My Xbox 360 just died

June 13, 2009 | In Rants, Video Games | No Comments

As I am sitting on my sofa watching some television, I have a box sitting next to me that should be a part of all those nice shinny electronics near my television. Today my Xbox 360 finally succumb to the RRoD.

For those who don’t know, the RRoD (Red Ring of Death) is a problem the 360 has been known to have for quite some time. It’s a hardware crash that requires repair. It is supposed to be a easy fix, but for some reason it doesn’t feel as painless as Microsoft would like us to believe.

I got my Xbox 360 last February. I’m disturbed that only a year and change into the console’s working life it would fail like this. If it had a couple years under its belt I would feel better about the whole thing.

Microsoft had been spending the last few months gaining some good will from me. Windows 7 was looking good, the new Zune HD was a compelling product and everything they were showing at E3 with the 360 was looking exceptional.

I’m not ready to give up on the 360 as a platform. I have put a lot of money into games and the service in general, but it is disheartening to have these kinds of problems in what could be a all in one movie/game/television/music device. Shame on you Microsoft. You could have spent a little more time early on and addressed these problems before they ever were problems.

My repair request is in and I just received my confirmation. It shouldn’t cost me anything which is nice, but it’s still a major annoyance. At least I’ll have it before Halo 3 ODST comes out. This just reminds me why I find Microsoft’s products to be less than some of its competitors (cough Apple, cough).