Xbox 360 Failure Rate was as high as 68%

[Jack Torrance]

Report: Xbox 360 Failure Rate Was as High as 68%

Dean Takahashi has published an incredible report that finally goes into great detail on Microsoft's RROD hardware saga. You don't want to miss this...

by James Brightman on Friday, September 05, 2008
Report: Xbox 360 Failure Rate Was as High as 68%

It's one of the most talked about issues of this console generation; the so called "Red Ring of Death" has plagued Xbox 360 owners worldwide and it's not uncommon to hear stories of people replacing their consoles for the fourth, fifth or sixth time. Microsoft's eventual admission that there's a problem and its decision to extend the 360's warranty not only cost the corporation well over a billion dollars, but it undoubtedly had a large impact on the 360's current standing in the console wars. While some analysts believe the Xbox 360 will manage to retain a second place finish behind the Wii, Sony's been coming on strong this year. Microsoft had a year's head start and the company essentially shot itself in the foot.

Worse yet, however, according to a new in-depth report on VentureBeat.com from veteran journalist Dean Takahashi, author of Opening the Xbox and more recently The Xbox 360 Uncloaked, Microsoft deceived its customers. While Takahashi considers his latest report a "final chapter" to his Uncloaked book, Microsoft has said it's "attempting to create a new sensational angle, and is highly irresponsible."

According to a Microsoft engineer cited in the report, the question of hardware reliability was brought up back in August 2005, way before the 360's launch in November. Microsoft knew there was a major problem and the company marched right ahead anyway in order to get to market a year ahead of the competition. Incredibly, 68 out of every 100 Xbox 360s made by Microsoft's Chinese manufacturing partners were not working properly. Even more unbelievable is that when the first batch of the console's three-core CPUs was produced, a woeful 16 percent were functional.

"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," said Takahashi. "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."

Apparently, part of the problem stemmed from Microsoft's ambitious plans for the machine. The company changed the design of the system repeatedly and added a hard drive and wireless controllers, which meant there were added components blocking needed airflow to keep the console operating at an acceptable temperature. "It turned out in the end that this was all going too far, too fast," said one anonymous source. "They were adding too many features after things were locked down. That incremental feature adding just made it fragile."

Complicating the problem was the ineffectiveness of the very QA machines that were supposed to detect which Xbox 360 units were functioning. The report notes that these QA machines ended up approving faulty units and were not properly debugged simply because Microsoft wanted to save $2 million on a $25 million contract with its third-party manufacturer.

Ultimately, it wasn't any one component that was the culprit. ATI's graphics chip was frequently cited for overheating, but the console also had problems with bad solder joints as well as other assembly and memory issues. It got to the point where by the spring of 2006, Microsoft had half a million returned or defective 360 consoles sitting in warehouses. Moreover, Microsoft apparently stopped producing the Xbox 360 in 2007 for a period between January and June in an effort to pin down the problem and fix it.

If you think about, Microsoft has been incredibly lucky – consumers have remained fairly loyal for the most part – but it certainly helps to be a multi-billion dollar corporation. This was one of the worst electronics manufacturing gaffes in history, and it clearly could have destroyed a lesser company's business.

We highly recommend that you read Takahashi's entire report for the complete story.

Thanks to GameSpot for the tip on this story.

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/ne...h-as-68/?biz=1