Shock, Shock, Horror, Horror, we have a story to prove that shows that Microsoft apparently knew about the defects in the Xbox 360 before its launch.
While it may come as a surprise to many, it doesn’t sound too crazy to think that MS would do something like this. According to reports on 1UP a report from VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi, who is the author of books such as Opening the Xbox and The Xbox 360 Uncloaked, has said that Microsoft knew about the issues the Xbox 360 was having before launch but refused to delay the release further in order to beat their competitors to the market.
It looks as if the major issue came from Microsoft not only rushing the design process to get the console out first but also from the fact that once the major design was locked down, they continued to try and cram in a ton of last minute ideas, essentially making the console more and more fragile.
President of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division, Robbie Bach thinks that being first out the door was still a good idea in the long run, saying that:
“If you take the question of whether it was the right thing to try to be first, the answer to that is definitely yes,”
“It has given us a leg up in a number of places that are super important. It has given us a leg up with game developers. It has given us a leg up from an economics perspective. It helped us expand Xbox Live quickly. At a strategy level, if you asked if we wanted to be first again, I would say yes. It’s easy for me to go back and say, if I knew what would transpire over the next two years, would I go back and do something different, I think that’s an obvious answer. But the fact is, based on the data we had at the time and all the hard work we put into it, there was no way to see what actually happened.”
As you all know it has cost Microsoft over a billion US dollars to extend warranties for the RROD issues that many have experienced with their consoles, so Mr. Bach must really think that it was well worth it to have their console out first. Although he does admit that they would have done things differently had they known all that they know now.
Good for you, Microsoft. I am glad that your business is doing well but what about all the people that have experienced tons of issues and inconveniences due to your wonderful decision.
Nice job.
source: 1UP
[Thanks Gazza and Psyber Psyber for the tip]Last Updated: September 9, 2008
Werner
September 9, 2008 at 12:35
Well, if you have a look at how crap Vista was (and still is) on release then it would seem that it is their normal business practices to release faulty products first…
Werners last blog post..Microsoft knew about the 360 defects before launch
Werner
September 9, 2008 at 12:37
Well, if you have a look at most of their previous products it would seem that this would be their normal business practice. Can anyone say “Vista”?
Werners last blog post..Microsoft knew about the 360 defects before launch
Milesh Bhana ZA
September 9, 2008 at 12:57
MS are evil, we know that.
That said, I think it was a brilliant strategy. If they had launched at the same time as PS3 sans a Blue-Ray drive, they’d have been dead in the water. (If they used a BR drive, they’d have been more expensive dude to the licensing cost for the tech).
The paid dearly in the warranty extension, but i think in the long run it was a good idea.
(Right, so it’s easy for me to say, because i’m on the more stable console, but the day mine died i was almost in tears :P)
Milesh Bhana ZAs last blog post..skate [360]