The truth about the Xbox 360.

[BizioEE]

A hurried launch, a desire to win the console war and design compromises lay behind the \'red ring of death\' debacle that cost Microsoft $1.15bn.

The infamous Xbox 360 "red ring of death" (indicating a failed unit) has caused Microsoft - and its customers - untold pain in the three years since the console\'s launch in 2005, and cost it $1.15bn (£738m) last year. Microsoft has never said publicly why the console was plagued with faults: it seems that poor production quality was at the heart of the failures - an all-round problem with no single cause except impatience on the company\'s part as it tried to become the leader in videogame consoles.

It was an ambitious attack. Microsoft\'s engineers started working on the Xbox 360 at least a year after Sony\'s engineers began work on the PlayStation 3, yet wound up shipping a year earlier. With the first Xbox, the company lost $3.7bn (£2.3bn) over four years, mostly because costs of the box - particularly its hard drive - were too high. Bill Gates didn\'t really care about the losses; that was simply the ante for getting into an exciting new business. But Steve Ballmer, who took over from Gates as chief executive during the first generation, really wanted the Xbox business to be profitable second time around.

Software-hearted

Even though early testing showed that production machines had flaws, Microsoft didn\'t delay the launch because it believed the quality problems would subside. "They got enamored with the idea of the Microsoft army rolling everything out at the same time," says one source. "Their thinking shows that they are a software company at heart," says one veteran manufacturing executive. "They put something out and figure they can fix it with the next patch or come up with a bug fix."

In the hurried design process, Microsoft decided late to add a hard disk drive, and then wireless controllers. The hard drive blocked airflow on one side of the machine; the wireless modules had to have enough space to avoid electrical interference. The console shell was poked full of holes to ensure airflow. In the end, the machine was a series of compromises.

"It turned out in the end that this was all going too far, too fast," says a source. "They were adding too many features after things were locked down. That incremental feature adding just made it fragile."

Some of the defects were latent, potentially not showing up for some time after the machine was used. Up to 50% of all defects can be latent. And production yields - the number of machines coming off the production lines that passed testing - were low. In August 2005, the machines\' aggregate defect rate - from Microsoft\'s contract manufacturers Flextronics and Wistron, in their factories in China - was allegedly just 68%.

In a memo dated August 30 2005, the team reported overheating graphics chips, cracking heat sinks, cosmetic issues with the hard disk and the front of the box, underperforming graphics memory chips from Infineon (now Qimonda), a problem with the DVD drive - and more. At that point, the contract manufacturers were behind schedule and had only built hundreds of units when they were supposed to be making thousands every week.

"There were so many problems, you didn\'t know what was wrong," says a source. "The [test engineers] didn\'t have enough time to get up and running." Shutting down production to debug everything properly might have delayed the launch in Europe or Japan.

Microsoft responded to this story (in full at Venturebeat.com) with a statement that it has already acknowledged an "unacceptable number of repairs" to Xbox 360 consoles and had responded to the hardware failures with a free replacement program. "This topic has already been covered extensively in the media," the statement said. "This new story repeats old information, and contains rumors and innuendo from anonymous sources, attempting to create a new sensational angle, and is highly irresponsible."

I have tried to verify the facts. Microsoft has never disclosed its actual return rates. But according to data obtained by VentureBeat, the total number of returns climbed above 1.2m consoles early last year. That is a huge figure, considering Microsoft had only shipped 11.6m consoles to stores by the time of the writeoff in mid-2007.

The warning signs were present even before Microsoft shipped any machines. In August 2005, as Microsoft was gearing up production, an engineer said: "Stop. You have to shut down the line." When production results are really off-kilter, stopping a line and tracing a problem back to its roots is the answer. But in this case, the decision was made to carry on.

Nobody listened to that engineer, apparently because console launches are always hurried affairs. Yields generally start low. As the manufacturers analyse data and tighten controls on each assembly step, they learn how to drive the yields up.

On November 22 2005, the Xbox 360 went on sale. Consumers could run graphically beautiful games on high-definition TVs. But machines started failing almost immediately. At the time, the company said it had received "isolated reports" of console failures and that returns were within the normal range.

According to the Consumer Electronics Association, the average return rate for products where the consumer gets their money back is about 2%. Microsoft\'s internal data assumed that in the long term 6% or 7% of the consoles would be defective before shipping into the market - a yield of 94% or 93%. The rate of return was expected to be low as well. But even after 2005, Microsoft struggled to ship enough units. The yield was typically only around 70% - far short of the target - until May 2007.

Problems denied

By the end of March 2006, Microsoft said it had shipped more than 3.3m consoles to retailers. But there was a growing "bone pile" of more than 500,000 defective consoles in a warehouse at Wistron and a repair centre in Texas - either duds off the factory line or returned boxes, according to sources. Production yield was climbing, but far too slowly. Meantime, Microsoft stood by its statement that returns were within "normal rates".

The denial of widespread problems infuriated customers such as Chris Szarek, who has had five bad consoles: he felt Microsoft was stonewalling. But as production ramped, Microsoft sent replacement units out more quickly and dealt with those who were unhappy about the shortage. In September 2006 Microsoft conceded that the quality of the consoles made during 2005 wasn\'t as high as it expected and said that it would extend the policy of free replacement for consoles made during 2005, even though the warranties had expired. But what was actually wrong with the machines? In July 2007 Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft\'s entertainment and devices division, said of the launch that "we were confident the product was ready. We did a lot of testing. The problem that shows up with the three red lights on the console is a complex interaction with some very complex parts."

There was no single reason for the failures - though many could be blamed on the graphics chip, which could overheat so much it warped the motherboard. This stressed bad solder joints, causing them to fail early in the machine\'s life - and the console was also one of the first products that had to meet new environmental standards in Europe prohibiting the use of lead in solder. Paul Wang, a Microsoft test engineer on the Xbox 360, said in a speech in 2007 that lead-free solder created a lot of problems.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/nov/13/xbox-truth


Thoughts ?

Thoughts ?

Just enjoy your beloved ps3. It\'s a great system, honestly. Even if the 360 is just as great.

[GmanJoe]

My thoughts :

360 sucks.

[Viper_Fujax]

lol..even if your 360 craps out right now, you can get a replacement arcade one and use your harddrive. that\'s only 200 bucks.

i spent 400 replacing ps2\'s through its lifetime.

just again..bizio being bizio by trying to justify why he bought a ps3 over a 360

do yourself a favor. lose the fanboyism, buy both consoles, and enjoy all the games. or just enjoy your ps3 and stop worrying about the 360 if you hate it so much. problem solved

[BizioEE]

Obviously you didn\'t read the article as many others here, you didn\'t get the point and obviously you don\'t know I have a 360 Elite.

Do a favour to yourself, read the articles and try to understand.  
Don\'t get so offended...

[BizioEE]

My thoughts :

360 sucks.

SnoopyJoe is the only one who understands the articles I post

just irony, I know XBox360 is a good console, games speaking.

[Viper_Fujax]

way too long for something i dont care about since i already own one

and the fact you own one and still are on this is beyond me. you payed them your money..they win

Obviously you didn\'t read the article as many others here, you didn\'t get the point and obviously you don\'t know I have a 360 Elite.

Do a favour to yourself, read the articles and try to understand.  
Don\'t get so offended...

I read the article, but that\'s irrelevant... it\'s the fact that you are obviously biased towards the ps3, but trying to come off as neutral. Just be honest with yourself. We have no problem with you favouring the ps3, you shouldn\'t either. What annoys me is the fact that you have to go out of your way to justify your position and then act as though you\'re being neutral.

Just say it: "I\'m a ps3 fanboy"

it\'s okay... really.

[BizioEE]

I read the article, but that\'s irrelevant... it\'s the fact that you are obviously biased towards the ps3, but trying to come off as neutral. Just be honest with yourself. We have no problem with you favouring the ps3, you shouldn\'t either. What annoys me is the fact that you have to go out of your way to justify your position and then act as though you\'re being neutral.

Just say it: "I\'m a ps3 fanboy"

it\'s okay... really.

never tried to come neutral, I prefer PS3 a lot and since I got it I stopped buying games for XBox360.

Then you said you read the article but that\'s irrelevant...I think it\'s a very BAD thing for MS.  Call me fanboy as you want.

I had to send my 360 in three times for repair, each time took about 2 weeks.

The 4th time it broke I just gave up and bought a ps3.

I loved my 360, and I wish I had one for GOW2 and the like... I just got sick of every other month being without a system for 2 weeks because it broke.. Again.

[Viper_Fujax]

I had to send my 360 in three times for repair, each time took about 2 weeks.

The 4th time it broke I just gave up and bought a ps3.

I loved my 360, and I wish I had one for GOW2 and the like... I just got sick of every other month being without a system for 2 weeks because it broke.. Again.

that\'s definitly a reason i got a ps3. 1) blu ray 2) killzone/mgs 3) incase my 360 breaks down

been lucky with the 360 so far. had one break down but the one i got back from them was one made after Aug 2007 (supposedly when they fixed the problems) and not a refurb

It has been common knowledge that the 360 has had reliability issues for quite some time.  Why are we rehashing this now?  


Bizio you should give your Elite to someone that\'ll actually play it and enjoy it.  I\'m sure you can find someone that wants the more popular console.

[clips]

Ive been thinking about gettin\' my son a 360 for x-mas...is the 360 still having the ring of death issues?

*edit* nevermind..i guess it still is...(I skimmed over the article)

[BizioEE]

It has been common knowledge that the 360 has had reliability issues for quite some time.  Why are we rehashing this now?  


Bizio you should give your Elite to someone that\'ll actually play it and enjoy it.  I\'m sure you can find someone that wants the more popular console.

more popular only in America; in Japan it\'s going really bad and PS3 is selling more in Europe(more popular), with a higher world-wide selling rate since both launched;
Anyway, I\'m keeping 360, and after Resistance2 I may consider gears2.

more popular only in America; in Japan it\'s going really bad and PS3 is selling more in Europe(more popular), with a higher world-wide selling rate since both launched;
Anyway, I\'m keeping 360, and after Resistance2 I may consider gears2.

There has still been more 360\'s sold than PS3\'s.  Anyway, I only said the popularity comment to get under your fanboy skin.  Of course you tried to spin the numbers in favor of the PS3...


Oh, and I don\'t need your explanation to me that after "insert PS3 game" I may have time for "insert 360 game".