Goodbye, Old Friend: Microsoft Is Laying The Xbox 360 To Rest

Pour one out for the 360.

Microsoft is shipping the Xbox 360 to a video game farm far from home, where it’ll have heaps of room to run and play with other consoles, like the Sega MegaDrive and Nintendo 64.

Today, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer announced that the 360 will be laid to rest at the grand old age of 10. (It celebrated the double-digit milestone in November.)

“Xbox 360 means a lot to everyone in Microsoft,” he began, letting users down softly.

“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. Which is why we have made the decision to stop manufacturing new Xbox 360 consoles.”

Before you early-adopters run screaming into the streets, cursing your suddenly unplayable inventory, take note: you can play Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One.

If you refuse to update to the One, well, umm, good on you for being loyal. You will still receive Xbox Live service and the defunct machine's hardware will still be supported.

We get it. If the Xbox One happened to be your first console, it’s hard coming to the conclusion that you need to pack it away and invest in another new device to play Halo. Alas, like the setting of the sun or the rebooting of Spider-Man movies, this is the endless cycle of video game ownership. The sooner you grieve, the sooner you can move on.

Sleep now, Xbox 360. Sleep the endless sleep.

Photo: Microsoft.