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The Xbox 360 was released on November 22, 2005 in the US. The price point for the Core system was $299.99 and for the Premium system $399.99. Systems were in short supply from Microsoft at release due to production being rushed or as reported from some journalist friends, the units were being sent back from industry professionals as being faulty. The Xbox 360 system was backwards compatible with many of the original Xbox games, it has Xbox Live support, and has interchangable faceplates for some customization.

Xbox 360 features 3 processing units that have been clocked at 3.2 GHz each, a 500Mhz ATI graphics processor and 512 MB of RAM. All games for the system have been required to be written in 720p and 1080i and in a 16:9 viewing ratio. For connectability, a ethernet connection is still required for online play. Microsoft included LAN support, so multiple Xbox 360's can connect together for multiplayer fun! The 360 controllers feature vibration feedback and the wireless controllers come with cords so you can wire-up to the console and recharge the battery while playing.

The Core system with the price tag of $299.99 came with the console, a wired controller, a composite AV cable and Xbox Live Silver and Microsoft Marketplace with a one month free trial of Xbox Live Gold. Without a harddrive or memory card, this created a variety of issues. You couldn't hook up to Xbox Live, you couldn't play original Xbox games

The Premium system has a price tag of $399.99 and came with the console, a wireless controller, a 20Gb harddrive, Xbox Live headset, ethernet cable, a component HD AV cable and Xbox Live Silver and Microsoft Marketplace with a one month free trial of Xbox Live Gold.

Microsoft Marketplace allows users to try out demos of games, trailers, game downloads and user-created content. Xbox Gold is required for online multiplayer games, but not usually those you would pay an external fee for. Xbox Live Silver allows you to make a profile, get updates, shop for content, send messages and a few other basic things. XLS is also the only form of Xbox Live required to play Final Fantasy XI.

Both systems were able to hook up to a variety of USB devices including MP3 players, Windows-based PCs, and digital cameras. Besides that, they could play DVDs and music CDs right out of the box and had settings for parental control.