Console Shock Podcast 156: Xbox 360 20th Anniversary

About this episode

Trev and Stu celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Xbox 360, discussing its impact on the gaming industry and various related topics.

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! A little late to the party, but Trev and Stu finally celebrate the 20th birthday of the greatest Xbox of all time—the Xbox 360! Released in November 2005, the 360 pioneered a host of features that would become industry-standard: built-in online play, DLC, achievements, robust multimedia support, wireless controllers, a full digital marketplace, and much more. In this episode: How Xbox 360 changed the industry: From achievements to digital distribution, the features that set the template for modern consoles. Speculation on the upcoming Steam Machine’s potential high price Stu’s thoughts on Metroid Prime 4 Reacting to the early reveals of Xbox 360 hardware and launch-window games Why the Xbox 360 wireless controller was (and still is) legendary The Red Ring of Death — and how Xbox survived one of gaming’s biggest hardware crises Did the Kinect spark the decline of the Xbox brand? Surprisingly solid backward compatibility with the OG Xbox How digital downloads revived short, 2D-style games via Xbox Live Arcade Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of…

People in this episode

Hosts: Trev, Stu

Topics covered

• Xbox 360
• gaming industry changes
• Steam Machine speculation
• Metroid Prime 4
• Xbox 360 hardware
• Xbox 360 wireless controller

Keywords

• achievements
• digital distribution
• wireless controllers
• multimedia support

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Xbox 360 20th Anniversary, the Console Shockcast, Xbox, the Xbox 360, 360, Xbox 360, Steam Machine’s, Metroid Prime 4, The Red Ring of Death, Kinect

Books & works: Console Shock Podcast, Star Trek

More episodes of Console Shock, Retro and Modern Gaming Chat.

• Console Shock Podcast 161: Marchintosh 2026 · April 10, 2026 · 1h 8m
• Console Shock Podcast 160: Steam Machine vs Xbox ‘Project Helix’ · March 18, 2026 · 1h 2m
• Console Shock Podcast 159: What we’ve been playing · February 27, 2026 · 1h 5m
• Console Shock Podcast 158: Steam Deck 2 Wishlist · February 12, 2026 · 1h 5m
• Console Shock Podcast 157: End of year and 2026 catch-up! · January 17, 2026 · 1h 12m
• Console Shock Podcast 155: Valve Steam Machine · November 14, 2025 · 1h 3m