Mike Bantick
Saturday, 11 August 2007 08:34
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
It has been a busy couple of months over at the big M Public Relations bunker.
In recent times everybody from the
European Commission for Consumers to
thermal engineers have been questioning the quality of Xbox 360 construction, giving weight to the undercurrent of internet forums that had been carrying negative user experiences for a significant period.
Microsoft is fighting hard,
throwing money at the perception of shoddy Xbox 360 quality . The dreaded ‘Red Ring of Death’ errors that have reportedly plagued up to one third of Xbox 360’s
First there came the open acknowledgement of a possible issue with Xbox 360 reliability. Microsoft dedicated over US$1 billion (spread over a number of fiscal years) to combating the problem. Then there was the increase in warrantee (from one to three years) for the ‘general hardware error’ (the proper name for the ‘Red Ring of Death’).
The latest price cut across the Xbox 360 range as well as adding a HDMI port to the Premium SKU will alleviate a large chunk of the negative press, but like Sony, it would be nice for Microsoft to be less U.S. centric with their appeasements. At the time of writing along with news of price cuts, there is still no release date for the 120GB HDD equipped Xbox 360 Elite in regions such as Australia.
By far Xbox 360 has the best software range for this generation; it also has the most polished online offering still. But currently Microsoft need to shake the poor quality image (perhaps releasing the cooler 65nm processor across the model range will help) along with other niggles, such as rumours of games being released with ‘
Hard Drive Only’ stickers.
The new
streamlined Xbox 360 repair site should help gets those busted boxes back to base better. Well at least you will be able to track your repair online.
All up it is a pivotal time for Xbox 360 propaganda, There are some hearts and minds to be won, Microsoft iTWire PR Rating C+
Finally Nintendo
