Originally featured as a minigame in Project Gotham, this 80s-style twin-stick shooter was rebuilt as a standalone digital-only release, attracting a huge new fanbase. Fast, frenetic and super stylish, with lovely vector visuals, it was the game that first showed the potential of Xbox Live Arcade. A time-sink of epic proportions The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (screenshot from the 2025 remake) Tens of millions of hours must have been spent in this foundational text of open-world role-playing games - one of the first video games where you really could go where you wanted and do pretty much as you pleased. Riding around Cyrodiil on horseback, taking in its gleaming city and backwater towns, it was so easy to get drawn into unexpected shenanigans that closing the story's threatening hell-gates became a distant second priority. The most addictive version of the classic card game Uno on Xbox 360 Look - don't @ us - Uno was one of most important Xbox 360 games.

Halo 5 was launched in 2015 and Xbox's star was already on the wane. Halo 5 was launched in 2015 and Xbox's star was already on the wane. Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link.

The Xbox 360 digital store is the latest to go offline, following the Wii U and 3DS store shutdown in March. It shut down on Monday, taking about 220 games with it, according to analysis by Video Games Chronicle. Preservation activists at the Video Game History Foundation even made a funeral cake. Microsoft is definitely the best of the major companies when it comes to backwards compatibility and game preservation – despite those 220 lost games, a huge percentage of the Xbox 360's back catalogue can still legally be played on later consoles. And it is remarkable that the Xbox 360 Marketplace lasted almost 20 years (the console was released in late 2005). It wasn't the first digital store on a console, but it was the first one I ever used, and I assume the same was true for a lot of British players – the Xbox 360 was the most popular console of its generation in this country.

A few days ago, I was tidying my home office – which more closely resembles a video game arcade recently hit by a tornado – when I found a long-lost piece of technology in the bottom drawer of my filing cabinet. It was an old Xbox 360, the Elite model – black, heavy, ungainly, impossibly retro. Out of curiosity, I hauled it out, found a controller and power cable and switched it on. I knew immediately what I wanted to look for, but I was also apprehensive: I didn't know how I'd feel if Minecraft was still there – or worse, if it wasn't. Minecraft, you see, is more than just a game for me.

Microsoft's Xbox video game console celebrates an important milestone this month. On Monday, the Xbox marks its 20th anniversary since launching in 2001. Fans of the console likely recall then Microsoft CEO Bill Gates appearing on stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with a rising star in the WWE, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (maybe you've heard of him). On Monday, Microsoft commemorated the anniversary with a special live stream. There are also several items available for purchase to honor the anniversary, including this special Gucci bundle for $10,000.

With the latest and greatest new PlayStation and Xbox consoles in high demand, the video game makers at Nintendo surely must be ready to dump its nearly five-year-old Switch game system, right? Sure, Sony and Microsoft's new systems, released in November 2020, are lusted after and still nearly impossible to find on store shelves. But the Nintendo Switch is not always assured to be in stock, either. The Nintendo Switch has been the top-selling video game console in the U.S. for the past 30 months – yeah, you read that right, the leading unit seller for 2½ years – according to research firm The NPD Group. That surpasses the previous longest streak (21 months) held by the Xbox 360 having from August 2011 through April 2013, according to NPD. 'We need to continue to innovate':How charities are using NFTs as a way to fundraise The Nintendo Switch may not be as powerful as the newer Xbox Series X and PS5 consoles, which play games in 4K and eventually could display 8K games.

If you need something to watch this weekend that isn't the latest episode of WandaVision, take a virtual vacation with these tour videos of Super Nintendo World. While the park isn't officially open yet, fans are already checking out the rides and cafes and have made videos of the experience for everyone who can't get inside. A port of Goldeneye 007 for Xbox 360 never saw the light of day due to licensing issues, but a leaked ROM means you can now play it on PC or just watch a video of someone else playing. According to a source with "direct knowledge" of the device, The Information reports Apple's mixed-reality headset will contain more than a dozen cameras for tracking movement and showing real-world video to the person wearing it. It apparently also includes two 8K displays, giving it an effective resolution that would far outstrip anything currently on the market.

You probably already have your holiday shopping taken care of and are already looking at a stack of confirmed delivery tracking numbers. But if, say, a friend of yours is still in need of last-minute shopping information, or you just want to double check what's out there, the Engadget Holiday Gift Guides for 2020 are here to help. Zoom has posted update notes for a version of its video chat client that should be available later today. If you have one of Apple's new M1-powered Macs, you'll want to keep an eye out because this update brings the first version with native support for Apple Silicon. There's no version number listed yet, but once it's available, you'll be able to get it with a new installer from the Zoom download page.

In the immortal words of Arthur the Aardvark, "Havin' fun isn't hard, when you've got a library card!" But how much fun can you really have with a library card? Turns out, more than I expected. Libraries across America are adding video games to their collections available for checkout. Gamers with an incessant appetite for new experiences or anyone looking to play video games for free should contact their local library to see if they have a collection.

With new video game consoles out this week, Microsoft and Sony are decades-long incumbents in the industry. More than 25 years ago, Sony unleashed its first PlayStation onto the scene, barging into a marketplace dominated by Nintendo and, to a lesser extent, Sega. And seven years later, Microsoft brought forth its Xbox. Whether you are voting with your wallet this holiday season for a new Xbox Series X or S, or PlayStation 5, you can't argue these two tech giants have made countless contributions to advance video gaming over the years. Sony and Microsoft also expanded the audience.