A common household name today, the Xbox 360 is the second installment to a video game console produced by the Microsoft Corporation. This piece of advanced tech was developed in collaboration with the companies IBM, ATI and SiS

Coupled with this video game console, Microsoft introduced their integrated "Xbox Live" service which provides the users with the ability to compete in gaming online and also, download media from the web such as, arcade games, game demos, trailers and TV shows plus movies. With respect to its history, it is important to mention that the Xbox 360 is the well known successor to Microsoft's first video game console installment, the Xbox. In terms of competition, the Xbox 360 has drawn battle lines with consoles like, Sony PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles.

Emphasizing the popularity and the sales figures of this console, after unveiling the Xbox 360 to the public on May 12 2005 on the MTV Channel, this console was sold out completely in all regions of the planet except Japan. In addition, as of September 30th of 2008, 22 million units of the Xbox 360 have been sold worldwide.

For the consumer, the Xbox 360 comes in three types. The three types named, Arcade, Premium and Elite comes to the hands of the market bringing along its own unique set of offerings and accessories.

Xbox 360 Arcade

The "Arcade" version of the console is a replacement version for an earlier discontinued version named Xbox 360 Core. Nevertheless, this type of console comes along with accessories such as wireless controllers, 256 megabyte memory unit, a composite AudioVideo cable and HDMI output capability plus with five Xbox Live games titles named, "Boom Boom Rocket", "Feeding Frenzy", "Luxor 2", "Pac-Man Championship Edition" and "Uno".

Xbox 360 Premium

Known as either the Xbox 360 Premium or Pro, this type of the console includes all of the features and accessories of the Arcade plus additional version based features. These additional features include a hybrid composite and component cable with optional optical out. Furthermore, the Premium comes with a detachable 20 Giga Byte Hard Disk Drive (HDD) for the purposes of storing downloaded content as well as, to provide compatibility features with original Xbox games and to store game data.

Xbox 360 Elite

Elite is the best and most expensive version of the Xbox 360 and so justified by its unique set of features and offerings. These include features like, a 120 GB HDD, a matte black finish coming along with a HDMI 1.2 cable and controllers and headset that goes well with the system's black finish. These features are those that are additional to those found in the Arcade and Premium models.

The initial release price of this great console was at US$479.99.

Summary: The above mentioned facts go on to provide a detailed and interesting description of Microsoft's now famed video game console Xbox 360. It further goes on to examine the various versions of the console and its own unique features.