Microsoft is selling a $25 Red Ring of Death poster to commemorate its greatest console failure
This takes some nerve.
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The Red Ring of Death is one of videogame industry’s most infamous fiascoes. It’s basically the Xbox 360 version of theBlue Screen of Death—seeing either one means you’ve got real trouble. TheXbox support sitedescribes it prosaically: “Three flashing red lights mean that the Xbox 360 console or its power supply has a hardware problem.” But that really doesn’t convey the scale of the situation, which was nothing short of catastrophic.
Apparently now, though, the whole fiasco is far enough back in the rear view mirror that Microsoft can actually turn it into a historical touchstone—almost a treasured memory, really—and turn a buck on it in the process: You can now buy a Red Ring of Death “premium print” from theXbox Gear Shopfor $25. The slightly glossy, fingerprint-resistant print is to “commemorate” the release of a six-partdocumentary of the Xbox console, one episode of which recounts the Red Ring of Death era.
For those who missed all the fun—it was 15 years ago, after all—VentureBeatpublished an in-depth history of the RRoD in 2008. The short version is that Microsoft knew the Xbox 360 had problems but didn’t delay the rollout because it didn’t want to get beaten to the punch by Sony and Nintendo. The result: Massive failure rates and more than $1 billion in warranty expenses, complicated further by how many of the problems were latent, meaning they wouldn’t turn up until the machines had been in use for a while.
Despite the scale of the problem, the whole thing blew over relatively quickly. Robbie Bach, the former president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division, said in the VentureBeat history that “customer reaction data” didn’t show untoward levels of outrage over the problem.
“It speaks to the fact that they love their games and Xbox Live,” Bach said. “Does it frustrate them? Yes. On the other hand, they know we’re taking care of them. People have a certain amount of respect for that.”
As my UK compatriots might say, it’s a cheeky move—very cheeky, indeed. The Red Ring of Death was a full-scale goat rodeo, and while Microsoft has the resources to absorb that kind of financial hit, bouncing back from the PR nightmare is a whole different matter. But charging people $25 to hang a big reminder of the most ignominious moment in Xbox history on their wall? That’s next-level stuff—and a move that will probably be very popular, too.
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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill.Lotsof Henry Cavill.
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