It's almost time for the 20th anniversary of the Xbox 360! We'll be celebrating that milestone this Saturday (November 22nd), and in the meantime we thought we'd look back two decades to see what we miss about the 360 era in 2025.
While Xbox has grown and evolved in so many great ways since 2005, there are inevitibly some things that we're nostalgic about from the Xbox 360 generation, a few of which were very much a product of their time. Nevertheless, we still miss them!
So, let's take a look at a few things we personally miss about the Xbox 360 era here at Pure Xbox HQ, and we'd love for you to add to the list in the comments section below. Let's go...
1. The Blades Dashboard (And The Rest!)
Much has been made about how great the Blades dashboard was back in the early Xbox 360 days — a minimalistic UI that we've never seen since, but has become the all-time favourite dashboard of many Xbox fans over the past 24 years. The simple concept of snapping between different screens by going from left-to-right proved extremely popular back at launch in 2005, and some would argue that dashboards have become too convoluted since then.
And of course, let's not forget about all the other classic dashboards from the Xbox 360 era! We saw multiple major design changes over the course of that generation from a UI standpoint, and there are fanbases for each of them. We're not so keen on the one that exists today, but everything else holds a ton of nostalgia here in 2025.
2. Games That Didn't Require Installs & Forced Downloads
It was inevitable that Xbox games would one day become too large to fit on discs and require forced downloads over the internet instead, and that became commonplace immediately after the Xbox 360 era. It was the Xbox One (and PS4) that introduced this concept of installing games to a drive before you could play them, and updates started to become much more regular during this generation as well, which ultimately left us with a lot more downloading to do on a constant basis.
We don't want to complain too much about updates — after all, it's amazing that developers are able to continually improve their games post-launch these days — but there's also something very freeing about booting up an Xbox 360, putting in the disc, and knowing that you can just start playing without any interference. Very rarely are you forced to update anything either (even when online), so you can just skip the downloads and start playing with no fuss.
3. A Bunch Of Cool Limited Edition Consoles
We've seen a lot of custom consoles during the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S era, but the vast majority have been given away in sweepstakes instead of actually being made available to buy. The Halo Infinite Xbox Series X is pretty much the only exception to the rule, and although it's a thing of beauty, we wish there had been more over the years.
Go back to the Xbox 360 era, and there were at least a decent number of gorgeous limited edition consoles that we could all get our hands on. The one that sticks out to us is the R2-D2 variant based on Kinect Star Wars, but who could forget the Gears of War 3 LE Xbox 360 either, as well as the multiple versions centered around the Halo and Call of Duty series'. Let's hope the next generation of Xbox brings us even more of these to open our wallets for!
4. The Ability To Add Your Own Custom Music
Back in the Xbox 360 era, it was possible to add your own music to the console in a variety of ways (including via CD rips), and then either use it in a Spotify-like fashion to listen while you played games, or implement it into certain titles where applicable. For example, I personally spent tens of hours customising the old EA Sports NHL games to play certain music during the breaks-in-play, and this is a feature that unfortunately disappeared with the arrival of the Xbox One in 2013.
Many have suggested that due to the likes of Spotify, we don't need a feature like this anymore - but I personally beg to differ. It's much more immersive being able to experience in-game music the way it's intended (rather than having to queue up a Spotify track), and it's one of the reasons I regularly go back to my Xbox 360 still in 2025.
5. Game Chat Being More Active (When It Wasn't Toxic)
It's amazing to think there was once a time when Party Chat didn't exist on Xbox. Before that, we were limited to just private chatting with a single person, or we could jump into an online game and speak with everyone in that lobby. As a result, game chat was much more active back in the early Xbox 360 era, and it was very common to run into a lot of players who had their mics plugged in and actively wanted to talk with people.
The big downside to this is that online multiplayer was still a toxic place back in 2005, and you were just as likely (if not more likely) to have a bad experience as you would a good experience. On those rare occasions where you'd make friends and have a laugh though, it not only made for some memorable moments, but also made you feel like part of a community. It's just a shame so many have given up due to toxicity over the years.
6. Free Demos Still Feeling Like A Big Deal
Remember when demos really mattered? There was a time when demo discs were all the rage, including in the original Xbox era, and they were still a big deal in the Xbox 360 era - albeit mainly via online downloads rather than discs. There are so many classic Xbox 360 games that many of us will have first tried via their demos, and this was also the generation of multiplayer demos, allowing us all to jump into online matches long before the concept of free-to-play or online betas became a regular thing.
Demos still exist on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, of course, and Microsoft is still trying to promote them with regular Demo Events, but they've inevitibly been dragged into the background considering how many "free" titles can be installed at any one time these days. That's a shame, as I personally wouldn't have discovered the likes of Split/Second, Lost Planet, Brutal Legend and a whole bunch of other great Xbox 360 titles without them.
7. Playing Those Incredible Games For The First Time
How can we talk about the Xbox 360 without discussing its lineup of games?! While the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S generations have brought us a treasure trove worth of incredible titles, people are still enthusing about how great the Xbox 360's lineup was - Halo, Gears of War, Mass Effect, Left 4 Dead, GTA 4, BioShock, Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption, Portal 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Call of Duty 4: MW... we could go on and on!
The best bit is that all of the aformentioned Xbox 360 classics can be played on modern consoles thanks to backwards compatibility, so we can continue to enjoy this incredible selection for years to come. It's not that we miss the games themselves, but rather the memories of playing them for the first time and being treated to a constant stream of unbelievable gaming experiences. The hype was real - this was an amazing time to be an Xbox fan!
So, there we go! Those are seven things we miss about the Xbox 360 era in 2025, and let's just clarify that we love so many things about the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S eras as well - we're not ragging on those by any means!
The focus is simply on the Xbox 360 this week due to its 20th anniversary, so come and tell us in the comments below whether we've missed something out! We want the things that you personally miss about the Xbox 360 era below.