Red Ring Of Death More Common Than Chicken Pox
I am currently on Xbox 360 number three and I have no illusions that it will be around forever. Face it, Microsoft messed up big time in designing their current console. What began as anecdotal failures culminated in a massive cluster-frak from Microsoft and the phrase "red ring of death" gained a spot in gamer culture forever. Now Dean Takahashi at Venture Beat has written up a massive article on the subject that is required reading for anyone even remotely interested in the business behind the current generation of game consoles. An excerpt:
Microsoft knew it had flawed machines, but it did not delay its launch because it believed the quality problems would subside over time. With each new machine, the company figured it would ride the "learning curve," or continuously improve its production. Even though Microsoft's leaders knew their quality wasn't top notch, they did not ensure that resources were in place to handle returns and quickly debug bad consoles. There were plenty of warning signs, but the company chose to ignore them. The different parts of the business weren't aligned.
The article states that the failure rate of the Xbox 360 reached 68%, meaning if you have one, more likely than not it'll catch the RROD disease. As a consumer it grates my cheese that when my system breaks and I get a replacement sent to me, chance are I'll be going through the same thing a few months later (though from number two to number three only three weeks had passed).
Read the full article and decide if this has been blown out of proportion, or if the 360 truly was a victim of Microsoft's desire to be first. Will we see a backlash against future systems or is their remarkable library of software making up for the hardware hiccup?
Xbox 360 defects: an inside history of Microsoft's video game console woes [VentureBeat]
TheDoctor
Posted to Video Games on 8 September 2008
· Comments (9)
Other stuff like this: microsoft, red ring of death, xbox 360
Seriously, the RROD issues have pretty much guaranteed that no matter how low the price gets on the 360... I'm not buying one!
I know there are lucky people out there. My little brother's Day 1 system is still running strong. I also know people going through 3+ units and now they're afraid to try to use the thing.
I'm on my third 360 as well. First RROD, then and terrible DVD skiping problem. The most frustrating part is the wait of 3-4 week with no console. I bought a PS3 to play for when my 360 (inevatably) breaks down again.
I'm not a Gator, er, Microsoft hater. I love my Zune. Love my pc and my visa and I know they can do better. It just makes me sad to see them fall so they can be first out of the gate...
What's annoying is all of the early adopter consumers who paid the privilege of being "quality testers" for Microsoft. MS should be paying those people the value of their first 360 in compensation of their time.
I only barely bought mine, used, about four months ago, and I'm taking pains to keep it nice and cool. Just in case. Because I don't want to join the Red Ring crowd.
As much as I hate my 360 breaking down (I buy multiplatform games on PS3 for that very reason) I still think there are some really great games that make the system must own. Still all this talk is making me worry that mine is on its way out, I played it nonstop this weekend to finish Infinite Undiscovery.
To be honest, this is half the reason I sold my 360.
The 360 has some great titles, but frankly I am not the kind of consumer who thinks a generous warranty is an acceptable excuse for a ridiculously unreliable product. I was literally the only person I knew who owned a 360 who had not had problems with it, and I wanted to get out while the getting was good. Sold it and bought a PS3 and honestly haven't looked back.
I think what bothers me more is that what people refer to as the "ring of death" is not a ring. They're quadrants, parts of a circle - but the whole ring isn't lit up (in the most common situation, anyway).
Anyway, regarding the Xbox 360's hardware failures, I definitely share the sentiment that Microsoft did a terrible job ensuring they were putting out a product of quality. It's a great console, but the hardware failure rates are simply embarrassing. What did my first Xbox 360 in was a problem where I could be playing a game (any game, disc based or download) and after a few minutes of play the system would suddenly lock up, and either the screen would go black, or the picture would be frozen and I'd have to manually power the system down. No problems with my replacement console so far, aside from one or two erroneous disc read errors... Which is actually what I had to send my original Xbox in for (which cost a ridiculous amount to have shipped and repaired because it was no longer under warranty - would have made more sense to just buy a used one at that point.)
I'm on my third 360. The process of going through my second replacement was hellish, involving many phone calls and a total of three months because they lost my console, sent it to the wrong address and then forgot to include the power adapter when it finally did arrive at my house. That Microsoft would release such unreliable hardware has permanently destroyed my trust in them, and I never want to buy anything from them again.
update to my previous comment:
When I sent it my last 360 (at the time of my first comment) I sent a nasty leter saying third xbox...blah blah blah...extremely disappointed...blah blah blah...love my Zune...blah blah blah...mostly happy with my microsoft products...blah blah blah
Anyway. I got it back in LESS THAN A WEEK (new console) with a apology letter and a month free of xbox live. Now I'm not sure if this is commonplace since but at the time I sent it in the first time, I had to wait 4 weeks with crap to show for it. One month isn't much but I did get it back incredibly fast and it's better than nothing.
Anybody else with a similar experience?
Turnover for my broken console was 11 days, picked up exactly when specified, and delivered 3 days earlier than anticipated, with a free month of Xbox live.
I'm satisfied with the quality of customer service, but that doesn't detract from what shouldn't have broken in the first place.
Chalk it up to experience and move on I would imagine is MS's attitude.