My Xbox 360, purchased launch day November 4th, 2005, at exactly 43 months old died today of general hardware failure. The device and I conquered worlds together, collecting well over 20,000 Gamer Points over its lifespan. The evening before its death we were solving some of Orange Box: Portal’s challenge puzzles when suddenly it froze. I thought nothing of it, rebooted and carried on. But at about 1:30 this afternoon, it would not come out of a deep sleep and instead flashed me with three ominous red lights.

It is survived by several games and mourning family members.

I bragged in an earlier post that I was unaffected by the dreaded “Red Ring of Death” despite owning a launch console. Ironically just over two weeks later, here I am lamenting the loss of the very same console. It’s not a total loss – I get to keep the hard drive, and Microsoft has seen fit to still sell the Arcade consoles with no drive…