Dean Takahashi, Xbox guru and writer for Mercury News, recently wrote an article about a friend of his. The friend, Rob Cassingham, 42, has been through seven different 360 units, and all of them have failed. Cassingham purchased four at the the Zero Hour launch event, and all four "croaked." While waiting for his seventh unit to arrive from Microsoft, Cassingham wrote Takahashi to let him know that he was fed up with the console, and planned on selling the final unit when it arrived. Takahashi then sent Cassingham's complaint directly to Peter Moore, who in turn has had his console replaced with a brand new unit. Cassingham is still torn about the affair, and admits that part of him would rather sell the unit and be done with it. Still, he plans on keeping the machine and to purchase an extended warranty.With stories like Cassingham's piling up, Microsoft's continued claims that 360 failure rates are within the standard will not hold up much longer.
[Via Joystiq]
Dean Takahashi recently sat down to talk with Peter Moore at CES. Some of the topics discussed include IPTV, gaming on Windows Vista, MMOs on 360, the importance of 1st party developers, Microsoft's hopes in Japan, and of course, a little offhanded PS3 and Wii bashing. Moore makes a particularly interesting point about the necessity of 1st party development. Takahashi points out that Microsoft doesn't have as many 1st party developers as Sony and Nintendo. Moore replies that Microsoft has many 1st party games being created by studios not owned by Microsoft. Examples of this include Bioware's Mass Effect, Silicon Knights' Too Human, and of course Epic's Gears of War. Moore notes that Microsoft has a great publishing model in which MS aids in funding and publishing externally developed titles. He further states that while these are developed by a third party, they are unmistakably 1st party 360 titles.
