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Dean Takahashi has the inside scoop on the Xbox 360 defects.
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Very interesting article
I'll take some key quotes out of it, but i suggest reading the entire thing.
| 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. |
| 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.
Likewise, Microsoft’s strategy depended on beating its rivals to
market. It couldn’t afford to stop and delay the launch in order to
solve its quality problems, or so upper management believed. What
Microsoft’s leaders didn’t realize was that getting to market first
with a flawed machine would only win them a battle; and it risked the
loss of the war.
“They got enamored with the idea of the Microsoft army rolling
everything out at the same time,” said one knowledgeable source who
asked not to be identified. |
| The quality problem negated much of the advantage of going first, and
it has delayed the company’s plan to aggressively market the console
and slash its prices. (Microsoft disputes this point; it cut the price of all three versions of its Xbox consoles by $50 to $79 on Wednesday.
And the company believes it will sell more boxes than Sony will. But
prices ought to be lower still during this stage of the console life
cycle). That has stopped the company from reaching the broader market
of consumers that Nintendo has won over. It has lowered its ambitions,
hoping instead just to get a clear edge on third-placed Sony. The
future profits that the company once hoped for are now likely to wind
up in Nintendo’s pockets. |
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Microsoft’s top game executive, Robbie Bach, president of the
Entertainment & Devices group, said at a dinner in July that
Microsoft’s own research shows that gamers have largely forgiven the
company for defective Xbox 360s. Microsoft has still sold more Xbox 360
consoles than Sony to date. But there is no doubt that the company has
lost considerable good will among gamers. Before Microsoft offered free
replacements, connsumers grumbled that they had to turn to forums, such as those on Ars Technica, to vent and to find solutions to problems that the company didn’t openly discuss. And for a couple of months now, Sony’s PlayStation 3 has been outselling the Xbox 360 in the U.S. for the first time.
“Fundamentally, their thinking shows that they are a software
company at heart,” said 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.”
The terrifying part of the story is that this kind of problem —
where technology fails and no one knows what to do about it — can
happen to any company. |
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Re: Dean Takahashi has the inside scoop on the Xbox 360 defects.
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That was a good article. Basically the 360 fails because either the CPU croaks (Which is maybe 10% of the RROD errors) or the graphics chip overheats the sauder and it melts because it's lead free.
That would explain why mine is still working. Assuming I have a good CPU, my guess is that the pre-launch units used regular (lead) sauder and don't melt. I can't say that for sure, but that's what I got out of the article.
You can't take everything that Dean has here on face value though. I've read his other articles covering this, and he goes on a lot of information from some folks who "worked there but don't work there anymore". But it sounds like someone on the inside has funneled him recent information which is useful.
I'm glad we know what the problem is. It sounds like if you get the RROD you could fix it by saudering the contacts back together in most cases. That's what GameStop is doing.
So, in a weird way, the European environmental policies created the RROD problems. Way to go EU!
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