Xbox was first released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and on March 14, 2002 in Europe.
The end of OurColony came on May 12, 2005, with the release of a video where J Allard of Microsoft showed off the Xbox 360 console.
At launch, the Xbox 360 was priced at US$399 and the Core System was priced at US$299.
Xbox Live Gold has the same features as Silver, plus online game playing capabilities.
Updated emulation profiles can be obtained through Xbox Live, by burning a CD with profiles downloaded from Xbox.com, or by ordering an update disc from Microsoft.
The Xbox 360 takes a new approach to hardware compared to its predecessor. The CPU, named Xenon-CPU (or XCPU) at Microsoft and "Waternoose" at IBM, is a custom triple-core PowerPC-based design by IBM.
The Xbox CPU also contains ROM storing Microsoft private encrypted keys, used to decrypt game data.
Up to four controllers are supported by the Xbox 360, in the wireless form. However, there is a maximum of three wired controllers, as the Xbox 360 only has 3 USB slots.