Dean Takahashi, San
Jose Mercury News reporter and author of two books on Xbox and Xbox 360,
published in his blog a question
and answer session with Todd Holmdahl, Microsoft’s corporate vice president
of Gaming and Xbox Products Group. Takahashi describes Holmdahl as “ultimately
responsible for the quality of the game console, having spearheaded the
hardware side of both the original Xbox and the Xbox 360.” Holmdahl was
previously a part of Microsoft’s hardware division, which designs the company’s
branded mice and keyboards.
A hot topic ever since the launch of the Xbox 360 is the seemingly
high defect rate of the console. Takahashi poses question after question
regarding Xbox 360 failures to the man who ran the design and manufacturing
teams for the console, only to be stonewalled on the topic of hardware yields
and reliability.
On the anecdotal evidence that the Xbox 360 quality isn’t up
to par, including a user who went through seven machines, Holmdahl responds,
“We’re very proud of the box. We think the vast majority of people are having
just a great experience. You look at the number of games they are buying, the
number of accessories they are buying, the Live attach. They love the box. They
continue to buy the box. That said, we take any customer issue very seriously.
We continue to look into these things very deeply. You have seen we have made
some changes to our customer service policy.”
Holmdahl then sidesteps a question about a normal return
rate for the console by saying only, “We continue to say the vast majority of
the people are really happy with it.” Asked differently about whether or not
the Xbox 360 falls into the ‘normal’ three to five percent return rate,
Holmdahl said, “We don’t disclose the actual number,” and “We don’t comment on
that.”
Moving away from sensitive percentages, the interviewer
suggests that the Xbox 360 has a higher rate of user complaints than the
PlayStation 3 and the Wii, to which the Holmdahl responds, “I would go back and
say the vast majority of people love their experience. We continue to go back
and address all of these issues on a case by case basis. There is a vocal
minority out there. We go off and try to address their issues as quickly and as
pain free as possible.”
Relentless in his questioning, Takahashi poses that a high
defect rate could ruin Microsoft’s business model and profits. Holmdahl
retorts, “I would say we don’t have a high defect rate. The vast majority of
people are really excited about their product, and that we are targeting
profitability for next year.”
Regardless of what the official line is on the reliability
of the Xbox 360, many of the console’s potential owners are waiting for a chip
die shrink to 65nm in hopes of improved reliability. Moving from the current
console’s 90nm to 65nm should mean a cooler running box that is less prone to
heat issues.
Holmdahl refuses to acknowledge any reliability benefit from
moving to 65nm, saying: “Whether it is 90nm or 65nm, we have a high quality bar
we target... The quality is good at both of those... We continue to redesign
the box, continue to drive costs out. We don’t talk about the specifics of it.”
One of the last attempts at cracking the issue of Xbox 360
hardware failures, the interviewer asks what the top reason is for a hardware
return. Holmdahl parrots once again, There are no systematic issues. The vast
majority of the people just love the product, have a great experience with it.
When there is an issue, we get on it and address it as quickly as possible.”