Microsoft's new look Xbox 360 even has
a new symbol for hardware failure --
the red dot of death. The Microsoft Xbox 360's "Red Ring of Death" became synonymous with hardware failure, much as the "Blue Screen of Death" formerly found in Windows became a colloquialism for operating system failure. Now the infamous failure is going away for good.
In the latest round of console wars Nintendo has come out well on top, with over 53.6 million Wii consoles sold worldwide. Despite launching solid titles and launching a year and a half earlier, the second place Microsoft Xbox 360 has only sold 32.5 million consoles worldwide. Part of that gap is due to Nintendo's innovative motion controls.
The power indicator will look like this when
it isn't failing.To its credit the Xbox 360 has still sold very well and has a very high software attach rate. But if there was one problem on its own part that held it back from complete domination, it was hardware failures. The console suffered from a variety of hardware failures, with some sources claiming that its lifetime failure rate was as high as 54 percent and some users suffering from hardware failures even after multiple replacements.
Microsoft was actually quite supportive, pouring billions into warrantying the failing consoles. Eventually the issues were linked to overheating and a series of die shrinks and firmware updates helped reduce failure rates. By that time though, the red ring of LEDs that turned on when the hardware failed had made its way into the annals of pop culture.
At E3 2010 Microsoft announced the Xbox 360 "S" (Slim), which would replace the Xbox 360 Elite at the $300 USD price tier. The new unit is based around a integrated CPU/GPU chip using a smaller 45nm fabrication process. The internal architecture has been rearranged, with one large fan replacing the two smaller ones for cooling duties. USB ports replace Memory Unit slots and 802.11n wireless was added.
One additional change is that the RRoD has been replaced with the "Red Dot of Death" (RDoD?). The red LEDs in the ring have been removed and now only green light will show out the ring of the power indicator. Upon hardware failure, a single red LED will light up the center power indicator symbol.
Phil Spencer, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft Game Studios states, "Now obviously, the box has a way to communicate to you if something has happened...but yes, three red lights are not part of our sequence of telling somebody something is wrong. Obviously if you look at the success rate of the original 360s, we're very proud of both the way the company stepped up to support the customers that we had as well as the success rate we have with the box today. I think we've learned a lot. That learning has gone into the development of this [new] box."
That said, the Xbox 360 "S" is hopefully far less likely to fail. If Microsoft did its homework, the redesign and die shrink should help to fix a large variety of issues and reinvigorate the console. As for the RRoD, it may be gone, but it certainly won't be forgotten for some time.
