(Image credit: Microsoft) Watcher loaded, audio-player loaded. The Red Ring of Death is one of the most popular fiascoes in the videogame industry. It’s basically the Xbox 360 version of Blue Screen of Deathseeing either means you’ve got really trouble. The Xbox support site describes it in a way that has three red lights: “The Xbox 360, or the power supply, has a hardware problem.” But it does not convey the scale of the situation, which was nothing short of catastrophic. That fiasco is certainly re-imagined, but again the rear mirrored, that Microsoft can actually transform it into a historic touchstonealmost a treasured memory,and even make it the buck: You can buy now a red diamond replica “premium print” for $25 in the Xbox Gear shop. The slightly glossy print is hardcover to protect against fingerprints to “commemorate” the release of an six-part documentary of the Xbox console, which features a story from the Red Ring of Death era. For those who missed all the funit was 15 years ago, before allVentureBeat published an in-depth history of the RRoD in 2008. The short version is that Microsoft knew that the Xbox 360 had problems but didn’t delay the roll-out because Sony and Nintendo didn’t want to beat it to the punch. The result is massive failure costs and thousands of dollars in warranty expenses, complicating the fact that a lot of the problems were latent, making them impossible to turn up until the machine was in use for a while. The whole thing blew quickly, despite the large occurrence. Robbie Bach, the former president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division, said in the VentureBeat history that “customer reaction data” didn’t show the high level of discontent over the problem. “There’s no doubt they like their games and Xbox Live,” said Bach. “Does that frustrate them? Yes. They also know they take care of them. People have a lot of respect for that.” Like my fellow British people, this move is a really cheeky move. The Red Ring of Death was a full-scale goat rodeo. Even though Microsoft has the resources to absorb that kind of financial lapse, bouncing back from the PR nightmare is a whole different subject. But charging $25 to hang an enormous reminder of the most ignominious moment of the Xbox world’s history? This is level one, so it’ll probably be very popular as well.
