Xbox 360

Microsoft learned fast from the original Xbox, which had lost money but proven the company could build a credible console. For the follow-up it moved decisively, launching the Xbox 360 a full year ahead of Sony and Nintendo to seize the high-definition generation before anyone else arrived. That head start, and a sharp focus on connected play, defined the machine.

The 360's masterstroke was Xbox Live. Voice chat, friends lists, achievements, and a slick digital marketplace turned online console gaming from a novelty into the default way millions played. Achievements in particular became an industry-wide addiction, and the Xbox Live Arcade storefront gave indie and downloadable titles like Braid and Castle Crashers a mainstream stage years before that was normal.

Its library was a golden run of blockbusters. Halo 3 arrived as a cultural event, Gears of War popularized cover-based shooting and showed off the Unreal Engine's muscle, and multiplatform giants like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Mass Effect often ran and sold best on the 360. For much of the generation it was the hardcore gamer's console of choice, and the timed exclusives Microsoft's cash secured kept it ahead in the West.

The shadow over all of it was hardware. The infamous Red Ring of Death, a general hardware failure signaled by three flashing lights, struck an enormous share of early units, and Microsoft eventually swallowed more than a billion dollars extending warranties to contain the disaster. It was one of the most costly reliability failures in console history.

Later Kinect, a controller-free camera, sold in huge numbers chasing the Wii's casual crowd, though its games rarely delivered. By its 2016 discontinuation the 360 had sold over 84 million units and, more importantly, had rewired expectations. The social graph, the digital store, the achievement, the constant connection, all of it became permanent furniture in gaming, and the Xbox 360 built the house.