November 22, 2005: The Xbox 360 launches in North America alongside Perfect Dark Zero and PGR3.
Five years ago today, Microsoft released its second gaming console, the Xbox 360, in North America.
It's somewhat strange to think that a console still going very strong today has been around for that long (even if that sort of lifespan is the thing Microsoft's competitor Sony prides itself on). Back on November 22, 2005, 18 games were available alongside the 360, including Kameo: Elements of Power, Call of Duty 2, Project Gotham Racing 3, and Perfect Dark Zero.
The Xbox 360 was officially announced six months prior to its release, on May 12, 2005. Even then, it was called "the worst kept secret in the history of videogames" -- hyperbole or not, it wasn't much of an actual surprise.
After being the last console out in the previous generation with the original Xbox, Microsoft would now have the first console out in the current generation, launching almost a full year ahead of the PlayStation 3 and Wii. That led Bill Gates to claim, "It's perfect. The day Sony launches [the new PlayStation], and they walk right into Halo 3." Microsoft later retracted the comment, saying that Halo 3 would release when it's ready -- which turned out to be in September 2007, almost two years after the 360's release and a year after the PS3 and Wii. The decision to get to market first may have ended up being a costly goal, as the 360 went on to suffer from tremendous technical difficulties, primarily in the form of the dreaded Red Ring of Death.
With the launch of the newest iteration of the Xbox 360 console earlier this year, that problem seems to be mostly in the past for Microsoft. And having just launched Kinect at the beginning of the month and continuing to update Xbox Live with features like Netflix and ESPN3 support, it looks like the Xbox 360 may yet have quite a few years left before we're faced with the launch of the Xbox 360's successor.
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