XBox 360: Microsoft's Multi-Billion Dollar $cam?
Written by Hopper, Monday March 23 2009
When Microsoft released the XBox 360 back in November, 2005, it was unarguably the most sought after video game console in the history of video game consoles. Many individuals bought the $300 machines and sold them on Ebay for thousands of dollars simply because they could.
What people did not know was that no less than 33% of them were defective.
Yes, when Microsoft's dream product was released, it was released prematurely, and the creators knew it. Heck, they've even admitted that they knew there was a potential problem with the motherboard, which directly resulted in several of the consoles receiving the dreaded "Red Ring of Death".
For anyone who is not aware of what the Red Ring of Death is, it is a ring of red lights appearing on the face of the console, as opposed to the green lights which normally appear there. It is a sign that something is bad wrong with the console, and anyone who receives this should contact customer support immediately.
Anyway, the creators did not put the proper amount of testing into the consoles prior to their premature release, resulting in headaches for several 360 owners. And why didn't they put the proper amount of testing into the consoles? Because they wanted to get a jumpstart on the competition(Wii and Playstation 3) just prior to the start of the Christmas rush.
But the dreaded red ring isn't the only problem the consoles have faced. In fact, there have been several reported cases of the consoles actually scratching up the $60 game disks that they sell for the 360. You see, the XBox 360 console sits vertically(up and down), as opposed to the Playstation 3 console, which sits horizontally. So, when a disk is put into the console, it is not secure, allowing it to move around inside the console, resulting in scratched disks. And when the disk is all scratched up, it is unreadable, or unplayable, which makes it useless.
Another similar, yet completely different problem that red ring victims have received is that, just over 3 months after they get their newly repaired consoles back, they have "unreadable disk" problems. The big issue here is that the disks are actually not the problem. Something inside the XBox(very possibly the laser that reads the disks) evidently has a problem, because nearly all the victim's disks are unreadable, no matter how old or new they are. 2 things are ironic about this: The first is that, after a red ring victim gets his/her 360 back, they also get a 3 month warranty that covers everything on the 360. These problems are occuring roughly 3 months and 1 week after they get the console back. Coincidence? I think not. The second thing that is ironic is that, the only disk that has not been reported to have problems is Bungie's Halo 3, which is the most popular game on the 360(a.k.a. Microsoft's big money-maker).
There have also been reports of a brand new problem for 360 owners: The E47 Error. While no one really knows what causes the problem, the E47 Error is recognized by a single sector of red light appearing on the console's face, along with an on-screen message that reads, "E47 Error. Contact Customer Support." The majority(58%) of people surveyed claim that they got the error after the new XBox experience was released in November. Even still, the additional 42% received it before, leaving many question marks and several owners and creators scratching their heads.
Other console problems include, but are not limited to, disk tray problems(not opening or closing properly), games locking up, video static problems, and many more. Out of all these problems, only the red ring is covered under anything other than a 3 month warranty. Anything else that requires the console being sent to customer support will cost the disgrunteled owner $100.
There are 2 reasons I entitled this article "Microsoft's Multi-Billion Dollar $cam?". The first is that, as of last year, over 16 million consoles had been sold. In a bundle pack(which contains everything one needs for XBox Live), the console costs $500. Right there alone you have $8 billion worth of equipment that has been sold, not to mention thousands, if not millions or billions of games, as well as yearly Xbox Live memberships. That almost has to bring the total up to $50 or $100 billion.
That explains the "Multi-Billion Dollar" part. But why do I call it a "$cam"? Because, as I said, the creators knew there was something wrong with the system when they released it. They admitted it. But also, even if they claimed to have no idea about the situation, why on earth would they include so many warning signs like the red ring, or the E47 message? How come they included warning signs, and are having problems, while Nintendo and Sony did not include warning signs in their products, and have had limited failures?
We may never know. In my opinion, though, a class-action lawsuit will be filed against Microsoft in the near future. When there is, I'm sure there will be millions, if not billions, who take part in it, to get back lost money from repairs and now-useless games. And with as much money as Microsoft has made, no, stolen, from these people, a class-action lawsuit could very well break them.
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I had the silver(crystal) edition of the xbox and when i got that red ring of death i called microsoft and they said that they could not do anything about it, So i told them that they just lost me as a customer and that i was going over to sony's ps3