Happy 10th birthday, Xbox 360!

Microsoft’s most successful home console just turned 10.

Launched on November 22, 2005, the Xbox 360 had a busy decade. The system brought multiplayer gaming to the forefront of the console world, demonstrated that game systems could do a lot more than play games, sucked us in with its addictive Achievements, and hosted some of the biggest games in the industry's history.

But it didn't get off to a great start.

Rather than unveiling the system at a game industry trade show or news conference, Microsoft opted to debut the Xbox 360 on MTV in a show hosted by Elijah Wood. Even by 2005 standards, it was a painful thing to watch. It featured odd cameos from The Killers, the Pimp My Ride crew, and Lil' Jon. A model strutted through the crowd with a courier bag before plopping the system on a pedestal. Wood uttered the phrase "uber-gamers" and made shadow puppets in front of Xbox 360 artwork.

Things got worse once the system was in the wild. The Xbox 360’s launch lineup was uninspired, and the infamous "Red Ring of Death" rendered thousands of consoles useless, forcing Microsoft to repair units free of charge.

"I calculated with my finance team [a cost of] $1.15 billion," Peter Moore, who ran the Xbox division at the time, told Gamespot. "I ... sat in front of Steve [Ballmer, then CEO of Microsoft], who I love to death, but he can be an intimidating human being. And Steve said, 'OK, talk me through this.' "I said, 'If we don't do this, this brand is dead.'"

Over time, though, the Xbox 360 began to thrive. Led by huge exclusive franchises like Halo, Gears of War, Fable and Forza, the software lineup soon found its groove. Valve's vaunted shooters Left 4 Dead and The Orange Box bypassed the PlayStation 3 and called the 360 home. Games like Dance Central made the Kinect peripheral cool (for a while, at least). Beyond exclusives, Microsoft also worked with third-party publishers to get first dibs on DLC for the biggest games of the time, including Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto, further luring gamers to the system.

Some of the system’s biggest contributions had more to do with how you play games rather than the games themseves. The introduction of Achievements and Gamerscores, essentially adding rewards (and bragging rights) for playing, was a master stroke that would be emulated by both Sony and Apple.

For many, it was Xbox Live that made the Xbox 360 so appealing. While Microsoft had dabbled in online play with the original Xbox, the 360 was a truly connected machine, making it easy to find your friends online, invite them to join you in a game, and voice chat with them as you played.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of the Xbox 360, though, had nothing to do with gaming at all. For decades, console manufacturers had been positioning their systems as living room Trojan Horses: Gamers would hook them up to play games, but the real shelf life would be found in other entertainment capabilities. The Xbox 360 was the first to really embody that trend, becoming usable not only by gamers, but by non-gaming members of the family.

It started with an exclusive deal with Netflix, which allowed Xbox Live subscribers to freely watch movies from the then-burgeoning streaming service. Other services, including Hulu, YouTube, UFC, and MLB.tv later became available. The Xbox Music service offered an unlimited music streaming option in a pre-Spotify world. Towards the end of the console's time in the spotlight, cable services, including AT&T Uverse, offered set-top box functionality via the system, while others, such as Xfinity and Verizon FiOS, tied into the Xbox 360 with their on-demand services.

As of June 2014, the Xbox 360 had sold 84 million units worldwide, good enough to make it the sixth best-selling game system ever (fourth if you don't count handhelds). While it's no longer discussed at press conferences and publishers are slowly dropping the system from new releases of key franchises, it remains a consistent source of revenue for Microsoft. (Publisher support is expected to continue at least through next year.)

Though it wasn't their first, the Xbox 360 was the system that made Microsoft a real player in the video game space. The original Xbox had plenty to crow about, but it often felt like an experiment as the company worked its way through unfamiliar industry (and was outsold 5 to 1 by the unstoppable PlayStation 2). With the 360, Microsoft matured, got a handle on what gamers wanted, and learned how to move beyond what could have been crippling mistakes.

Those are lessons that it's still implementing today, and while the Xbox One is currently in the rearview mirror of the PlayStation 4, it's outpacing the Xbox 360's early sales, perhaps a sign that once again Microsoft doesn't plan to let a bad start ruin its overall run.

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