Peter Moore recounts $1.15bn Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death saga

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Everyone who owns an Xbox 360 became familiar with the term “Red Ring of Death” at some point. Some of us became familiar with the term through experience. EA’s Peter Moore was working for Microsoft at the time, and he had a rather interesting story to tell regarding the matter.

Speaking with IGN in a podcast, Moore recounted the entire saga, starting with the moment Microsoft learned there was problem with overheating and hardware failures.

In short, as the reports of faulty consoles poured in, he knew a meeting with Steven Ballmer was in order, and he was rather nervous to tell Microsoft’s boss that it would cost the company $1.15 billion.

“I calculated with my finance team, Dennis Durkin, Doug Ralphs and [put] $1.15 billion, right out there. I always remember $240 million of that was FedEx. Their stock must have gone through the roof for the next two weeks.

“And, I am trembling sat in front of Steve, who I love to death, but he can be an intimidating human being. Steve said, ‘okay, talk me through this.’ I said, ‘if we don’t do this, this brand is dead.”

Moore said if it weren’t for that meeting, the Xbox brand would have been finished.

“I’ll never forget that moment,” said Moore. “If you’re an Xbox gamer, you can thank Steve Ballmer for not even hesitating. Now, we were a wealthy company who could afford to do that, but not even hesitating because the brand was more important.

“If we hadn’t made that decision there and then, and tried to fudge over this problem, then the Xbox brand and Xbox One wouldn’t exist today. [Ballmer] didn’t even think twice about spending $1.15B to protect a brand that’s probably worth three or four times that today.

“Xbox One wouldn’t have happened.”

Moore said one theory for the RRoD issue, was that the company had to change its solder to one which was lead-free in order to sell the console in the EU.

“Solder is the way you put the in GPU and the fans,” said Moore. “We knew [the issue] was heat related. We think it was somehow the heat coming off the GPU was drying out some of the solder, and it wasn’t the normal stuff we’d used, because we had to meet European Standards and take the lead out.”

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Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: http://www.vg247.com/2015/07/02/rrod-xbox-360-ballmer-xbox-one/

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"Peter Moore recounts $1.15bn Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death saga" :: Login/Create an Account :: 61 comments

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StrategicsKEYPosted:

Wish I hit up fed ex stock..

Paul-Posted:

ive had total of 4 or 5 xboxs, never had rrod but had the e74 error and disk drive problems

xWizPosted:

Ive had the ring before i fixed it you just have to fix it before it gets outta hand

CB9Posted:

Had my 360 for 6 years, never had red ring, guess i was lucky lol

She-DevilPosted:

SEK after 5 years on intensive gaming sessions with my xbox i've never had a RROD. the only problem was the disc drive :/


I've had both happen to me. I find the disc drive problem to be more frustrating, knowing I spent more money on games than the actual console itself.

MushroomElmPosted:

SEK after 5 years on intensive gaming sessions with my xbox i've never had a RROD. the only problem was the disc drive :/


I got the RROD, but only because my sisters BF took it outside in the middle of the summer to play it. I live in Texas, and we easily reach triple digits in summer.

Mercedes_BenzPosted:

after 5 years on intensive gaming sessions with my xbox i've never had a RROD. the only problem was the disc drive :/

GibbityTreePosted:

GT40 Good to know they cared about the comsumers


They have to. Or else the company goes to hell.

ehPosted:

I got the red ring of death 3 times D: not under warranty. But thats ok, I ended up buying a PC and you know. Life got good.

OGPosted:

I got a total of 3 three RROD. All under warranty. Thank goodness.