Launch Problems

[Dyne]

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3145847

So, the launch was a success, right? Turns out the jury is still out - and early reports the morning after are not pretty. From unconfirmed rumors of near-riots as employees apparently hoarded Xbox 360 systems in front of waiting customers, to numbers of pre-orders that went unfulfilled, some are saying Microsoft mishandled the launch.

But those who actually got the system in hand are breathing easy and living it up, right?

Some of them are. But others are posting a plethoral of problems with their brand-new 360s, from game crashes to hard drives that simply don't work.

One reasonable gamer lays it out like this: "Between my friends and I, we bought 6 machines at the Zero Hour event. Of the 6, my machine has a dead hard drive, another machine is working but is rather flaky (seen some strange behavior - the drive may also be scratching discs, as my friend's copy of Condemned is now unplayably scratched, but we don't know if the drive caused it - the machine has also had problems booting games and being turned off...), one seems to be good, and I haven't heard yet about the status of the other three."

Is there enough evidence to shout "recall"? While there are plenty of stories in the games press and blogging scene this morning, many of them seem centered on one fellow's experience - a poster called "Jsgongwon" on the Xbox-Scene forums who included pictures of his crash, which apparently happened repeatedly during Project Gotham Racing 3. "So far haven't been able to play one track without crashing... also got this crashing on Xbox Live screen and on startup too..." he writes.

Another fellow on the same message board reports that his 360 "just turned off" during Perfect Dark Zero.

And some stories seem - well, not to be unduly harsh, but they seem a bit shady. One poster, for example, claimed she had exchanged her 360 because of a defect and the same thing happened. Other posters wondered how on earth she found another 360 in the same area to trade her old one for. I'm not calling her a liar, understand, but merely pointing out it's easy to make stuff up on the internet.

But that there are some systems experiencing real problems is not in doubt. Even here in our offices we have had some incidents with retail units. One of them overheated and crashed during Project Gotham Racing 3, though not as spectacularly as Jsgongwon's experience. Dan "Shoe" Hsu also reported that a very strange echo effect happened during Xbox Live play of Perfect Dark Zero - sometimes a word said over chat would endlessly repeat in a strange echo effect over and over in the headphones. Some kind of bizarre feedback loop?

Just how widespread is the scope of 360 problems, though? It's a little too early to call whether these problems are systemic or isolated bugs. Consumers have to spend a little more time with the machines and we do, too, testing out various games and Xbox Live experiences. We also need to divide the hardware problems from the software bugs. Microsoft has been alerted to these issues and are currently investigating. We should have a statement from them shortly.

In the meantime, if you do have a 360, treat it as you would a gaming PC, which is essentially what it is. Don't leave it on all night long to idle, don't wrap it in a blanket, don't stick it anywhere it won't get enough ventilation. Just in case.

Stay tuned as we follow up on this developing story.

what a pile of crap am i rite guyz!?!?!`

[Professor S]

Wow, I've never heard rumors of Microsoft consoles crashing before. Especially not on the internet.

[Dyne]

The interesting bug is the echoing one experienced by the Big Cheese EGM editor. I think you have a fairly big problem on your hands when you actually piss off Magazine editors.

[Professor S]

We'll see what comes of it. I have a hard time believing that MS would release a console with such an obvious glitch, but then again Seamus isn't a part of the picture anymore and I think the new head honcho looks like a pederass. So who knows.

[DeathsHand]

Seems like consoles launches are always accompanied by some sort of issue...

Some guy on IGN complained about a hole in his PGR3 disc... People thought it was a joke ("LAMOAS ALL CDS HAVE A HOLE GET IT!?"), then he posted a picture of it...

It had the normal hole in the center, but it had a second hole punched through the middle of the bottom part of the label... :>

I ponder how that one got past quality-control...

[gekko]

I'm not having any problems.