Dear Bill: Hey Buddy.. How ya doin? I know you are probably busy with all things nerd, but I was wondering if you could take time from your oh so busy schedule to discuss one of your biggest cash cows.. The Xbox, namely the red light virus that has been going around a lot lately.
Currently I know 7 people in close proximity to me that own the 360: 6 of which have gotten said red light of death on their box (some more than once) causing them to have to send their Xboxes out to be repaired (or in most of the cases replaced with an older refurbished model). I won’t get into technical nerd jargon but apparently your processing chips pop out due to too much use. You have a defective system that simply does not work. From what I have been told, the new models are not any better. Buying external cooling systems (which shouldn’t even be a requirement) aren’t helping.
So let’s sum up the situation in consumer terms: We shell out $400.00+ dollars on a gaming system. We buy all the fun accessories, games and points to get the best out of this $400.00 system. So lets say on average $50.00 per game $200.00 on accessories and then anywhere from $6-$70.00 on points to buy items that for all intents and purposes SHOULD be free Because of the $50.00 yearly Xbox Live membership. We buy all of this (some of us are not wealthy ya know.. this is a LOT of money) only to have the system BREAK on us.
We come home from a crappy day at work and all we want to do is beat up our co-workers in an arousing game of Rainbow Six with our hard earned Xbox.. Then BAM! Red light of death. We then have to call your customer service, fight with reps on the phone about warranties and protection plans (another $140.00) only to have to wait for a packing box and label to send it to you, and have another crappy broken system sent back to us after a 2+ week wait. I don’t know about you, but this doesn’t sound like good and fair business practices. With the multiple failed launches of various operating systems and now this, people are starting to lose faith in the Microsoft name.
And when asked about the issue at hand, your hand picked representative Peter Moore quickly diverted off the issue. The stats say that only 4% of Xbox users have experienced this issue. I believe that to be an outdated and falsified report. Either that, or a decimal place got lost in translation. Either way, it is wrong and considering you are fighting hard for a better educational system. I think it is a bit ironic.
At this point I think you have a few options. First and foremost you need to improve your system. You need to make the Xbox 360 impervious to just about anything. You have the brightest minds in the biz working for you, I am sure you can figure out a way. Once that has been accomplished you should consider offering some form of Xbox Rebate or perk system for those who have had this issue. And offer the improved systems at a really good rate for those who own older models. The continual taking and nothing in return is not a good way to handle anything. You should also stop working on releasing bigger systems until you FIX THE ONE YOU SCREWED UP IN THE FIRST PLACE. I would also like to suggest that when a box comes back damaged it should automatically replaced with a new one, none of this refurbished crap.
The video game industry is a highly competitive and very lucrative business. In order to have staying power you will need to produce a reliable and technologically advanced product. With the competition being fierce and the promise of most games being multi platform your hold will slowly lose its grip. Best to take a little loss now than lose your business for good.
Sincerely, Chicanery, the wonder ranter.
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