It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and game information announced later that month at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).

Several peripherals have been released, including wireless controllers, expanded hard drive storage, and the Kinect motion sensing camera.

The release of these additional services and peripherals helped the Xbox brand grow from gaming-only to encompassing all multimedia, turning it into a hub for living-room computing entertainment.

The earliest versions of the console suffered from a high failure rate, indicated by the so-called "Red Ring of Death", necessitating an extension of the device's warranty period.

On August 12, 2003, ATI signed on to produce the graphics processing unit for the new console, a deal that was publicly announced two days later.

[22] Five years after the Xbox 360's debut, the well-received Kinect motion capture camera was released, which set the record of being the fastest selling consumer electronic device in history, and extended the life of the console.

"[40] The Xbox 360 began production only 69 days before launch, on September 14, 2005,[47][48] and Microsoft was not able to supply enough systems to meet initial consumer demand in Europe or North America, selling out completely upon release in all regions except in Japan.

[49][50][51][52] Forty thousand units were offered for sale on auction site eBay during the initial week of release, 10% of the total supply.

[81] As well as enjoying exclusives such as additions to the Halo franchise and Gears of War, the Xbox 360 has managed to gain a simultaneous release of games that were initially planned to be PS3 exclusives, including Devil May Cry 4,[82] Ace Combat 6,[83] Virtua Fighter 5,[84] Grand Theft Auto IV,[85] Final Fantasy XIII,[86] Tekken 6,[87] Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance,[88] and L.A.

[89] In addition, Xbox 360 versions of cross-platform games were generally considered superior to their PS3 counterparts in 2006 and 2007, due in part to the difficulties of programming for the PS3.

[25] During the console's lifetime, the Xbox brand has grown from gaming-only to encompassing all multimedia, turning it into a hub for "living-room computing environment".

It features a port on the top when vertical (left side when horizontal) to which a custom-housed hard disk drive unit can be attached.

On the Slim and E models, the hard drive bay is on the bottom when vertical (right side when horizontal) and requires the opening of a concealed door to access it.

When asked about this, Epic Games Executive Vice President Mark Rein said in 2006: "So the day they made the decision, we were apparently the first developer they called; we were at Game Developers Conference, was it two years ago, and then I got a call from the chief financial officer of MGS and he said 'I just want you to know you cost me a billion dollars' and I said, 'we did a favour for a billion gamers'.

Many accessories are available for the console, including both wired and wireless controllers, faceplates for customization, headsets for chatting, a webcam for video chatting, dance mats and Gamercize for exercise, three sizes of memory units and five sizes of hard drives (20, 60, 120, 250 (initially Japan only,[101] but later also available elsewhere[102][103]) and 320 GB), among other items, all of which are styled to match the console.

[107] During their CES 2010 keynote speech, Robbie Bach and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer went on to say that Kinect would be released during the holiday period (November–January) and work with every Xbox 360 console.

In addition to its revised aesthetics, the Xbox 360 E also has one fewer USB port, no AV connector (and thus is HDMI-only), and no longer supports S/PDIF.

A "General Hardware Failure" is recognized on all models released before the Xbox 360 S by three quadrants of the ring around the power button flashing red.

[127] With the release of the redesigned Xbox 360 S, the warranty for the newer models does not include the three-year extended coverage for "General Hardware Failures".

[131] Five other games sold over a million copies in the console's first year on the market: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter,[132] The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion,[133] Dead or Alive 4,[134] Saints Row,[135] and Gears of War.

[139] Games targeted specifically for the region, such as Chromehounds, Ninety-Nine Nights, and Phantasy Star Universe, were also released in the console's first year.

[141] Blue Dragon is one of three Xbox 360 games to surpass 200,000 units in Japan, along with Tales of Vesperia and Star Ocean: The Last Hope.

It also allowed for personal and music settings, in addition to voice or video chats, or returning to the Xbox Dashboard from the game.

A new, built-in Community system allows the creation of digitized Avatars that can be used for multiple activities, such as sharing photos or playing Arcade games like 1 vs. 100.

[153] It included a completely new user interface which utilizes Microsoft's Metro design language and added new features such as cloud storage for game saves and profiles, live television, Bing voice search,[154] access to YouTube videos and better support for Kinect voice commands.

[156] The console can also display pictures and perform slideshows of photo collections with various transition effects, and supports audio playback, with music player controls accessible through the Xbox 360 Guide button.

Music, photos and videos can be played from standard USB mass storage devices, Xbox 360 proprietary storage devices (such as memory cards or Xbox 360 hard drives), and servers or computers with Windows Media Center or Windows XP with Service pack 2 or higher within the local-area network in streaming mode.

XNA Community provides a channel for digital videogame delivery over Xbox Live that can be free of royalties, publishers and licenses.

A hard drive or memory unit is required to store products purchased from Xbox Live Marketplace.

Users of the feature can view additional content to accompany the game they are playing, or the TV shows and movies they are watching.