RROD

A Microsoft insider has talked to 8Bit Joystick’s Jake Metcalf about the Xbox 360’s hardware failures. The insider is reported to be someone who was part of the consoles development and testing throughout its conception.

According to the anonymous source, the 360 was rushed out in order to get the drop on the PS3. The reason for the high failure rate was an under resourced development which resulted in ultra cheap heat sinks being used, incompatible hardware and poor construction. Worst of all, Microsoft may not have enough Xbox 360s to cope with returns this year.

He has some moderately comforting news that the current generation Xbox have a failure rate of under 10% compared to the old generation failure rate of 30%.

via 8Bit Joystick

In a recent interview with GameDaily.biz, soon-departing Microsoft Interactive VP Peter Moore has told critics of the Xbox 360’s high failure rates they need a history lesson.

Those critics need to do their homework and look at some of the hardware product failures that this industry has seen in the past 30 years that maybe have not got as much publicity…

Well then. I was there for the NES flashing grey screens, experienced first hand the abysmal failure rates of the Sega 32X, had my first revision PlayStation die after three months, and remember a period lasting over 12 months where I was opening up my Dreamcast and performing the endless-reset fix at least once a week.

The thing is, that shit wasn’t cool in 1999, let alone 1985. When you design a game system in 2003, and build it from PC components, you don’t get excused for major design flaws because Sega and Nintendo did it first - quite the opposite. Waiting nearly two years before fixing the X-clamp flaw, or even admitting its existence, doesn’t exactly win you any brownie points, either.