Consolation Prize

I was getting a bit worried about my Xbox 360 that I’d sent back to Microsoft (three flashing red lights!) a few weeks ago. It had been 17 days since it was picked up by UPS and I’d not heard a peep from Microsoft support to confirm they’d received the console or if it had now been fixed. I was therefore resigning myself to the fact that it was going to take the full 25 days as estimated to either get it repaired or replaced.

To my surprise I returned home today after work to find a UPS delivery notification stating that they’d left a package with my neighbour. Without delay I rushed next door to pick it up.

It was indeed an Xbox 360, not my original but a replacement. The cover letter reads:

“So you can get back to playing and enjoying your Xbox quicker, we have replaced your Xbox console with a replacement unit.”

If it takes 17 days to “replace” a unit I’m glad they decided not to fix it or else it may have been gone for a very long time.

So far it’s working fine but I did notice that it sounds different to my previous unit and I hope this is down to an “enhancement” that has been made to stop the problem reoccurring.

All in all the process was relatively painless and I’ve been sent a couple of complimentary one month Xbox Live Gold subscriptions as a gesture of goodwill, but at the end of the day we shouldn’t really be seeing hardware failures on this magnitude from a mass produced commercial console.

Related:
Death of a 360
The State of Play

My Xbox 360 finally died on me at the weekend. It has been playing up for the past week and had frozen a few times whilst playing games so I had an inclination that all was not well. On Friday evening I finally got the three red lights of doom, fortunately the extended warranty is now in effect so I gave Microsoft Support a ring on Saturday morning.

After a 58 minute wait on hold and after about the one hundredth time of hearing the words: “Please remain on the line and a support representative will be with you as soon as possible. Thankyou for your patience.” I finally managed to speak to a representative.

A few questions about the console followed (serial number etc) and I eventually got the option of having the UPS labels sent by post or by email. Initially I said I wanted them by post but as soon as I found out that it can take up to five days to get them I promptly changed my mind to email. At this stage I needed to change my Xbox Live email address so I gave the representative my new details and to my amusement the representative said he would have to write them down as the system had just crashed. I asked him if there were “three flashing red lights” displayed on the front of his PC but I don’t think he was too amused with the quip.

My console is scheduled to be picked up tomorrow and there’s currently about a 15 - 25 day turnaround for repairs (i.e. get a refurbished one sent back). I’ve had the console since the UK launch and I honestly thought I’d escaped the abysmal reliability problems but alas that was not to be. During my 360’s downtime I will continue to post news but unfortunately trial and demo impressions will have to wait until I get the console back. On the up side I should now have the time to play a few of my back catalog of games for other platforms that have built up over the last year and I hope to post reviews as appropriate.

The recent poll asking the question “What can Sony do to ensure they come out on top?” has now finished. Thankyou to all readers that voted and although there wasn’t a flood of votes (after all it was only the first poll!) the results are still pertinent.

As suspected it was “reducing the price” that got most votes and accounted for a 53% share. I certainly agree that this has to be the first step that Sony takes. Although they are still making a loss on hardware for each unit that is manufactured (estimated 100 GBP / 200 USD) this has to come sooner rather than later as they do not have the luxury of waiting for manufacturing costs to decrease to help offset a new price point.

When a price drop does happen it has to be a significant amount. Here in the UK there was an “unofficial” reduction of 25 GBP (50 USD) a few weeks after launch but I don’t believe another similar drop would be enough. So how much would it take? From a personal point of view a drop of 100 GBP (200 USD) would entice me to buy a PS3 immediately, but from analytical rumours appearing on the Internet a drop of 100 USD (50 GBP) is more likely to happen.

There’s no denying that the PS3 is a state of the art piece of kit, but I just feel that adding in so much cutting edge technology has backfired with regards to the manufacturing costs and the resulting retail price. If you have an opinion on the price point in your region, please feel free to leave a comment.

PS3 60GB Launch Prices
(figures in brackets show the equivalent price using current exchange rates)
(UK) GBP 425 / EUR 599 (840 USD / 102,173 YEN)
(US) USD 599 (303 GBP / 445 EUR / 72,862 YEN)
(JPN) YEN 59,980 (249 GBP / 367 EUR / 493 USD)

So.. this is the first post! I’ve never blogged before so this is a new adventure for me. Therefore, please view this blog as “work in progress” and fairly organic as I get to grips with the technology involved.

I aim to use this blog to jot down my thoughts on anything that generally takes my interest, although it will have a bias towards console gaming. I’ve been an avid gamer for many years, owned many different platforms and seen the industry grow to today’s behemoth. Who knows what the future may hold? but we’re in interesting times now that the “next” generation is finally “this” generation. I look forward to seeing how it all plays out!