Summary
- The Xbox 360's success was largely due to its extensive library of great games.
- The console was defined by both first-party and third-party releases, with many major games performing better or being exclusive to the Xbox 360.
- While the Xbox 360's glory years may be over, gamers can still enjoy its iconic games through backward compatibility on newer Xbox consoles.
The Xbox 360 was a massive success for Microsoft, and that was largely thanks to the many great games that made up its library. There was a time when the Xbox 360 was the console sales leader of the seventh generation. It was eventually outpaced by the Nintendo Wii and PS3 in terms of sales, but not before it built one of the best gaming libraries in the history of the industry.
The Xbox 360 was defined not just by first-party Xbox games, but also plenty of major third-party releases that often performed better on Microsoft's console or were even exclusive in some cases. The end of the Xbox 360's lifespan was a little rough compared to its glory years, but the impact of the console's golden age shouldn't be understated.
YouTuber Crowbcat has released a timeline video shining a spotlight on what they deem to be the Xbox 360's golden age, ranging from 2006 to 2011. The video starts off with Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter in 2006 and shows how much time passed between each notable release on the 360. It was just 11 days later that The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion released for the console, followed by Hitman: Blood Money, first-person shooter game Prey, Dead Rising, Saints Row, F.E.A.R., and so on and so forth.
The video ends in 2011 with a focus on six games: Portal 2, Dead Island, Gears of War 3, Dark Souls, Battlefield 3, and the landmark release that was The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. This doesn't mean that there weren't major Xbox 360 games released after 2011. However, it was after 2011 that the Xbox 360 stopped receiving such major landmark releases at a frequency that it did in the 2006-2011 time span. The video has amassed over 292,000 views at the time of this writing, and anyone looking to take a trip down memory lane should certainly check it out.
Some nostalgic gamers may be inspired to dig out their Xbox 360 after watching the video, though it should be noted that many of the featured games are readily available to play on Microsoft's newest consoles. The Xbox backward compatibility program has made it so some of the best Xbox 360 games ever are playable on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S. Microsoft has stopped adding games to the backward compatibility lineup, but Xbox 360 fans still have a ton of games they can play on the newer consoles.