There was a large range of first and third party faceplates during the first few years, including “collector” plates, and one company even specialized in personalized faceplates. However, Microsoft found that no one was taking advantage of the service.
Microsoft global marketeer Albert Penello stated in an interview, ”The idea wasn’t bad. People used to put faceplates on their cell phones. Rewind five years, faceplates were what everybody wanted to do. It turned out nobody bought it. So (we stopped) making them. We killed that one pretty quickly.”
The main issue was that unlike cell phone faceplates, Xbox 360 faceplates were difficult to install, and when you had to send them back to be repaired, you had to remove them and put the original faceplates back on.
Some third party manufacturers still make old 360 faceplates, while sticker-based versions are available for the slimline 360’s, such as Gelaskins.
