Takahashi Interview with Microsoft's Bach Part2: RRoD, Xbox720, ... Options

[Xbox-Scene]

Takahashi Interview with Microsoft's Bach Part2: RRoD, Xbox720, ... Posted by XanTium | June 16 12:25 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From venturebeat.com: [QUOTE] * Q: If you go back in hindsight to November of 2005, and your yield was not so good, you could have predicted a big return rate because the yield was so lousy. Did you ask yourself whether you should delay the launch? Wait for the yield to get up? Or just keep going? * A: This is the hard part. The technical nature of the challenge wasn't related to yield. It wasn't related to things we were seeing in testing or some judgment call we had to make about whether the product was ready. We were confident the product was ready. We did a lot of testing. The problem that shows up with the three red lights on the console is a complex interaction with some very complex parts. It's easy for me to go back and say, if I knew what would transpire over the next two years, would I go back and do something different, I think that's an obvious answer. But the fact is, based on the data we had at the time and all the hard work we put into it, there was no way to see what actually happened. As you know, it didn't start to show up in the data from our customers for almost a year. This wasn't like we had a yield problem and three weeks later people were having problems with their consoles. It's one of those things that nobody is proud of. On the other hand, we are in a complex technology space. You learn from it. You do the right things to make sure it doesn't happen again. The best thing you can do is tell your customers you want them to keep enjoying the product and here is what we will do on replacing it for free. * Q: What is your expectation for the timing of the next console introduction? * A: The last cycle for the original Xbox was a little shorter than typical (at four years). We started way late. Sony launched in Japan in 1999. We launched in the U.S. in 2001. They are still selling PlayStation 2s. You see cycles are lengthening and the ability to have overlapping consoles in the market is growing. For a long time, after Sony shipped PS 3, PS 2 was outselling it. It helps when you have a portfolio business. * Q: Do you want to be first with the next one, too? * A: Too early to tell. Our view is we will be selling Xbox 360 for a long time. We are always working on new technologies. We have people working on those. People ask me how many people I have working on the next generation. On the one hand, it's everybody. On the other, it's nobody. People are continuously working on new technology. * Q: Hitting profits was important here. Do you have a target for profitability over the life of the cycle? What is looking better and what is looking worse about the business model for the Xbox 360? * A: There isn't a specific dollar number. Partly because we don't know where the cycle will end this time. Being profitable in the first few years is certainly a milestone target for us. Another is being profitable for the rest of the cycle. Xbox Live has been financially more successful for us. Having written off a billion dollars in hardware costs, that part of the model is worse than we expected. * Q: How do you size the number of internal game developers inside Microsoft? Sony has been shedding a lot of people. You lost a lot of studios. * A: They went on an acquisition spree for a while. Then they decided they over-turned the dial. We bought Lionhead more than a year ago. Those things go in waves. With Bizarre, it wasn't ours to keep. Someone decided to buy them. Prices got too high for the developer acquisitions. Economics plays a role. If you look at the transactions of the last 12 months, those multiples didn't make sense to us. We sat on the sidelines a little bit. Then you have a transaction like Activision-Blizzard-Vivendi. I'm not even sure I can calculate the multiple on that. That's a very big transaction and an exception. [/QUOTE] Full Story: venturebeat.com

[Liquidvlade Hiraduo]

yeah, I think its still too early for Microsoft to be talking about a new Xbox, its been only 2yrs and 7 months since the Xbox 360 came out and they are doing an outstanding job. 3rd Parties make more money on the Xbox 360, it has great attach rates, Xbox Live is superior to PSN or WiiConnect. Controllers have a great design. It may sound all biased but I guess, its just because of the three consoles, I use the Xbox 360 the most. But again its just my opinion. I just wish 360 had homebrew, but it would be so hard since Xbox Live tracks every other thing you do.

[cory1492]

But the fact is, based on the data we had at the time and all the hard work we put into it, there was no way to see what actually happened. As you know, it didn't start to show up in the data from our customers for almost a year. This wasn't like we had a yield problem and three weeks later people were having problems with their consoles.

Absurd. Tell that to those who walked away from the launch party with machines they had to wait months for a replacement for on warranty, dead out of the box. Or developers who pushed back their games due to the fact they had no working real hardware to test on as 360s were rather scarce at the beginning. Seems to me there were some serious quality control issues that were ignored to keep the launch from being delayed.

On the other hand, we are in a complex technology space. You learn from it. You do the right things to make sure it doesn't happen again. The best thing you can do is tell your customers you want them to keep enjoying the product and here is what we will do on replacing it for free.

Perhaps that should be "make sure we can cover our butts while it is still happening because it would be too expensive to immediately and completely remedy"?

Lets hope they learned something at any rate, something important like not ignoring their advisers to keep a date and to not take wal-mart tactics with their manufacturers.

This post has been edited by cory1492: Jun 16 2008, 07:18 PM

[Chancer]

Politics speak. Every answer evades the question asked and gives a generalisation.
Nobody from any quarter in any company high up ever tells the truth. Evading answering obvious questions is the same as lying.

[bucko]

They need to sort out as many current problems now before they think about the next box.

They are trying, imho Jasper still should have been there launch model.

And you can tell they are trying to get Live more stable, no spring update, people working 24/7 110% to make sure 1 game GTA4 was ok (which should have happened around Xmas).

I'm guessing the 360 is a learning curve for them, they kinda learned the hard way but I guess that will make the 720 a more stable system. I don't even want to see a new console for at least 2 years.

[majik655]

But the fact is, based on the data we had at the time and all the hard work we put into it, there was no way to see what actually happened. As you know, it didn't start to show up in the data from our customers for almost a year.

uhhh NO... I bet if you look on this forum alone you would see people complaining about it.. and if I remember right M$ was asked about the return rate MANY MANY times and EVERY time they came back with "our repair rate is under the normal 3%" or whatever was quoted...
when it was known even on these forums it seemed to be 30% and was for a loong time.. it took 1 year for them to figure out what the hell was going on... not that it was not happening.

[vanxman]

But the fact is, based on the data we had at the time and all the hard work we put into it, there was no way to see what actually happened. As you know, it didn't start to show up in the data from our customers for almost a year.

I think the last sentence should have been: Although this data showed up almost immediately from our customers, we chose to ignore it for almost a year. Even longer... And blamed the customer for purposefully breaking their consoles...

:-D

This post has been edited by vanxman: Jun 17 2008, 10:43 AM

[Giga_Death]

I think its still too early for Microsoft to be talking about a new Xbox, its been only 2yrs and 7 months since the Xbox 360 came out

Way too early. . . i'm thinking at least 2010 before mentioning another console.