Lot of chatter on the Xbox malfunctioning with the Halo 3 game. Class-action lawsuit, cable news coverage and all over the blogosphere. It sounds like there are a few users out there who feel their new game is crashing their system. On the other hand, some feel it’s the fault of the user. They’ve had no problems themselves. (Good comments string on this post.)
The folks behind Xbox have a blog dedicated to fixing the problems associated with the machine. There’s been a lot of chatter about how Microsoft was aware of certain hardware problems and set aside $1 billion this past summer to deal with it. Now, in light of problems with new games (also including Call of Duty 4), that money appears to be an admission of guilt. My favorite submission was under this post which says toothpaste will help fix the discs the machine scratches. I would prefer they give me some idea what they’re doing to prevent their machines from scratching discs in the first place!
I’m also willing to throw MSFT under the bus a little on this one and ask how much research they did into consumer use patterns prior to launch? The first Xbox was fantastically popular and gamers are notoriously dedicated to their craft.
But in the mixed world that is Microsoft consumer value, it looks like they may be taking their game console to the social media realm with tomorrow’s fall update. So they miss on the hardware end, but make up for it with greater connectivity.
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