Mumbai: When it comes to technology, especially emerging ones, nothing is free from flaws; errors and bugs are part and parcel in the field of innovation but it does hurt when one simple mistake costs one billion.
In 2007, former Xbox head Robbie Bach wrote a book, titled “Xbox Revisited: A Gameplan for Corporate and Civic Renewal, where he described a scene involving a group of Xbox team leaders meeting him to discuss a major problem—The “Red Ring Death” issue on Xbox 360 consoles.
The ‘Red Ring Death’ was a major hardware problem which claimed the life of many Xbox 360 consoles. Simply put, the console would flash a ring of three red lights around the power button and subsequently stop working.
Although the problem was wide-spread, it wasn’t quite clear as to what led to the issue. The company received numerous complaints from users who complained that their Xbox was shutting down abruptly and failing to start later on.
According to TechInsider, nine months since the first Xbox 360 batch was released in November 2005, consumers started complaining and sending back defective units. However, Bach’s team at Microsoft had no clue regarding the issue.
Later, after digging deep, Bach determined that the problem was primarily due to ignoring engineering and concentrating more on the design factor. Unlike the original Xbox, Microsoft wanted to beautify the 360; a design-first approach to be precise.
Bach also explained that building the console’s shell was their first priority, which needed the sensibility of a designer; however, this also meant that the engineering team would have constraints while fitting the core elements inside the shell.
As a result of fitting the core elements into the tight-spaced console, the device was prone to overheating, which led to the “Red Ring Death” effect. Overheating can cause major issue internally even without the user’s knowledge.
This forced Microsoft and Bach to extend the product’s warranty to three years, and repair or replace ‘every’ affected console – the mistake cost the company $1 billion!
Bach said that this was undoubtedly the biggest decision he had taken in his 22 years at Microsoft. Moreover, he also pointed out that the problem was fixed with the release of the remodelled Xbox 360 ‘S’ in 2010.
