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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."
In b4 fanboi console war shitstorm...
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.
A World in a Grain of Sand / Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Infinity in the Palm of your Hand / And Eternity in an Hour.
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!
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
Problem is, most people buy Halo, and nothing else. The XBox's game library is absolutely miserable, and always has been.
We haven't had a console that had a good launch library that also maintained a good library for the duration of its lifespan since the N64. The PS2 eventually got a lot of good titles, but that took a few years. The XBox never really got that many titles that were worth having...
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
The problem is nobody wants a 360.
They sit around unused. Now a bunch of "I WANT MY SHOOTING GAME WII SUCKS" idiots jump for 360s, but at the end of the day, you can play these games at "high definition" resolutions with pretty much any entry-level PC equipped with a good video card. So why buy the 360? So you can give microsoft money for the software that you could buy much cheaper later?
It must be rough on the poor little Xbots after Zonk got kick off Slashdot. No more daily barrages of anti-Sony/PS3/BluRay stories.
What a bunch of fucking losers. No one wants your piece of shit gimped and wimpy console. Keep buying replacement 360 retards, maybe you'll be able to barely outsell the first Xbox marketplace flop.