Xbox 360, the RROD, and why it happened at all

[UnSub]

The 'inside' story on how MS launched the Xbox 360 when they knew it was not up to standard

I'm still buying one 

[UnSub]

My favourite bit:

In the case of Dead Rising, the game came with a bug fix that actually crippled some consoles.

The zombie game actually killed consoles. Awesome. 

[NiX]

Oh, how convenient, he's writing a book about it.

[Special J]

In the case of Dead Rising, the game came with a bug fix that actually crippled some consoles.

I've heard of rumours several games that allegedly 'killed' consoles.  None of them were true.  Does this article really tell us much we didn't know?

[Hawkbit]

It reminds me of the German war machine just before World War I, as chronicled by Barbara Tuchman in the classic history book, “The Guns of August.” The German generals were intent on keeping their trains on time; but the leaders overlooked their chances for stopping the war altogether. The Schlieffen plan called for them to strike first. Once the Russians and French mobilized, the Germans had to move into action. They marched off blindly into tragedy.

journalolism

Dropping a Schlieffen bomb in an article, -1.

[Strazos]

I couldn't even get past the first page, as the site loads like SHITE on my machine for some reason.

And invoking German WW1 history to illustrate a point about a damn game console? FAIL

[UnSub]

Oh, how convenient, he's writing a book about it.

I think the book is written and released a while back. This is kind of a postscript to it.

[Special J]

I couldn't even get past the first page, as the site loads like SHITE on my machine for some reason.

And invoking German WW1 history to illustrate a point about a damn game console? FAIL

Oh wow. Yeah, XBox is totally like that!

[Velorath]

Oh, how convenient, he's writing a book about it.

How in fuck's name can a whole book be written on the subject?  Does it consist of the sentence "The 360 was rushed out to beat the PS3 to market" followed by 300 blank pages?

This is the unauthorized tale of how Microsoft lost its chance to become the leader in the biggest market it has attacked beyond its twin monopolies in Office and Windows software. Rival game console maker Nintendo out-thought the larger players Microsoft and Sony by designing the Wii game console with a clever, intuitive game controller. Even so, Microsoft could have captured more gamers during this product generation, yet the RROD problem held it back. The Xbox 360’s defect problem will go down as one of the worst snafus in consumer electronics history.

Wrong.  Despite the negative press as the RROD caused, there is no way the 360 would be in the position it's in now if MS had delayed the launch and not gotten a years head start over Sony.  As shitty as a move it was to the consumers, it's the only reason the Xbox brand still exists right now.

[UnSub]

Here's a link to the book. Haven't read it, but it's about what was going on around MS and the Xbox 360 project at the time. It's taken however long for the same author to get to understanding about the production problems that led to the RROD being such an issue.

I think the article is interesting, even if I disagree with his conclusions. MS was strategically correct to launch when they did based on the info they had. The author seems a bit incredulous that people who returned 3, 4, 5 et al Xbox 360s kept coming back to that console, so he obviously misses the point about the tribalism of some people in picking the console they own, or even that having spent $1000 on games, you aren't going to suddenly switch platforms and junk that investment.

[HaemishM]

The author of that article seemed to suck the Wii-cock a lot more than he probably should have.

[NiX]

It actually seems like he found a problem with the 360, found out neither Sony or Nintendo had such huge defect numbers and thought "This is why they aren't #1." It's really sad actually.