For many, their old Xbox 360 consoles are collecting dust in a drawer, but many people are still actively playing with them. Those people, however, are now being hit with a new "upsell" offer that they might not appreciate.

Microsoft has pushed out a new update for the venerable Xbox 360, which was first released in 2005 and isn't the "latest and greatest" thing since 2013. The primary fix resolves an issue that caused game box art and thumbnails on the home screen to appear stretched and distorted. This bug emerged following a major dashboard overhaul in July 2024, which was implemented shortly after the shutdown of the Xbox 360's online marketplace. That earlier update had removed now-defunct store menus, but inadvertently introduced the frustrating visual anomaly.

It wouldn't be Microsoft, however, if it didn't try to upsell you on something. The update embeds two large advertisements for the current-generation Xbox Series X and S consoles directly onto the 360's dashboard. One ad features an image of the new consoles, while the other displays a QR code with the accompanying text, "Experience next gen performance." Curiously, clicking on these ads does nothing. Instead, users must use a smartphone or other device to scan the QR code, which then directs them to the official Xbox website, where they are encouraged to upgrade to the latest hardware.

Microsoft is an expert at upselling you on new software or new hardware. This is famously a tactic that the company employs frequently with Windows 10 users as it tries to move them away from Windows 10 into Windows 11—either by means of an update, if it's supported, or by getting them to buy a new computer if it's not. This is, however, the first time I remember seeing Microsoft actually take an extremely abandoned console to inject ads on it. Microsoft did advertise the Xbox One consoles in the 360 at one point, but the 360 still had some relevancy. This is just taking a console that's two generations old to try and get people off it. At this point, most people using an Xbox 360 are either doing that on purpose to play older games (you can run Xbox 360 games on newer consoles, but for some, it's not the same) or simply can't afford anything better. The latter is especially true, seeing how the prices for the console were recently hiked considerably.

The Xbox 360 was hugely popular, and Microsoft didn't even pull the plug on its online store until last year. So it's weird to see an update arrive for this console at all. The update does have some actual bug fixes, and probably security fixes as well, so if you're still using the Xbox 360, you should still take the update. Just ignore the ads.

Source: The Verge