A History of the Xbox Red Ring of Death Fiasco

VentureBeat has a lengthy story about the situation surrounding the Xbox 360's "Red Ring of Death." It starts with the developmental phases for the 360, looks at the marketing decisions that drove Microsoft to aim for a release ahead of the PS3, and talks with sources and engineers within Microsoft about what could have been done to prevent the problems. Quoting: "Leading up to the launch in the fall of 2005, the number of defective units would soon grow to tens of thousands. Any other consumer electronics company would likely have postponed a launch with such low yields. But Microsoft had more money in the bank than anyone else. The decision this time would fall to Bach and Moore. The costs of launching with low yields -- where you take big losses on every product sold -- could bankrupt other companies. But Microsoft could afford to do so. Microsoft did delay the launch date from October until November. But some inside the company still believed returns would be out of control."

Comments

Right on time ... for the price cut!

[antek9]

Maybe not in time for you, but seeing that another price cut for the 360 models is imminent, could be that an editor at Slashdot thinks that warning potential buyers is a Good Thing (TM), at last.

that's Microsoft

[ILuvRamen]

It's kinda like their software. They know it doesn't work and has glitches and will crash and they release it anyway. I'd list examples but it's basically all software they've ever written. When people made games for the N64 there was no patching. They tested it until it was basically perfect and then released it because a crash glitch was unacceptable. These days companies like Microsoft can change it from beta to release whenever they feel like it's just barely stable enough to work most of the time. It's all because they want their money now. Okay, I gotta list one example. Windows ME!