open letter to MS -- improvements -- follow on to my initial 360 impression

[kn]

Mr Stick -- I appreciate your commentary, as always.

On the warranty issue I wasn't necessarily thinking about more warranty coverage or something like that -- more of a marketing offensive. Talk about average response times to fix, answer the phone, return machines. Talk about no cost round-trip shipping. Talk about special scenarios where Microsoft bends the warranty rules to make customers happy. Talk about a total commitment to customer satisfaction. AND, talk about it in an open way rather than denying the apparent pink elephant in the room. I highly doubt repair issues are as high as reported -- fanboyism at work.

there are other things MS can do as well -- free content on XBLA as compensation -- free points when you get your refurbed unit back -- all kinds of things that, from a dollar perspective -- aren't huge, but do add to goodwill and customer satisfaction.

Concerning the "spending on family content" of $500M. I'm unaware of how that money was spent but if that is indeed the number, someone should be shot for the content produced vs. money spent, lol. Point taken, though. They have spent some time, money, and efforts on family -- 3rd parties just haven't stepped up and that's where it has to happen unless microsoft wants to go HARD first party family oriented like Nintendo does.

How about this as a potential solution: Focus on XBLA as a means to deliver family friendly games -- casual sports, acradey-type stuff, etc. and guarantee the developers of said content a minimum amount of sales from the game so they know their risks going in. Of course there would have to be quality and quantity controls so it's not just rubbish, but that would be a whole lot less expensive than buying rare and making them produce Viva. (though that was a solid move).