Adinnieken said:
happydolphin said:
| slowmo said:
knowing they could fix any possible issue in future hardware spins.
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@italics. That's your justification?? That's exactly the issue. They didn't QA it adequately enough so this didn't have to happen. It's one thing for you to say they didn't expect the failure rate they had, it's another to haze it out with your usual minor failure rate that can be fixed post-launch.
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Let me correct both of you, while you're both arguing.
Microsoft knew there was an issue in QA, but they believed it to be a yield issue, not an engineering issue. The belief was that the issue being encountered was the result of one or more components being defective from manufacturing, which in time would be resolved as the manufacturing process improved. The problem was a far more extensive problem of engineering. The circuit board material was thinner then it probably should have been, the solder wasn't as high-temp as it could have been, and the heat sink wasn't as tightly attached as it could have been.
Microsoft believed that the problem would happen within a respectable failure rate, which they would then use the planned improvement outline to resolve the issue. The problem was that it was a bigger issue in the real world than they anticipated. You can't necessarily blame them when you consider the fact that there are still Day 1 Xbox 360's that work without a hiccup today, but there are some people who seem to have constant problems with older ones having the RRoD.
The RRoD issue wasn't as widespread as people like to believe. Yes, every Xenos Xbox 360 will experience the RRoD in it's lifetime, if it survives that long. Some Falcon Xbox 360's will experience the RRoD. Fewer Jasper Xbox 360 will. The vast majority of RRoD issues were resolved with the Falcon-based Xbox 360s, but that doesn't mean there weren't people who repeatedly experienced the RRoD. Why, I don't know. I only ever experienced one, and it was after almost 2 3/4 years with my Xenos-based Xbox 360, and my console was on many occasions for 18-20 hours and in extreme heat. Yet it died in October. Not exactly a warm month in the Northern part of the US.
Microsoft took a gamble that the problem would resolve itself. Call it inexperience, call it stupidity, call it whatever. Hindsight is 20/20. It's easy to sit here today and say, Microsoft should have taken longer to QA the Xbox 360, but I can tell you from personal experience that in the corporate world risks are weighed versus the cost of delay, and often the better wisdom is often ignored. It happens.
Ford knew the Pinto gas tank would explode before a single Pinto hit the road. However, because the Pinto's engineering costs needed to be within a certain range in order to ensure Ford could sell it at the price they wanted, they couldn't afford to re-engineer the gas tank. So what did they do? They hushed up the engineers or fired them, and kept quiet until someone died.
The Xbox 360 debacle wasn't nearly as serious. It did, however show Microsoft's inexperience in engineering a consumer electronic device on this caliber. Microsoft took care of their customers that either had had their consoles repaired prior to the warranty extension, or had their consoles repaired after.
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