Microsoft Fires Employee Who Leaked Hardware Failure Rate

[The 1 2 P]

Robert Delaware apparently thought having the same last name as a tax-free state meant that he could say anything as "freely" as he wanted. But he learned very quickly that he was wrong. After leaking details about the 360 hardware failure rate(while being a contract employee serving as a game tester) to Dean Takahashi(a reporter in California who does quite a bit of stories on Microsoft), Microsoft pulled the plug on Delaware's career permanently:http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/microsoft-fires-xbox-employee-who-talked-about-hardware-failures/ .

I don't blame Microsoft, they were just protecting their investment. But I don't think they should seek legal charges against him. I mean, he already has to find another job. But then again his ass was being pretty damn cocky when commenting for this story. Maybe being fined a few thousand dollars will teach him to keep his mouth shut next time.

I also need to comment on Microsoft. While I love all three next gen systems for specific reasons--the 360 is by far my favorite for having more games, better games and a much better online service. Having said that, Microsoft really fucked up on the hardware of the 360. And yes we all know they knew before launch that their systems needed work, yet they shipped them anyway just to beat Sony to market. While they acomplished their goal of beating the PS3 to market and outselling it thus far, they have left a very bittersweet taste in the mouths of all who have gotten the dreaded 3 rings of death. But atleast they admitted the problem and extended the warrenty. Although that helps alittle bit, I severely hope they get their act together before the next gen starts. Other wise consumers(like myself) will make sure they get the message by not supporting their next console with their wallets.

[skaar]

Some people just don't seem to understand what an NDA is for. They SHOULD go after the dumbass. :P

"I'll fight them, bring it on!" - seriously, wtf.

[jcalder8]

Lol a "witch hunt"? They fired the guy who leaked the info, it's not much of a witch hunt.

I hope MS takes his ass for thousands, I'm sure he sold that info for a ton of money.

[Sabz5150]

So you'd want someone to stay quiet about hardware failures? What if this was a safety feature in a vehicle or a design flaw that could potentially be fatal instead of a game console? You do NOT want to silence these voices, ever. These are the things that keep companies in line, making sure that the don't continue to stiff the customer with broken products.

360 owners/fanboys, answer this: HOW is a failure rate of this level even acceptable?! How can some of you be on your third, fourth, and in one case TWELFTH unit and still keep saying "Oh, it'll be fixed this time"? If your car or truck failed at that level, would you keep buying from that manufacturer? Would you keep accepting replacements from that manufacturer? Of course not! This type of failure is UNACCEPTABLE. I would not take this from Sony, Nintendo or any other manufacturer of ANYTHING on this planet.

[skaar]

Sabz, stay on topic. This isn't a safety issue. This is an employee breaking an NDA for a manufacturer.

[The 1 2 P]

I hope MS takes his ass for thousands, I'm sure he sold that info for a ton of money.

I don't think he made any money at all. His co-workers also contributed to the story. The only difference is that they chose to remain anonymous while he thought he was Superman and didn't:?

It's the equivalent of me using a fake name to come on DP and making a thread giving all the reasons why I hate DP and then adding at the end: "if anyone wants some--hit me on my real DP name The 1 2 P". Joe and the mods would have my ass, but as stupid as that would be on my part--thats pretty much what Robert Delaware just did to himself:shameful:.

[Sabz5150]

Sabz, stay on topic. This isn't a safety issue. This is an employee breaking an NDA for a manufacturer.

It IS on topic. Manufacturers have an obligation not to sell us broken products. I don't care what it is or what company it comes from, if I'm getting shafted, I wanna know it regardless of who tells me. NDAs be damned in this situation, they KNEW their products were flawed, they sold them to us anyway and tried to keep it hush-hush.

Didn't Apple find themselves on the wrong end of a class action because they shafted us with the batteries in their iPods? What's the difference? Don't give Microsoft a free pass on shipping shit product.

[DreamTR]

It is kind of akin to "The Insider" movie/book except without Big Tobacco being involved.

NDA or not, it's still a pretty valid consumer issue. Honestly, the bigger issue would have been the Xbox power cord issue where fires can happen, but that's besides the point. You just have to figure out where your level of morales lie.

In this case, he was the only one that used his real name. Not a very smart decision because for one thing, he was just a contracted tester. He had NOTHING to do with the production of that unit. It's not like he was a bigwhig that is going to find tons and tons of jobs and reap cash rewards on the subject because he was using his name, so he either wanted the fame, or just did not think clearly when everyone else remained anonymous and kept their jobs.

[Porksta]

So you'd want someone to stay quiet about hardware failures? What if this was a safety feature in a vehicle or a design flaw that could potentially be fatal instead of a game console? You do NOT want to silence these voices, ever. These are the things that keep companies in line, making sure that the don't continue to stiff the customer with broken products.

360 owners/fanboys, answer this: HOW is a failure rate of this level even acceptable?! How can some of you be on your third, fourth, and in one case TWELFTH unit and still keep saying "Oh, it'll be fixed this time"? If your car or truck failed at that level, would you keep buying from that manufacturer? Would you keep accepting replacements from that manufacturer? Of course not! This type of failure is UNACCEPTABLE. I would not take this from Sony, Nintendo or any other manufacturer of ANYTHING on this planet.

Microsoft fixes them for you for free, what more do you want? Don't say no RROD, because that is stupid. Microsoft has obviously done the research and has found out that it would cost more money fixing the problem than allowing for free repairs. The reason car companies do recalls is because it is a safety issue. I'm not saying that that safety is more important, I am saying that because safety issues bring large lawsuits. Who is going to sue over RROD? Not a lot of people. Who is going to sue over faulty brakes in a car that causes people to die? A ton of people, and for a ton of cash.

[Sabz5150]

Microsoft fixes them for you for free, what more do you want? Don't say no RROD, because that is stupid. Microsoft has obviously done the research and has found out that it would cost more money fixing the problem than allowing for free repairs. The reason car companies do recalls is because it is a safety issue. I'm not saying that that safety is more important, I am saying that because safety issues bring large lawsuits. Who is going to sue over RROD? Not a lot of people. Who is going to sue over faulty brakes in a car that causes people to die? A ton of people, and for a ton of cash.

What more do I want? First, I want playing my console to not be a crapshoot. I don't expect a zero percent failure rate from anything, but the 360's failure rate is downright abysmal. There's no excuse for it. I don't care if they fix it for free... that's not why I buy a console. I don't spend 300 dollars to play "Super UPS Shipper Wait N See". I don't spend 300 dollars to kneel and say a prayer every time I cut on my console. I spend money to play games, and any way you cut it, sending my console on a transcontinental flight is NOT playing games. If I had to send any of my consoles back because of hardware issues more than ONE time, I'd tell them to keep the POS and send me a refund check.

This is the reason I have not bought a 360. Everything else about the console is great... excellent titles, beautiful graphics and sound, online play that is second to none... but NONE of that makes a single difference if the console doesn't work.

[Porksta]

What more do I want? First, I want playing my console to not be a crapshoot. I don't expect a zero percent failure rate from anything, but the 360's failure rate is downright abysmal. There's no excuse for it. I don't care if they fix it for free... that's not why I buy a console. I don't spend 300 dollars to play "Super UPS Shipper Wait N See". I don't spend 300 dollars to kneel and say a prayer every time I cut on my console. I spend money to play games, and any way you cut it, sending my console on a transcontinental flight is NOT playing games. If I had to send any of my consoles back because of hardware issues more than ONE time, I'd tell them to keep the POS and send me a refund check.

This is the reason I have not bought a 360. Everything else about the console is great... excellent titles, beautiful graphics and sound, online play that is second to none... but NONE of that makes a single difference if the console doesn't work.

See, first post and already you can't read. I said "Don't say RROD" and what is your whole paragraph about? RROD. One day this world will be literate...

[Press_Start]

It IS on topic. Manufacturers have an obligation not to sell us broken products. I don't care what it is or what company it comes from, if I'm getting shafted, I wanna know it regardless of who tells me. NDAs be damned in this situation, they KNEW their products were flawed, they sold them to us anyway and tried to keep it hush-hush.

Didn't Apple find themselves on the wrong end of a class action because they shafted us with the batteries in their iPods? What's the difference? Don't give Microsoft a free pass on shipping shit product.

Sabz, you're not the first to "enlighten" people on the forum. Others have tried and have failed. Their love for the 360's features, its games and XBLA coupled with the 3-year extended warranty have prevented any argument to budge them even an inch. Hell, the fact they're on system #4 or #5 tells they think MS and 360 has done no wrong...yet.

Besides, MS taking a billion dollar loss wouldn't call a free pass, but they deserve a big kick in the nuts and get taken to the cleaners.

[Lothars]

Microsoft fixes them for you for free, what more do you want? Don't say no RROD, because that is stupid. Microsoft has obviously done the research and has found out that it would cost more money fixing the problem than allowing for free repairs. The reason car companies do recalls is because it is a safety issue. I'm not saying that that safety is more important, I am saying that because safety issues bring large lawsuits. Who is going to sue over RROD? Not a lot of people. Who is going to sue over faulty brakes in a car that causes people to die? A ton of people, and for a ton of cash.

That's the thing though Microsoft only fixes RROD for free, they will not fix something other than the RROD for free such as 1 Red Ring or a broken CD Drive, They knowningly released a faulty product and than throw money at it to try to keep it from being sued, my opinion is they should be sued for every single problem that has happened regarding the 360 and if they do it with there next system which they will do, they will half ass the quality and expect people to buy it.

I like my 360 but Microsoft deserves to be majorly punished for this because I don't think the billion dollar loss is enough, they definitely need to be punished harder and more.

[Sabz5150]

See, first post and already you can't read. I said "Don't say RROD" and what is your whole paragraph about? RROD. One day this world will be literate...

And what is the SINGLE problem with the 360? That's like saying "What more did you want from the Hindenburg?! Don't say not flammable and filled with hydrogen!"

[Sabz5150]

Sabz, you're not the first to "enlighten" people on the forum. Others have tried and have failed. Their love for the 360's features, its games and XBLA coupled with the 3-year extended warranty have prevented any argument to budge them even an inch. Hell, the fact they're on system #4 or #5 tells they think MS and 360 has done no wrong...yet.

Besides, MS taking a billion dollar loss wouldn't call a free pass, but they deserve a big kick in the nuts and get taken to the cleaners.

I've been dealing with Microsoft since they made this thing called Windows, and looking at things back then to today... the 360's issues are run-of-the-mill for them.

How many times have their operating systems worked properly without requiring major service packs and upgrades? 95 needed two, 98 needed a HUGE one, NT required SIX of them. ME was a dismal failure and Vista... well, I need say no more about THAT.

[Sabz5150]

Sabz, you're not the first to "enlighten" people on the forum. Others have tried and have failed. Their love for the 360's features, its games and XBLA coupled with the 3-year extended warranty have prevented any argument to budge them even an inch. Hell, the fact they're on system #4 or #5 tells they think MS and 360 has done no wrong...yet.

Besides, MS taking a billion dollar loss wouldn't call a free pass, but they deserve a big kick in the nuts and get taken to the cleaners.

"He only beats me because its my fault! He'll love me one day!"

[SegaAges]

It got to the point where by the spring of 2006, Microsoft had half a million returned or defective 360 consoles sitting in warehouses

I love my 360 and all, but I am not a fanboy, and that is insane.

You fix your current problems before adding in more variables that could possibly complicate the issue and bring up more issues.

Microsoft failed to do that even though they knew about some of the problems. I can't say all, because hey, there is no way to test for every single issue.

Under the same token of the cars argument, what would happen if a company recalled half a million faulty parts for free to get repaired? That number is high enough to be insanely bad.

I know, I know, many of the problems from back then are fixed, but I personally think that the issue should never had happened.

Microsoft messed up, and now that they are trying to right their wrongs, people think it is all hunky dory. No, it is not all peaches in sugarland.

How many people complained about the DRM in Spore but yet they continue to get RRoD's and drive failures on their 360's and think it is just fine? Many. If it is not you, don't try to take it as a direct attack, because it is not about you. Yes, I brought up Spore when this is about a M$ employee getting fired. It just shows that some people pick battles. The Amazon.com one was played pretty crappy, made news for a day, and it was over. The problem is that the 68% failure rate will do the same and people will continue to keep buying busted systems.

This employee saw how nasty this company was with their mistakes, and decided that people needed to hear about it. Yes, it was retarded to give your name, as he was going for fame, and is only getting hit with legal charges instead.

Me, personally, the only thing my company really does to screw people over is massive layoffs every now and again, but many big companies do that. He had better secrets about his company than I do, but it is too bad that he thought he would be all famous for "exposing the giant for being evil" when in turn it completely backfired on him. Honestly, how many people besides us internet peeps will know about this dude?

[carlcarlson]

"He only beats me because its my fault! He'll love me one day!"

Sheesh, we get it, you don't like Microsoft. You don't even own a 360, though, so I'm not sure I see what your problem is.

ANYWAY.. yeah, that guy wasn't very smart to give his real name. Should the data have been released? Yeah, probably, but not like that. It would have been nice if Microsoft had owned up to it themselves.

[skaar]

And what is the SINGLE problem with the 360? That's like saying "What more did you want from the Hindenburg?! Don't say not flammable and filled with hydrogen!"

Oooh oooh. Mention Hitler next. Please.

[Sabz5150]

Oooh oooh. Mention Hitler next. Please.

To what end? :hmm:

[Nature Boy]

You don't even own a 360, though, so I'm not sure I see what your problem is.

I agree - what's with the ranting? We get that you hate MS dude - chill out!


How many times have their operating systems worked properly without requiring major service packs and upgrades? 95 needed two, 98 needed a HUGE one, NT required SIX of them. ME was a dismal failure and Vista... well, I need say no more about THAT.

I actually have a Linux machine at home running Ubuntu, and let me tell you people are patching that *all* the time. At least once a week there are updates available. Some are enhancements, true, but there are always patches too.

Nobody makes 100% perfect hardware or software.

I'll grant that the failure rate for 360s is appalling, but I won't be selling mine off anytime soon. I love it too much, and I've put too much money into it (games and DLC).

BTW: My personal failure rate for 360s is 0% (I've bought one and it's never failed). For GBA SP's it's 33% (I've bought 2 and had to return one because of bad shoulder buttons).

[Sabz5150]

I agree - what's with the ranting? We get that you hate MS dude - chill out!

My ranting deals with the failure rate of ONE piece of hardware: the Xbox360. *IF* it were not for that, I would own one. I've played a good share of the 360, it's a decent system, and honestly now that the Falcon board is out (I will give it some time to prove itself), I am in the market to get one.

Make no mistake about this... if any other company were to release hardware like that (yes, I broke out the flamethrower over Sony's subpar quality lasers in BOTH the PS1 and PS2), I would react the same way.


I actually have a Linux machine at home running Ubuntu, and let me tell you people are patching that *all* the time. At least once a week there are updates available. Some are enhancements, true, but there are always patches too.

I'm a Gentoo user, BOW BEFORE ME PEON :D

My Linux systems do exactly what I expect in a machine... run without skipping a single beat, and I don't cut them off unless I absolutely have to.


Nobody makes 100% perfect hardware or software.

And I'm not asking for that. What I am asking for is a console purchase that doesn't come with a D4 savings throw attached to it.


I'll grant that the failure rate for 360s is appalling, but I won't be selling mine off anytime soon. I love it too much, and I've put too much money into it (games and DLC).

BTW: My personal failure rate for 360s is 0% (I've bought one and it's never failed). For GBA SP's it's 33% (I've bought 2 and had to return one because of bad shoulder buttons).

I haven't had a console outright fail me yet.

[SegaAges]

I agree - what's with the ranting? We get that you hate MS dude - chill out!



I actually have a Linux machine at home running Ubuntu, and let me tell you people are patching that *all* the time. At least once a week there are updates available. Some are enhancements, true, but there are always patches too.

Nobody makes 100% perfect hardware or software.

I'll grant that the failure rate for 360s is appalling, but I won't be selling mine off anytime soon. I love it too much, and I've put too much money into it (games and DLC).

BTW: My personal failure rate for 360s is 0% (I've bought one and it's never failed). For GBA SP's it's 33% (I've bought 2 and had to return one because of bad shoulder buttons).

I am on 360 number 2. I enjoy my 360, but i am at 50% personally, hehehe.

I am personally not a fan of M$, I will say it straight out. I could go on and on about the company and what I don't like, but it is all stuff everybody had heard before (well, most of it). when I throw information into the mix (my own opinion and fact) I will be straight up with you guys.

It is really M$ that created this sh!tstorm to get their system out first and to save some money. Everybody knows that these systems are not super reliable, there is no way around that. If yours has not broken, either you are lucky, or you just need to wait and it will break.

M$ made a huge mistake putting these out early, yes we know.

The only problem that really comes in is the fact that M$ made such a huge mistake but continues racking in the money.

M$ is huge. Compare this to other companies. Let's try car companies (since it was already brought up). Lets use something safe for an example (you won't die, well physically, if your 360 crashes). Let's say a huge company has an electrical problem where the dome light will not shut off. It is a known issue that the dome light will stay on and drain the battery. The car gets recalled, they fix the problem, and then 4 months later the dome light again won't shut off and hence draining your battery and killing your car. You get this fixed again, but then your car stereo goes out, and it is the factory stereo, but since this factory stereo is not the dome light, it is not covered the in recall and you need to pay to get it repaired. Maybe the stereo is always at max volume and won't turn off or something (I don't know, just examples).

What if this company was Ford, or GMC, or Honda, a huge company? This is stuff that will not end your life, but will mess up your car and make it not operational. What if this company knew there was an issue with the dome light, but wanted to make sure that it had a security system installed on the cars to come stock instead of working out the dome light issue. What would happen to this company? Seriously. I will tell you. Whether the information is leaked through an employee or not does not matter. As long as people are willing to take that risk and buy the product, leaked information means nothing.

[monkeychemist]

I don't see why everyone is being a dick to Sabz5150. He has a very VERY valid point and that is that MS's X360 failure rate is unacceptable. I will take it further and say that MS in general, not just with consoles, makes shitty products. They do this so that they can put their product out sooner and cheaper and thus beat the competition. Unfortunately, in the computer world their footing is so good that we all have to put up with the crap like Windows, Office, etc... However, I choose to pay more for quality. At home I have an Apple computer and a Sony PS3. That is because unlike many of you Xbox fanboys, I do not put up with a faulty system. Seriously, you can pick up a beat up NES from a flea market and still have a smaller failure rate than that garbage X360.

Another example, would you put up with a restaurant that messed up your order 50% of the time?

[otoko]

Xbox 360.. the Yugo of game consoles?

[SegaAges]

I don't see why everyone is being a dick to Sabz5150. He has a very VERY valid point and that is that MS's X360 failure rate is unacceptable. I will take it further and say that MS in general, not just with consoles, makes shitty products. They do this so that they can put their product out sooner and cheaper and thus beat the competition. Unfortunately, in the computer world their footing is so good that we all have to put up with the crap like Windows, Office, etc... However, I choose to pay more for quality. At home I have an Apple computer and a Sony PS3. That is because unlike many of you Xbox fanboys, I do not put up with a faulty system. Seriously, you can pick up a beat up NES from a flea market and still have a smaller failure rate than that garbage X360.

Another example, would you put up with a restaurant that messed up your order 50% of the time?

Does this restaraunt give acheivement points?

[carlcarlson]

Does this restaraunt give acheivement points?

I don't know, but if it's the only restaurant that serves food I like then I would still eat there. Besides, they only mess up my order maybe 30% of the time.

[scooterb23]

I don't see why this thread has become ANOTHER "ZOMG TEH 360 IZ BROKENZ LOTZ" thread, when it's about them firing a guy who broke the rules of his employment.

The constant bitching has been old for years now.

[pwpcody]

Another example, would you put up with a restaurant that messed up your order 50% of the time?

Wendys?

[gepeto]

I agree Microsoft needs to concentrate on Perfecting the box. This just makes the guys story more credible.

[SegaAges]

I don't see why this thread has become ANOTHER "ZOMG TEH 360 IZ BROKENZ LOTZ" thread, when it's about them firing a guy who broke the rules of his employment.

The constant bitching has been old for years now.


I think it turned into that because he was giving out information that helps confirm the 360 is a broken machine.

Now if he got fired, for say, revealing information about an upcoming game or something, then that is 1 thing, but the information he gave was about stats M$ had about their broken system.

[punkoffgirl]

I don't see why everyone is being a dick to Sabz5150. He has a very VERY valid point and that is that MS's X360 failure rate is unacceptable.

I completely agree; skaar was also out of line with his comment. Sabz is not trashing Microsoft, and he hasn't said yet that the 360 is junk, but that there's something very wrong with the high failure rate and he thinks this guy did the right thing by bringing it to the media's attention.

[8-bitNesMan]

Does this restaraunt give acheivement points?

Awesome post! Almost made me spit Coke on my monitor :)

[megasdkirby]

I think it turned into that because he was giving out information that helps confirm the 360 is a broken machine.

Now if he got fired, for say, revealing information about an upcoming game or something, then that is 1 thing, but the information he gave was about stats M$ had about their broken system.

I think what he did was a good/bad thing. Morally speaking, it was a bad thing he did. But at the same time, it's a slap at Microsoft's face for everyone to find out how their product could end up. I see it as a good thing...perhaps the embarrassment will be so big for them that they may decide to fix the problem that the 360 has.

It reminds me of the phrase "quality vs. quantity" in a weird sort of way. They were trying to push the console first and gather enough user base at the cost of quality.

A quality console is not one that has kick ass games...it's one that's will last and not give problems. No console will "live for ever", but to spend so much money on something so fragile...I dunno.

I want my consoles to last... The original Xbox is still playing as new, and I've had that console since 2002! If the 360 was like that, then cool!

[carlcarlson]

...he hasn't said yet that the 360 is junk...


Don't give Microsoft a free pass on shipping shit product.

Just saying. And yeah, this thread is way off course.

[Sabz5150]

Just saying. And yeah, this thread is way off course.

What do you call a product that doesn't work?

[megasdkirby]

What do you call a product that doesn't work?

Lemon coke!

Mmmm...tasty!

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40986000/jpg/_40986056_cokelemon203.jpg

[Sabz5150]

Lemon coke!

Mmmm...tasty!

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40986000/jpg/_40986056_cokelemon203.jpg

I prefer lime in mine.

[SegaAges]

What do you call a product that doesn't work?

FURBY!

http://www.cnet.com/i/special/cnet10/top10/worst/furby_120.gif

[jb143]

Microsoft is completely in their rights for firing the guy but suing him may be taking things too far. It's not like he was saying things that people didn't already know. It would be like getting sued for telling the media that the sky is blue.

[SegaAges]

Microsoft is completely in their rights for firing the guy buy suing him may be taking things too far. It's not like he was saying things that people didn't already know. It would be like getting sued for telling the media that the sky is blue.

Yeah?

http://www.yellowheadit.com/images/manitoba-photo2.jpg

There is always a counter argument my friend, and as long as there is one, people on the internet will exploit it.

Oh yeah, that is a picture of the Northern Lights

[jb143]

Water is wet??? Oh wait, I forgot about ice.

Anyways...I said Microsoft is within their rights to fire him because he broke non-disclouse. Which I guess would also give them the right to sue but as I already said, I feel that would be taking things too far. It would probally look even worse on their part.

[SegaAges]

Water is wet??? Oh wait, I forgot about ice.

Anyways...I said Microsoft is within their rights to fire him because he broke non-disclouse. Which I guess would also give them the right to sue but as I already said, I feel that would be taking things too far. It would probally look even worse on their part.

Nah, they did fire him for a legitimate reason, I just found a perfect opportunity to be a smart ass.

[geneshifter]

All I know is this: I am not buying MS's next console no matter how great it is. No way I'm giving them more money again after this BS.

[monkeychemist]

All I know is this: I am not buying MS's next console no matter how great it is. No way I'm giving them more money again after this BS.

Yes, that is exactly how individuals working as a group can make a difference. Although I was happy with my regular Xbox, given the disaster of hardware that is the X360 and my feelings for MS's software, I will never buy another MS product again.

[badinsults]

The companies I have worked for this year operate under NDAs. If I was to break that, I could not only be fired, but also thrown in jail. If you work for a company, you are obligated to keep your mouth shut, unless literally your health or the health of others are in jeopardy.

[joedick]

Y'know if Microsoft didn't fire and threaten to sue that guy, the original article probably would've never caught my attention. It's a pretty good read.

http://venturebeat.com/2008/09/05/xbox-360-defects-an-inside-history-of-microsofts-video-game-console-woes/

[Nature Boy]

Make no mistake about this... if any other company were to release hardware like that (yes, I broke out the flamethrower over Sony's subpar quality lasers in BOTH the PS1 and PS2), I would react the same way.

And I'd still tell you to chill out :)



I'm a Gentoo user, BOW BEFORE ME PEON :D

My Linux systems do exactly what I expect in a machine... run without skipping a single beat, and I don't cut them off unless I absolutely have to.

Consider me bowing - I'm a Linux neophyte. And my Linux box has definitely skipped beats.


I haven't had a console outright fail me yet.

Me neither, GBA notwithstanding. And I had a launch PS2 that everyone was raving about.

The failure rate is definitely a bad thing, and I'll think twice next gen before picking MS over Sony first again, but it will never weigh as heavily in my decision making process as things I learn from non-fanboy tainted sources. So chill out - you're not changing anybody's minds, and you're just coming across like a lunatic anti-whoever guy.

[SegaAges]

Lunatic or not, there are good points presented.

Obviously people are arguing against him, so there is a counter-argument.

The main part about this is some dude getting fired for breaking protocol. You have to think about the information he gave though.

I like extreme examples, but what if M$ functioned like the main company in the movie Anti-Trust? Sure exposing them would be against protocol (technically), but sometimes it is worth it to go against the system and the protocols in order to give us information.

I will say that the dude that gave his name is ballsy and dumb at the same time. He knew that giving out that information meant the end of his job, but he did it anyway. It takes balls to quit your job over revealing information about the company.

You can say, "well it would be different if he was a vp or something". Why? Screw that status crap. He was the lowest of the low and got fed up with the job and "took care of business".

Yes, it was dumb to lose your job, but look at what happened when he quit his job. It did backfire a little, as this was not something that really made huge headlines and messed up 360 sales. M$ will easily keep this under the big media radar and twist it to make this dude look like an ass.

To be just a f'ing tester and standing up to M$, that takes balls, and I don't care who you are or what you feel about it, that dude has some balls of steel.

It would be like standing up against wal-mart or something. If this guy can get his court case shoved out into the "lime light", then mission accomplished for him. Will it happen? NO.

You also have to think about this, if the 360 was so great, why are people that work for M$ standing up against them in order to give us information of how crappy the hardware in the 360 is. Even people that WORK FOR M$ are leaving M$ because they are tired of the crap.

[monkeychemist]

MS should spend the money that they were going to spend on lawyers to sue him and instead give it to their engineers so that they don't f- up so badly next time lol

[SegaAges]

MS should spend the money that they were going to spend on lawyers to sue him and instead give it to their engineers so that they don't f- up so badly next time lol

They can't, different department, hahahahaha

[Oobgarm]

I don't see why everyone is being a dick to Sabz5150. He has a very VERY valid point and that is that MS's X360 failure rate is unacceptable.

Because this thread is about the guy who leaked the info, not the product itself. There are threads for discussing the product and the failure rate.

As for the guy who leaked, I don't wish him harm...but I do have a small feeling of 'I hope they clean him out' just because he's stupid for having done so in such a public fashion.

[MachineGex]

By the time I got finished reading all the posts, I had totally forgotten what the topic is/was....???

[The 1 2 P]

By the time I got finished reading all the posts, I had totally forgotten what the topic is/was....???

I think my rant in paragraph three threw a few people off topic:oops:. I just figured they would realize that the headline(employee fired) is what this story is really about. But apparently I give people too much credit:shameful:

[Nature Boy]

why are people that work for M$ standing up against them in order to give us information of how crappy the hardware in the 360 is

Because they hate their job, for whatever reason?

Seriously, who doesn't work for a company where you could throw a stone and hit six people who hate their jobs and at least as many who think that they can 'get back' at their employer in some fashion?

I don't think he's got balls, I think he's a moron.

[Push Upstairs]

A smart man would have kept his anonymity and avoided legal action.

If he really wanted to stick it to MS, he should have quit/left on good terms, spoke out anonymously, then let MS scramble to figure out who said something.

[mailman187666]

I am one of the many who has gone through multiple 360s and also find it unacceptable that there is such a high failure rate and that they knowingly shipped faulty systems. I love the games and online service, but if they can't make something that functions properly, they shouldn't be praised so highly. I am not a fanboy of any major company or system, I'm a fanboy of being able to trust a company for creating a working product for the price that I've paid. That is all

[Push Upstairs]

If Doc and I were to take the Delorean back 6-7 years, I imagine a topic like this would be about the PS2.

[monkeychemist]

If Doc and I were to take the Delorean back 6-7 years, I imagine a topic like this would be about the PS2.

I've never had a problem with my PS2. The laser thing was MUCH less defective than the X360

[Hep038]

Back OT.You sign a NDA and then break it a public way? Yes you deserve to lose your job. Not only that but every time this guy is hired the company should know he breaks NDA's on a whim. Why do you ask? because if he was working for a company and signed a NDA to work on another project with another company, and broke it because he felt like it, he could ruin that company and lose jobs for the people who work for that company. It kills me how nowadays people think NDA and rules like them only apply at their convenience.

[Push Upstairs]

I've never had a problem with my PS2. The laser thing was MUCH less defective than the X360

I seem to recall people having the same attitude with the PS2 and its problem as they do with the 360.

"I'm not gonna buy a ____ because ____ doesn't know how to make good systems"

"Everything made by ____ is defective."

"I've had to send my _____ into ____ twice already."


Save these for use when the PS4/XBOX 8Billion/Nintendo WOW! come out. One of them is bound to be defective in some way and will get the same responses

[skaar]

I completely agree; skaar was also out of line with his comment. Sabz is not trashing Microsoft, and he hasn't said yet that the 360 is junk, but that there's something very wrong with the high failure rate and he thinks this guy did the right thing by bringing it to the media's attention.

He's ranting about failure rates when the discussion should be about the guy's dismissal and lawsuit. That plus he brought up the Hindenburg. It was only a matter of time until Godwin's Law was invoked. ;)

My thoughts on the matter remain the same - you're not a freaking hero for breaking your NDA about a warehouse of 360s sitting broken somewhere. He's a dumbass and deserved to be fired and the lawsuit. There are consequences for your actions in this world.

Yes, it sucks that 360s die. Computers die all the time, you learn to live with it. Their warranty is decent, the hardware is cheap as dirt these days... and if you don't even OWN a 360 you have no right to complain.

Besides, missing out on years of good gaming because you're trying to prove a point to a multi-billion dollar company kinda seems like shooting yourself in the foot. I still drive my car to the beach - screw the oil companies!

Relax, take the plunge and enjoy it while you can.

[joedick]

Well, talking about the failure rate is pretty relevant, given that it's what he was speaking up about. I'm not sure how many people read Delaware's quotes, so here it is:



Robert Delaware, a former game and hardware tester at one of Microsoft’s contractors, Redmond, Wash.-based VMC, saw the problems popping up in the spring of 2006 as he was testing consoles and new games. Like many testers, he was in the dark about the overall problems and only saw a small slice of the efforts to debug and fix consoles. He found a bug that could cause a reproducible crash on every game he tested.

“If you coordinated the music player with the dashboard, you could get almost every 360 to lock up,” he said in an interview. “I did it first on a combo DVD/audio disk. With NBA 2K6, you would select the music. The screen went black.”

The NBA 2K6 flaw resulted in the Red Rings of Death. Delaware, who as of this writing works at Microsoft as a game tester, agreed to go on the record for this story because he said he believes passionately in his work, which involved painstakingly playing games over and over again in order to uncover bugs. But he also believed passionately in the Xbox 360 gamer community. He is one of those thousands of employees who was good at his job, loved the games, and sought to push Microsoft to excellence. But he said he found it difficult to stay silent on problems that caused a number of his friends a great deal of consternation. He said he realized that speaking out could cost him his job and he plans on asking Microsoft to forgive him for it. He was courageous in coming forward, and he was not the source of emails cited in this story.



http://venturebeat.com/2008/09/05/xbox-360-defects-an-inside-history-of-microsofts-video-game-console-woes/

[SegaAges]

I still drive my car to the beach - Hurray for the oil companies!
fixed.

You can't say something is bad or say "screw this" or "screw that" when you support it to the point that you said that.

Plus the discussion is not about oil companies, it is about a person coming forward who was a game tester, that found some bugs that were so big, you could get a RRoD from a game, A GAME!

He did his job, they did not fix it.

He already said that he knew the consequences by saying he would probably lose his job.

I personally own a 360, so according to you, that gives me room to talk. I am on my 2nd one because the first 1 RRoD'ed on me.

You can check my signature for my game collection as I own systems for all the games I have. Out of all my systems, only 2 have given me any problems.

1.) My game gear stopped giving me sound
2.) RRoD on my 360

Which 1 is more severe, the 360. Why? Uh, it is less than 2 years old and crapping out and it ook my game gear how long?

You have to realize that just because you don't own a 360 does not mean you can't express a voice about it.

Here is a good example of that: The DRM in Spore. There is alot of buzz coming from it. Some of it is very well educated on each side, and some people chose not to buy it because of the amounts of DRM (don't turn this into a spore discussion, I am using this as an example, that is all).

Not buying a 360 could mean that you do not support a company that puts out a console with a 68% failure rate. You are telling me that somebody that does not support that can't talk because they have to purchase the system in order to express a voice? That would be like you saying that I have to vote for Palin in order to tell you why I don't like her. That is silly. If I don't like or want something, I am not doing it or getting it, but I can also express to others the reasons why I am not getting it or doing it.

[skaar]

I personally own a 360, so according to you, that gives me room to talk. I am on my 2nd one because the first 1 RRoD'ed on me.

You can check my signature for my game collection as I own systems for all the games I have. Out of all my systems, only 2 have given me any problems.

1.) My game gear stopped giving me sound
2.) RRoD on my 360

Which 1 is more severe, the 360. Why? Uh, it is less than 2 years old and crapping out and it ook my game gear how long?

You have to realize that just because you don't own a 360 does not mean you can't express a voice about it.


Hey, no reason he can't talk about it. I was originally just trying to keep the thread on topic rather than have it derailed into another "360 is crap Microsoft is evil" thread.

My Texas Instruments calculator from 1984 is still going strong, and I had a laptop die on me last night. One's a LITTLE bit more sophisticated piece of technology. I've had more dead P4 CPUs than Pentium II's as well.

But ANYWAY - the guy's still a twit :D

[Nature Boy]

you're not a freaking hero for breaking your NDA about a warehouse of 360s sitting broken somewhere.

I couldn't agree with this more.

It's not like we're talking about a tainted water scandal and someone speaking out because he feels a cover-up is wrong. We're talking luxury items here, and what's even dumber is that he's bringing up something we already knew!