“I presented to [then Microsoft CEO] Steve Ballmer: ‘This is going to cost us $1.15bn to fix this – to protect the brand, to protect our reputation, to keep this business going’.”
“You know, you expect to get your head blown off, but Steve is an astute businessman who recognizes that things can go wrong. Steve saw the big picture: it’s not that things go wrong, it’s how you fix it. And the moment I had to present the facts and the cost, saying, ‘Look, this is what we think that it looks like…’ Steve didn’t blink, and rightly so.”
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I’m kind of wondering where they got this quote from, if they did a new interview or just pulled from old. I know I’ve heard most of this before, not sure if I read it or if it was in that old Unlocked interview Ryan had with the heads of Xbox (or maybe the separate one with Moore for his long form interview podcast (Unfiltered) ?)
Was it ever truly fixed though? One of my buddies has had like five different 360s, quite crazy. All RROD. Apart from that…this console was amazing, just superb.
But I appreciate all the more how they went from that to Xbox One (even if it was big as hell) to Xbox One X and now Series X and if first impressions are anything to go by…it should be fine!
It was 100% fixed.
One thing many people didn’t realise about RROD is, the console was designed to RROD for even something as small as the Video out cable not being in properly.
I had 1 RROD across 10 or more 360s that I owned. The launch unit, within 10 hours of buying it.
Outside of that never had an issue again. But one day one of my earlier units RRODed and I panicked. Turns out, the HDMI cable wasn’t fully in. Plugged it in properly and the RROD went away.
That doesn’t take away from the fact that the 360 hardware is fussy. My launch unit was crammed in a tight, poorly ventilated corner. Once that one died, I made sure all future units had plenty of space and ventilation and never had an issue again.
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¯_(ツ)_/¯
First time myself I’ve read that quote, or the others from the interview.
It didn’t have the full ring for those iirc, just overheating. It was portions of the 4 quarter-circle leds.
Maybe its just the age I was when this happened but I have great nostalgia for the red rings period. It was kinda funny, the little xbox “coffins” people got to fedex there beloved console back to Microsoft to be fixed.
The three red lights was one of the best gaming podcasts ever.
This is one of my favorite stories in gaming. Imagine reporting a billion dollars error to your CEO, and imagine receiving that answer. Literal chills. We would live in a whole different gaming world had the answer been any different.
I lost one Xbox 360 to the RROD, one core model and then had some terrible luck with E74, lost 2 xbox 360’s premiums to that as well.
Thankfully the elite I got after the other 3 dying lasted the generation.