The formulas used to calculate warranties are meant to cover manufacturing errors. Every once in a while, a defective unit will get past quality control in the factory due to human error. The warranty is designed to protect customers if they get one of these units.
The "Red Ring of Death" is likely from a design flaw, not a manufacturing error. A manufacturing error would not account for the abnormal failure rate. It is literally built into every unit that leaves the factory. The only long-term solution to a design flaw is a product recall.
Extending the warranty is just a temporary solution because Xbox 360s will continue get the "Red Ring of Death".
What makes you think Microsoft wasn't under intense media scrutiny? The gaming press has been following the anecdotal evidence for months and it seemed to get worse as time went by. Gaming press outlets like 1up.com had Xbox 360s used to review games fail. Many stories about the quality of the Xbox 360 hardware were discussed here at Slashdot.
Dean Takahashi tried to get a straight answer out of a Tom Holmdahl in an interview about the failure rate and was summarily stonewalled at every turn. The European Commissioner of Consumer Affairs, Meglena Kuneva, was looking for grounds to take legal action against Microsoft for the Xbox 360 scratching discs due to a design flaw.
The situation just got bad enough that Microsoft was finally forced to respond before the bad publicity reached the point of no return.
It has nothing to do with levels. Getting to the level cap in WoW is much easier than many MMORPGs on the market today.
The advantage comes from being able to get extremely rare drops with little to no effort. These drops end up flooding the economy. This causes the prices to go haywire and hurts anyone who gets these items legitimately.
The social aspect is one of the most important things for an MMORPG to be successful. It is one of the driving factors that keep people playing the games. Without a strong community, many players would quickly stop playing the game. As a result, developers like Blizzard need to keep the community happy.
Nobody cares if people cheat or use 3rd party tools on single player games. That's because the only person affected is a single player. It matters a lot in an MMO because the characters don't exist in a vacuum. They exist in a world populated by other characters that interact with each other. Cheaters can cause serious damage to a game economy by flooding the market with rare items causing rampant inflation. This directly hurts any players who did not cheat. When these problems arise, the community gets unhappy and the devloper must take action or risk having the entire game fall apart.
Rhythm Heaven for the GBA has a mini game where you time the button press to the beat set off fireworks. This game sounds like it's just an expanded version of this elementary idea in 3D. This game could get very repetitive without more depth beyond keeping to the beat.
DDR could be considered repetitive except for one important factor. You are actually moving your body around, adding a level of depth that simply pressing a button can't replace.
Rhythm games are heavily reliant on a unique interface these days. Guitar Hero 2 and Elite Beat Agents are prime examples. Lumines doesn't count since it's a puzzle game first and foremost.
Reggie is more than just a businessman, he's a gamer as well. He has done interviews where he tells personal stories about his experiences with videogames. This is what fans could sense from him from the very beginning. He may not be "hardcore" per se, but he does relate to gamers.
In the following interview, Reggie tells a story about how he played Zelda: A Link to the Past with his son. It's pretty entertaining.
http://videogames.aol.com/canvases/articles/_a/reg gie-fils-aime-interview/20060927165609990001
Nobody ever talked about the price of controllers until the Nintendo announced the prices for the Wiimote and nunchuck. I think the interview was just an attempt to capitalize on this issue to justify the cost of the SIXAXIS.
It really seems like Kaz Hirai is just trying to imply that Sony cares about cost to the consumer unlike the competition. It's a veiled backhand at the competition, distracts consumers from the cost of the PS3, and tries to build a sense of "we care about our customers".
No compression in games puts more pressure on the console to effectively stream all of the data. If the console can't keep up, expect long load times.
Despite being "next gen" some games are still forced to use loading screens. Blue Dragon is a prime example of how this problem still continues today.
Slashdot Mirror
The formulas used to calculate warranties are meant to cover manufacturing errors. Every once in a while, a defective unit will get past quality control in the factory due to human error. The warranty is designed to protect customers if they get one of these units.
The "Red Ring of Death" is likely from a design flaw, not a manufacturing error. A manufacturing error would not account for the abnormal failure rate. It is literally built into every unit that leaves the factory. The only long-term solution to a design flaw is a product recall.
Extending the warranty is just a temporary solution because Xbox 360s will continue get the "Red Ring of Death".
Is it too much to ask for a $499 console to stay functional during an entire console cycle when subjected to reasonable use?
What makes you think Microsoft wasn't under intense media scrutiny? The gaming press has been following the anecdotal evidence for months and it seemed to get worse as time went by. Gaming press outlets like 1up.com had Xbox 360s used to review games fail. Many stories about the quality of the Xbox 360 hardware were discussed here at Slashdot.
Dean Takahashi tried to get a straight answer out of a Tom Holmdahl in an interview about the failure rate and was summarily stonewalled at every turn. The European Commissioner of Consumer Affairs, Meglena Kuneva, was looking for grounds to take legal action against Microsoft for the Xbox 360 scratching discs due to a design flaw.
The situation just got bad enough that Microsoft was finally forced to respond before the bad publicity reached the point of no return.
It has nothing to do with levels. Getting to the level cap in WoW is much easier than many MMORPGs on the market today. The advantage comes from being able to get extremely rare drops with little to no effort. These drops end up flooding the economy. This causes the prices to go haywire and hurts anyone who gets these items legitimately.
The social aspect is one of the most important things for an MMORPG to be successful. It is one of the driving factors that keep people playing the games. Without a strong community, many players would quickly stop playing the game. As a result, developers like Blizzard need to keep the community happy. Nobody cares if people cheat or use 3rd party tools on single player games. That's because the only person affected is a single player. It matters a lot in an MMO because the characters don't exist in a vacuum. They exist in a world populated by other characters that interact with each other. Cheaters can cause serious damage to a game economy by flooding the market with rare items causing rampant inflation. This directly hurts any players who did not cheat. When these problems arise, the community gets unhappy and the devloper must take action or risk having the entire game fall apart.
Rhythm Heaven for the GBA has a mini game where you time the button press to the beat set off fireworks. This game sounds like it's just an expanded version of this elementary idea in 3D. This game could get very repetitive without more depth beyond keeping to the beat. DDR could be considered repetitive except for one important factor. You are actually moving your body around, adding a level of depth that simply pressing a button can't replace. Rhythm games are heavily reliant on a unique interface these days. Guitar Hero 2 and Elite Beat Agents are prime examples. Lumines doesn't count since it's a puzzle game first and foremost.
Reggie is more than just a businessman, he's a gamer as well. He has done interviews where he tells personal stories about his experiences with videogames. This is what fans could sense from him from the very beginning. He may not be "hardcore" per se, but he does relate to gamers. In the following interview, Reggie tells a story about how he played Zelda: A Link to the Past with his son. It's pretty entertaining. http://videogames.aol.com/canvases/articles/_a/reg gie-fils-aime-interview/20060927165609990001
Nobody ever talked about the price of controllers until the Nintendo announced the prices for the Wiimote and nunchuck. I think the interview was just an attempt to capitalize on this issue to justify the cost of the SIXAXIS. It really seems like Kaz Hirai is just trying to imply that Sony cares about cost to the consumer unlike the competition. It's a veiled backhand at the competition, distracts consumers from the cost of the PS3, and tries to build a sense of "we care about our customers".
No compression in games puts more pressure on the console to effectively stream all of the data. If the console can't keep up, expect long load times. Despite being "next gen" some games are still forced to use loading screens. Blue Dragon is a prime example of how this problem still continues today.