Asian Manufacturers say Microsoft is too cheap hence high 360 failures

[Zeus]

According to Smarthouse of Australia, Asian Xbox 360 manufacturers have hit out at Microsoft stating that a numer of MS controlled factors are at the heart of the Red Ring of Death problem. They include - poor console design, cheap components and a lack of testing coupled with an obsession to beat Sony.


Two years ago In a desperate quest for supremacy in the gaming console market and in an effort to beat Sony and then later Nintendo with their Wii console, Microsoft committed themselves to getting the Xbox 360 to market some 12 months ahead of the new Sony PS3. They also stripped costs out of the unit in an effort to undercut Sony.


Now they are paying the cost of their failed marketing exercise after the world's largest Software Company announced on Friday that they will take an A$1.3 billion to $1.4 billion charge to extend warranty coverage on repairs and replacements. The company said a months-long investigation into an "unacceptable number of repairs" to Xbox 360 consoles has helped it identify several flaws that caused the system to crash—indicated by three flashing red lights on the front dubbed the "Red Ring of Death" by gamers.


Read More: <a href="http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Gaming/Console/L3R2T2S6?page=1" target="_Blank">Smarthouse.com.au</a>

[The_Eggman_1972]

At the end of the day its built by the lowest bidder...

[DaFireStarter]

Microsoft better get their act together and fix the problem. The sooner it's fixed the sooner they don't have to pay the replacement 360's. They Adleast we have a warranty but the failure rate is still unacceptable. And the outsourcing jobs is absolute BS.

And why do you talk about Microsoft trying to beat Sony when Sony includes so much unless sh!t in their consoles. Sony tries to stump the average retard sony fanboy by telling them lies, putting cheap card readers, and by teaching them to be arogant.

[weetz]

...waits for a Microsoft bashing comment from Xenogears V :rolleyes:

[LeGioN1202]

Will someone please explain to me how one of the richest companies in the World use the cheapest parts while still charging $400? Seems shady to me.

Sorry to say it, but it looks worse and worse for MS each day. I really do hope though that they get their **** together because this year seems to have a few good RPG's coming for the 360. Enough to warrant a purchase, provided that these assholes fix their **** correctly.

[*StoneCold*]

Will someone please explain to me how one of the richest companies in the World use the cheapest parts while still charging $400? Seems shady to me.

Thats how they got rich in the 1st place.

[LeGioN1202]

Thats how they got rich in the 1st place.

Yet they still can't make a OS without fucking us customers over.

WHY!!!??? WHY DO PEOPLE CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THESE ASSCLOWNS!!!???

They continue to bend you over and without the common decency to use a little "KY", they just ram in in your ass time and time again while you continually beg for more.

Makes no sense... please someone enlighten me.

[weetz]

"THE X360 IS GOING TO BE THIS GENS FAILURE, ITS GOING TO END UP 3RD."-*stonecold*

"THE NINTENDO WII AKA GAMEPUBE WITH A FLICK STICK IS A GIMMICK!!!"-ME :D

[iratasan]

Microsoft better get their act together and fix the problem. The sooner it's fixed the sooner they don't have to pay the replacement 360's. They Adleast we have a warranty but the failure rate is still unacceptable. And the outsourcing jobs is absolute BS.

And why do you talk about Microsoft trying to beat Sony when Sony includes so much unless sh!t in their consoles. Sony tries to stump the average retard sony fanboy by telling them lies, putting cheap card readers, and by teaching them to be arogant.

looks like you are the arrogant one here. apart from missing games and that is a real downer i have never heard any PS3 owner complain about anything. as long as my 360 lasts i won't complain about it either. if you would have liked to have a ps3 but can not afford it because of the bonus stuff that's in it, that's your bad, not ours.

all companies lie. An A brand even lies less than B or C brands. ms and sony are bad, but they are not the worst. if you try to shout out that one of those 2 companies is worse overall, then you are even more of a fool than i thought.

Will someone please explain to me how one of the richest companies in the World use the cheapest parts while still charging $400? Seems shady to me.

it is indeed shady.

[Vesica]

At the end of the day its built by the lowest bidder...

It's still Microsofts design that caused the problems, so you can't really blame it on the producer.


And why do you talk about Microsoft trying to beat Sony when Sony includes so much unless sh!t in their consoles. Sony tries to stump the average retard sony fanboy by telling them lies, putting cheap card readers, and by teaching them to be arogant.

oh shut the f*** up, you are just talking pure xbot crap like 99% of all your other posts.

Sony lying to their costumers? I sure as hell wasn't sony that produced a faulty console then blamed the problem on the costumers for two years. Sony putting cheap card readers in the ps3? It's always something with you, one day it's the price, another the games and the blue-ray and now the freaking card reader? whats next? "The ps3 uses more electricity than the 360"?

At least try to get some real arguments when you decide to bash the ps3 next time, instead of acting like you're mentally retarded.

[Xenogears V]

...waits for a Microsoft bashing comment from Xenogears V :rolleyes:


I am here.:D .

In this moment Microsoft has to think to Nintendo, it has to leave to lose obsession to beat Sony.(The Ps3 is the last place, in this moment isn't a threat)

It true, Wii we cannot consider it a console of third generation, but it is a direct competitor of these years up to the consoles of fourth generation.

To establish who will win this struggle it is very difficult, even if I believe that the Ps3 will win.

In this moment the 360 seems the console that is worse of everybody, it doesn't sell, and besides, the "great titles" count on the fingers of a hand.

[khukon]

fact is the 360 will only do well in the usa and uk other parts thier fucked.

[Vesica]

It true, Wii we cannot consider it a console of third generation, but it is a direct competitor of these years up to the consoles of fourth generation.


Dude, this is the seventh generation, not the third ;)

[The_Eggman_1972]

It's still Microsofts design that caused the problems, so you can't really blame it on the producer.

But surely they have some of the best designers/engineers in house they would have looked at these plans and said the design IS FLAWED. Fans not upto scratch/airspace to small etc etc..If not why ???..:confused:

[iratasan]

Yet they still can't make a OS without fucking us customers over.

WHY!!!??? WHY DO PEOPLE CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THESE ASSCLOWNS!!!???

They continue to bend you over and without the common decency to use a little "KY", they just ram in in your ass time and time again while you continually beg for more.

Makes no sense... please someone enlighten me.

good point, but i don't think stone cold meant this in a supportive way and he is right as well. that's how ms got rich. remember windows ME? no improvement, but a lot of money. same with windows vista.

Sony lying to their costumers? I sure as hell wasn't sony that produced a faulty console then blamed the problem on the costumers for two years. Sony putting cheap card readers in the ps3? It's always something with you, one day it's the price, another the games and the blue-ray and now the freaking card reader? whats next? "The ps3 uses more electricity than the 360"?

good point but you should not make the mistake and fall for that discussion. this is an ms related topic. every comparison with the ps3 either good or bad is out of topic and just warms up old old old discussions. apart from that, yep he is indeed a moron.

I am here.:D .

In this moment Microsoft has to think to Nintendo, it has to leave to lose obsession to beat Sony.(The Ps3 is the last place, in this moment isn't a threat)

It true, Wii we cannot consider it a console of third generation, but it is a direct competitor of these years up to the consoles of fourth generation.

To establish who will win this struggle it is very difficult, even if I believe that the Ps3 will win.

In this moment the 360 seems the console that is worse of everybody, it doesn't sell, and besides, the "great titles" count on the fingers of a hand.

i don't think that nintendo is a threat to ms as they have a totally different customer base. FPS kiddos hate the wii because the games and controls are "childish" in their view. people who rather have plain and simple "fun" instead of spending all their free time sitting around with a headset on, gathering in clans and killing everything in sight over and over and over and over again, won't fall ffor the 360 at this moment. if you take a look at the wii portfolio, there is a bunch of games that are fun and totally different from each other. if you look at the 360 portfolio you will see mostly FPS games and some lame racing games with just a handful of games that are out of the ordinary. keeping in mind that halo 3 (yawn!) is going to be the biggest hit on this console says A LOT. with the games that are on the maarket right now the wii is interesting for a customers base of 5-99 year old customers and the 360 only appealing to 14-22 year old customers. the sales statistics prove that. the wii is running one league above the over consoles and that will stay that way. the ps3 might have a small shot if they finally manage to use the sixaxis like the wii mote and start to throw out success-proven-series like singstar, karaoke revolution, DDR/ dancing stage, buzz plus manage to code some ORIGINAL titles. i don't mean EXCLUSIVE titles, as that is never a sure thing for success, i mean ORIGINAL titles. ps3 and 360 lack that in any way at this point. the wii has boogie, ddr, fishing games and hundreds of original games coming in the next months and that will appeal to a 5 time higher customer base than anything the other consoles can deliver.

[Turbojugend]

FPS kiddos hate the wii because the games and controls are "childish" in their view.

Real FPS people shouldn't even be playing them on a console.

[DrivingFast3r]

/

I agree with Vesica !

These dumb microsoft employees posting negative smack about the PS3 !

||


Thats all these comments are - microsofts business plan to post negative comments about the sony - when now they are having even more problems a year after their J.U.N.K.B.O.X 3.6.0. was released.

[iratasan]

Real FPS people shouldn't even be playing them on a console.

agreed. good point.

[Covert Knight]

And why are we surprised by this?

But to give an explanation as to why this is lets go into some depth. Think of it in these terms. The 360 (and ps3) is basically a super computer, or a gaming computer, with a different OS and at the time of its release, it was so top of the line, that it was better than just about any gaming pc out there. We all know even a self home made great gaming computer at the very least costs $2,000. (I'm gonna make a fairly top of the line comp at $1.5k) so at least a $1,600 difference. Yes you do get parts much cheaper than what a consumer can get, but remember not only is there production (which includes labor costs) but there is also transportation, packaging and advertising. And let me tell you that adds a LOT up. They are not kidding when they said they were taking damage for every console made. And as much as I don't like the Sony PS3 being $600, I know that is the cheapest they could have made it because they too had to go through this big process. So to think that these prices are ridiculous, is crazy itself. The generation was simply rushed to the point where it was too costly for both Sony and Microsoft.

And yes I see Microsoft's strategy, it was absolutely brilliant for the most part, but they should invested more time in the heating issue, and its not exactly the parts being 100% faulty, its the way the heating is done, as some have pointed out, if they placed the fans and vents properly most of the heat would have floated out the system easily. Here is to hoping this is a lesson learned for next gen.

[teek78]

The Wii has the best "hardware design" in my book. That thing only cost them like $180 to make. Simple design means less failures and they make a profit! Also considering that the PS3 and XBOX 360 are ONLY 4X as powerful (not a huge difference)...:D

[gonepostl]

Lol!

Made In China Says Your Product Sucks!
:cool:

[SSChevy2001]

Real FPS people shouldn't even be playing them on a console.PC gaming is full of cheaters ( Aimbots / Wall Hacks ... ) some gamers want to get away from the cheaters.

[Punyetta]

Lol!

Made In China Says Your Product Sucks!
:cool:

That made me laugh. But seriously, MS should investigate which manufacture released the defective units and go after them.

[grd94533]

C'mon people. Cheap parts, cheap labor, it's the American way!! Are you really surprised? Sad but true. We hear in America always look for the cheapest way to make things even if we know it's going to affect the products quality. Why do you think Bill Gates is so fucking rich?

[GazP]

There is no doubting the 360 is an excellent system, but I think they rushed it out to beat Sony, hence the 3ROD problem.

I don't think the fact it's made in china has anything to do with the 3ROD problem either, the airflow/heat dispersal has a serious design problem, which everyone knows about :(

M$ are trying to solve the problem by giving 3 year warranties, which clearly points to the fact they have no faith in their consoles life span :mad:

If they had any morals they would recall them all and get them fixed instead of people having to do it themselves. The 3 year warranty is the cheaper option and a way to try and save face for M$

But the price of components and manufacturing are not really causing the high failure rate at all. So yes M$ are cheap but not in the way the article says...

[Eclipse9069]

Microsoft is so "cheap" and "does not man up to its own problems" but yet they are setting themselves back 1.5 BILLION dollars to extend the 360 warranty to 3 years, pay the shipping for fucked up consoles (both ways), and repair the console at no charge for the consumer.

Damn you Microsoft, You are so cheap!

Source: http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Owns_Up_to_Xbox_360_Quality_Issues/1183672920

[bnolsen]

Microsoft is so "cheap" and "does not man up to its own problems" but yet they are setting themselves back 1.5 BILLION dollars to extend the 360 warranty to 3 years, pay the shipping for fucked up consoles (both ways), and repair the console at no charge for the consumer.

Damn you Microsoft, You are so cheap!

Source: http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Owns_Up_to_Xbox_360_Quality_Issues/1183672920

They really have no choice.

Their other option is to ignore the problem and end up losing waaay more money in a class action law suit.

I wouldn't call this "charity" or "being nice". If anything they get kudos for being smart enough to recognize the problem and to offer a clear and mostly satisfactory solution to the problem.

Still, with how bad the engineering is on the hardware they will still get a black eye for producing yet another very shoddy product that very often causes users to have to go through the irritation of dealing with customer service.

I as a customer hate dealing with customer service and it seems MS has doomed at least 1/3 of it's customers to have to do so.

[c4dm4n]

I really don't understand why it came to this. Electronic companies use a process called burn-in before releasing a product from the manufacturing process.. is the last process on the line. You place the equipment on a chamber that changes temperature from very low to very high, these test usually last a long time 8 to 16 hours.

When there is a need to cut manufacturing time this is the first process to go away, but NEVER on your first release products. I'm almost sure Microsoft completeley bypass this process since the launch consoles are the ones with the most problems.:D

Can you imagine what Xbox360 would be today if this didn't happened??? complete success, but we see everyday companies trying to cut some corners specially when they wanted to be the firsts on the market.

[gonepostl]

PC gaming is full of cheaters ( Aimbots / Wall Hacks ... ) some gamers want to get away from the cheaters.
^^^^
Total n00b
You obviously don't know how to play online.
Find decent servers with good admin support

[daps83777]

^^^^
Total n00b
You obviously don't know how to play online.
Find decent servers with good admin support

yeah there are cheaters no matter if you play console games or pc games. but a well admined server can help tons with pc games.

[snipersnake]

Will someone please explain to me how one of the richest companies in the World use the cheapest parts while still charging $400? Seems shady to me.
Its called Capitalism.
Same case here:

Linky (http://www.nbc11.com/technology/10881668/detail.html)

[Razgrith]

Another example of common corporate practices. Microsoft is screwing customers with their cheap-ass consoles. Sony actual strategy is using PS3 as a trojan horse for blu-ray. And Nintendo expects people to fall for the next iteration of the Gamecube because of the new motion-sensing controllers. If you're a fanboy of either one of those 3 companies do the world a favor and shoot yourself. People complain about lack of freedom when they're the ones giving it away in the first place.

[Blazeking]

Dude, this is the seventh generation, not the third ;)

he's using the "game 3.0" chronology.....duh

[Blazeking]

^^^^
Total n00b
You obviously don't know how to play online.
Find decent servers with good admin support

using logic, console gaming is easier.
Everybody isn't like you, no need to ridicule.

[kcvfr400]

Every company will use the cheapest parts they can get away with to reduce costs, nothing new there. So can't really slag microsoft off for that as the other electrical products not just consoles on the market do the same. Just the ovious **** up on the design of the layout and cooling is to blame and the attacking attitude microsoft has taken.

[grapeape]

As if every console manufacturer before them hasnt done the same. Heck even Sony has done it with the ps3 look at the european ps3's and their missing ps2 hardware support...its all software now to save money. In previous generations the original xbox had horrible quality control issues with the DVDrom when they switched to cheaper drives (the thompson in particular) and Sony had notorious issues with the lasers in both the psx and ps2 to the point of being sued in a class action over it.

Manufacturers will get away with what they can, sometimes they get lucky but most of the time it comes back to bite them in the ass.

I do think most of the hype over this is being blown way out of proportion by the fanboys though. There is no denying that there are people that have had problems with their 360's, there is also no denying that there are plenty that have had no problems at all. I've gotten lucky, mine has worked fine, I wasnt so lucky last generation as I am on my 3rd ps2. Unfotunately thats just life as a console gamer.

[NoMis01]

I think it's something different if you take away hardware for backwardcompatibility or just making a cheap system that simply breaks.

And even worse is, that MS just neglets any design flaws of the console that are obviously there. So instead of fixing the god damn problem they give us 3 years of warranty. The ignorance is amazing.

I just don't like the feeling of sitting on a ticking bomb that could break any time soon.
I know nothing holds for eternity but I want my console to work for a longer time than it's generation, like my SNES or Dreamcast or my Gamecube, that are all still working flawlessly.

Althought I'm not that much of a sony supporter, I respect their desicion to take their time and manufacture a robust console. And when the interessting games will finally come out I will get one as well.

NoMis