A little while back I wrote about the Late Life and Future of the Xbox 360 and the fact that the console was still getting updates even in late 2019. This, of course, leads you to wonder, just how much longer does the console actually have? In the way of software support via Xbox Live, primarily.
There are a few things to look at here — the console itself, the consoles connection to Xbox Live, and games for the console and their respective connections to the Xbox Live service.
First of, the console itself — like any gaming machine, it will still work fine so long as the physical components haven’t failed. You can stick in a disc and play most games without issue, or anything you would have downloaded should still run fine so long as the system still knows you are licensed to run it. Beyond those little quirks, it’s not much different from anything else in gaming history… and this is where similarities end. That’s when we get the Xbox Live service itself for the console, and some issues that spawn from such services innately.
I divide this up into two categories — the console itself and the games for the system because they are effectively separate.
For the Xbox 360 console itself, it’s only a matter of time before things are cut off. Updates will happen until Microsoft finally decides they aren’t worth it. This is obvious, but then comes the question of how long will a piece of hardware which is no longer getting updates be left to connect to the Xbox Live Service?
This is it’s own consideration because of the number of games for the Xbox 360 which are playable on the Xbox One. While certainly not the full list — not by a long shot — it does cover most of the popular titles, up to a point where some gamers wouldn’t need an Xbox 360 — they can play everything they would want to on the Xbox One.
This is where support for Xbox 360 games on Xbox Live comes up as a topic. Understand that Xbox Live for the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One are connected and very much related, but still differentiated — when you play an Xbox 360 game on the Xbox One you’re still connecting via the same infrastructure as you would if you were playing it on the 360. This can, however, be adjusted and tweaked where necessary.
This means, in theory, Microsoft could cut off the Xbox 360 console from Xbox Live, but still allow 360 games playable on the Xbox One to access live and thus still be playable for the foreseeable, even if the 360 hardware itself is abandoned.
Still, the question comes up – when. When, to me, may we finally see the end of the Xbox 360? Honestly, I give it 5 more years, so, 2025.
Let’s put it in perspective — the console was released in 2005. That means it turns 15 next year, and 20 in 2025. At this stage, it almost makes sense to finally begin cutting off the actual Xbox 360 consoles which, as an aside, haven’t been sold new since 2016.
Support for games, however, can last longer — at least as long as any heavy support for the Xbox One continues. If the next Xbox (still code-named Scarlett) has support for Xbox 360 software, then that may mean an even longer duration of support — if not, then again, so long as the Xbox One is considered worth supporting it would make sense that the Xbox 360 library playable on the Xbox One will be supported going forward.
Of course, this is just a guess as to what will happen — I figure the console will be cut off, then eventually the games. That being said it’s all just a guess — a “maybe” situation. I could be wrong, and Microsoft could support the 360 for another 15 years. I doubt it, but it’s not intrinsically impossible.
There’s a lot to think about with what seems like a simple question about the games of a very recent yesteryear.