: 1

>> Xbox 360 game servers will also remain functional
mmmh Yeah. Does the 360 run Linux ?

--
aaaaaaa
Re:This just in! by guevera · 2016-04-20 14:04 · Score: 1

If all kinds of things going wrong on 2006 F-150s is anything except an extreme outlier, then recent F-150s suck. I've kinda suspected as much.
Re:This just in! by Junta · 2016-04-21 00:38 · Score: 1

Well I meant that all sorts of things could hypothetically go wrong with it, and there exists manufacturers still making pretty much any part you can imagine in a 2006 F-150.
Of course, the bigger more relevant point is a 2016 F-150 can traverse the same roads a 2006 can. That's not how game consoles work.

--
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.