The Xbox 360 launched in North America on November 22, 2005, and this was a big part of the move into high-definition console gaming. Its launch included Call of Duty 2, Project…

The Xbox 360 launched in North America on November 22, 2005, and this was a big part of the move into high-definition console gaming. Its launch included Call of Duty 2, Project Gotham Racing 3, Kameo, and Perfect Dark Zero. You can look at that lineup and see how many different directions developers were already taking it. Xbox Live was also becoming more deeply connected to the console itself, with a profile that followed you across games, achievements, and a Gamerscore that kept adding up as you played. Xbox Live Arcade deserves attention here too. Having downloadable games sitting alongside the big retail releases gave people another way to find things to play. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved was part of that early lineup, along with games such as Hexic HD and downloadable versions of arcade titles like Joust and Gauntlet. Trials let you actually try those games before buying them. The Marketplace also put demos and other downloadable content right there on the system. There was a serious hardware problem during this generation too: the Red Ring of Death. Microsoft expanded warranty coverage for the three-flashing-red-lights failure in 2007. That's part of the 360's history as well. It was a system that helped establish so many familiar parts of modern console gaming, while also giving a lot of owners a very real reliability problem to deal with.