The infamous ‘Red Ring of Death’ will never happen on the new Xbox 360 Slim. Many an Xbox owner has experienced the three red lights that signal an Xbox’s demise but this is a thing of the past. Not because the new system can’t ‘die’ but because they have removed the red lights.
Technology is temperamental. We all know it and we’ve all experienced it in some annoyingly frustrating way. The Xbox 360 Slim may still encounter technical problems but it will just let you know about it in a different manner.
Speaking with IGN at E3, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft Game Studios – Phil Spencer – said:
Now obviously, the box has a way to communicate to you if something has happened…but yes, three red lights are not part of our sequence of telling somebody something is wrong. Obviously if you look at the success rate of the original 360s, we’re very proud of both the way the company stepped up to support the customers that we had as well as the success rate we have with the box today. I think we’ve learned a lot. That learning has gone into the development of this [new] box.
If anything, the ‘Red Ring of Death’ is a PR nightmare for Microsoft and has even been adapted to cover Sony’s malfunctioning hardware. This could be a clever move from Microsoft, although it won’t take people long to adopt a new phrase for however the 360 Slim informs you of an error.
Apnomis
A very cynical move from Microsoft there – the Red Ring of Death is synonymous with an Xbox failure, so they simply remove the red lights! It’s the end of a gaming icon!
I’m looking forward to the first batch of new ones breaking down so we can find out what it does, maybe it will be audio based like many PC motherboards – “Three Beeps of Death” or something…
hazelam
the green mortality circle?
i think that one could catch on. :)
project84music
It’s a bit dubious really, if they’d fixed the problem for definite (or at least reduced its occurrence to the standard acceptable level of hardware failure) they would have made a big song and dance about it. Instead they’ve removed the way the system notifies you of the failure, and in a fairly quiet way – ok yes, they’ve told people about it in an interview with IGN, but not everyone will read IGN, or see it reported elsewhere.
stingraz
N.O.B?
New Onnoying B*tch?
baggyg
Square
Of
Nearly
Yellow?
wearejimbo
They will now make each one fail in a slightly different way unique to itself so that no two failures appear to be the same even though they are. This way there are no panics about the “Purple Pants of Doom” or whatever your particular Xbox dies of as yours will be the only one ever to suffer the purple pants thing.
TSBonyman
They had to remove the red lights cos they were interfering with kinects IR camera … now you’ll know it’s broke if kinect appears to be sulking/unresponsive.
Jas-n
I’d love it, if it knew it was about to die, it displayed “Epic Fail!” for a second, then just went off.
EFoD – Epic Fail of Death.
Wing-Sabre
I recon they should just have them phone 999 instead and use Kinect to ask for the fire brigade , will save alot of time :)
icuyesido
There’s already quite a big problem with it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdOjzuJByXg
LOL
Jas-n
See, a Blu-ray would’ve survived that
TSBonyman
Oh gosh.. the disc got really badly scratched in those few seconds.
Amphlett
The loudest LOL possible!
Don’t touch the xbox, don’t move it, don’t even consider it…
ruinereraser
Sony should put an ad on the internet showcasing the new Xbox ‘Slim’:
Don’t Move It!
squashme
LOL theres a black sticker on thr front with small print writing on it like you get in T&C’s and stuff lol whos gonna notice that
it hasnt even been rerleased yet has it ? and its already got problems a slot loading drive like the PS3 has would have fixed that but MS like money grabbing bastards they are want you to fork out to either get it fixed or extended warranty after the intinal 12 months have expired