Microsoft is innocent!!

[d21lewis]

Tamron said:

Woohoo, actually at a computer now, time to dig in.

d21lewis said:

Myth:  Microsoft was the one that started making us pay for online gaming

-This is false.  Anybody who was around at the time knows that SegaNet (Dreamcast) charged for an online gaming subscription long before Xbox Live.  In fact, if I remember, SegaNet cost around $19 a month.  Even before them, there were paid (unlicensed) online services for Super Nes/Genesis games.

As my previous post, the subscription was paying for the actual dialup connection, a service you already pay for, with online play on ANY device.

d21lewis said:

Myth:  Microsoft made it okay to launch a console with faulty hardware

-Again, not true.  The original Xbox was built like a tank.  The Xbox 360 may have the worst failure rate of all time but the PS2 also suffered so many defects that Sony was the subject of a class action lawsuit.  Sony settled.  Even before that, it was widely accepted that the PS1 was a fragile device.  Quick fixes were common, including turning the console on its side or even upside down.

All hardware has it's defects, DRE was a bad one but by no means as far spread as RROD, Nes consoles connector pins would wear out resulting in the entire blow the cart myth, that is something that effected ALL toploading nes, it was just a matter of how many times you changed carts.
Colecovisions were prone to blowing resistors, that was pretty widespread but you just didnt hear about these defects as much prior to the PS2 era because the internet wasn't a thing back then.

Microsoft get the stick for RROD because there were practically videos of it graphical glitching and rrod, the same day it released, while small in frequency, then, it more or less became a waiting game for how long you could own one without it dying.

However, with this point, I would rather argue that most console defects are down to the use of RoHS solder, all of the hana/ana, gou and cpu failures on the 360 were because of that, but it also had ejection errors, drive failures, disc scratching, proprietory and sinfully expensive for the size hard drives, which is a whole other angle right there.

IF anything though, Microsoft set the undesirable milestone of taking two thirds of a consoles life cycle to fix a poor thermal design.

For the last point it's not worth arguing because either side of the argument is just conjecture.

I don't know if you're supporting me or against me but I kinda agree with most of what you say.  I don't know what you pay for with SegaNet but I know it cost about $19 a month.  There was even an offer where Sega would give you a free Dreamcast as long as you agreed to sign up for SegaNet for a couple of years.  You may have been payong for dial up but Sega HAD to be making money on the deal, too.  Otherwise, wtf?