[News] Microsoft facing $1bn Xbox bill

[Valleysboy1978]

Whoops!
That must hurt!

[wossname]

The failures are indicated by three red flashing lights on the console.

There is also another error code indicated by two flashing lights: the "error light #3 is malfunctioning" error.

[Valleysboy1978]

haha

[kregg]

[wossname]

Well actually, last year my old XBox1 did this sort of thing. After 3 years of loyal service, the hard disc would seize up in hot weather or after long periods of gaming.

I managed to rectify the problem by harvesting all the usable organs from the xbox (the fans and heatsink are excellent) and tearing the HDD to bits and using the platter as a stylish coffee mat.

The cpu fan ended up on my linux server thus halving the noise.

To ease the feeling of loss I bought another xbox 1.

[timeshifter]

You support M$ with their worthless junk?

You disappoint me.

[kregg]

The XBox 360 isn't worthless. I've got one at home and it's brilliant. It's a cheaper PS3.

There is no way I am going to buy the PS3 at its current cost.

[kregg]

Damnit! I got the 3 red lights!!!

Someone stop shining their laser pens onto the XBox!

[zaza]

I hope Microsoft don't go bankrupt after such an enormous bill.

[nemaroller]

I think its fantastic they've voluntarily extended their warranty to 3 years - making it retroactive for all consumers who purchased one when it came out. They're covered for another year.

If I owned one of course, I would probably EBay it for a newer one.

[TheBigB]

if they go bankrupt, it would be their own fault...
this bill is not all.
they overpriced the licenses for vista big time
how would they expect to sell them apart from factory builds?
the 'wow' doesn't compensate to the price for me...
it's a thing of price and demand.
if the price is high, demand is obvious lower;
if price is low, demand is higher.
they can easily sell the licenses at lower price to gain eventually more profit as you sell more, but that knowledge seems to lack at m$...

[zaza]

if they go bankrupt, it would be their own fault...
this bill is not all.
they overpriced the licenses for vista big time
how would they expect to sell them apart from factory builds?
the 'wow' doesn't compensate to the price for me...
it's a thing of price and demand.
if the price is high, demand is obvious lower;
if price is low, demand is higher.
they can easily sell the licenses at lower price to gain eventually more profit as you sell more, but that knowledge seems to lack at m$...

By this argument, they should be practically giving them away to make maximum profit from maximum sales...

Clearly this is not the case. Microsoft, and every other company, employs people to assess how their sales will fare against price and they construct their sales strategy so as to make maximum profit. If Microsoft thought they would make more profit by lowering the price, believe me they would do it.

[System_Error]

I bought one a month ago. Hopefully it's new enough to avoid the problems but at least microsoft is offering a free 3 year extending warranty... That's something not many companies would have done.

[timeshifter]

It's something not many other companies can afford to do...

[nemaroller]

My kid's Thomas the Train was recalled for lead paint (obviously the Chinese don't understand lead paint on a kid's toys is bad news).

The company RC2 will send you a replacement train, if you mail the current train at your own expense, and then wait 8 weeks for a replacement to arrive.

My first reaction was 'we can't just go to ToysRUs and have it swapped?'
Nope, have to mail it in and then explain to a 3 year old he must be patient and wait eight weeks for his train to come back. Yea, that went over REALLY well.

[Valleysboy1978]

Apparently the PS3 will now be cut to just $50 more than the XBox 360

[TheBigB]

seriously? nice, seems like a blue ray device is becoming closer to affordable now...

[wossname]

(obviously the Chinese don't understand lead paint on a kid's toys is bad news)

That's how they keep the population down.

[Valleysboy1978]

seriously? nice, seems like a blue ray device is becoming closer to affordable now...

That's probably why. The BluRay player was quite expensive, but even still it's cheaper to get a PS3 than a BluRay player

[capsulecorpjx]

I hope Microsoft don't go bankrupt after such an enormous bill.

Microsoft can afford to use 1 Billion dollars as toliet paper.

They'll be fine.