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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."
I remember reading the stories back in 2000/2001 when people first found out about the Xbox. It was taken as a given that it was only a few months from launch that Microsoft would take over the console market.
"Microsoft has billions!"
"Gates always gets what he wants!"
"Microsoft will just buy every developer and make them work on the Xbox!"
and a million similar claims were made.
It is shocking to look back over the 7 year long train wreck that the Xbox turnd out to be. Some 7 billion dollars has been wasted on so little to show for their efforts and now with the 360 they have taken on the reputation of having created the worst console in the history of gaming.
Microsoft really needs to wake up and get back to supporting the troubled PC gaming market. All those billions wasted on the Xbox could have done wonders for PC gaming. PC gaming was one of the major factors that made Microsoft OSes so popular with IT guys over the past twenty years.
I'm sorry, did you say something? Whatever it was, it was obscured by this:
McCain/Palin '08. Now THAT's hope and change!
No pussy for YOU!
No one gives a shit about the Xbox 360 getting marked down. The only people buying 360s are pathetic 360 owners buying yet another console with the belief that 'these are supposed to be the good ones'.
The 360 is the single greatest console fiasco in the history of the gaming world. There is always going to be interest in how Microsoft could have made such a stinking pile of garbage console.
Game selection? What games can be directly attributed to XBOX? Gaylo.... I mean Halo? Yea that's a real explosion there! Really, what games has X-BOX popularized that was exclusive? For most of the original X-BOX's run games usually got ported after PS2 and Gamecube already had them. I loved what X-BOX brought to the table each time, but really, It has never really had a killer app, regardless of how much Halo was marketed and pushed to no end. In the end, it had really nothing new to offer in a gaming experience.
>>>The Wii is for casual gaming, the XBox and PS are for hardcore gaming
If you define "hardcore" as "boring and overly complicated" then you hit it in one. I don't own any of these consoles, but I am leaning towards Wii because it returns gaming to its primary purpose - fun. It's like a return to the classic-era Nintendo, Sega, and Atari consoles, and it's probably the reason Wii rose to #1 worldwide.
I don't find much fun in reading esoteric manuals & memorizing complicated commands (as is often the case with my recent PS2 purchases) (especially when those games revolve around non-real fantasy junk). Studying a bunch of manuals and key commands feels more like MY DAY JOB rather than a fun diversion. I'll take the "twitch" adrenaline-filled Wii game instead.
If that makes me "casual" in your eyes, so be it.
Troy (gamer since 1977)
The government is not your daddy. Its purpose is not to raid middle-class neighbors' wallets and give it to you.
That's not how it worked at all. Microsoft wouldn't have been able to survive selling it's products at a loss for years, let alone making billions of dollars doing it. They got where they are with a combination of other questionable tactics, and targeting the most open computing platform (the IBM-compatible) with software that was "good enough". Furthermore, I don't consider XP and Vista to be outrageously priced either, unless your one of the types that thinks all software should be free.