Gary Cutlack writes...
Listen up, Microsoft. The whole internet's full of people moaning about their Xbox 360s breaking.
You can't just sit there with your Zunes turned up full blast ignoring the screams of your loyal users, while they suffer, lose their downloaded stuff and have to either buy a new console or pay a ludicrous 80 quid to have it fixed.
You need to protect this loyalty, MS. Everyone who's invested money in an Xbox 360 is important to you. Important to keep happy and content, else they'll defect to PlayStation3 or Wii. People aren't loyal for long when things start going wrong, not when it comes to spending three or four hundred quid. As Sony has found out this year.
All MS has to do is say something humble, like "Yes, there's a problem and we're looking into it" and the people concerned would feel happier and feel less like they're being ripped off and ignored. It would also give wavering potential owners one less reason to worry, and one more reason to stick 300 quid on their credit cards this Saturday.
This would open the floodgates to a world of pain, suffering and vast expense for Microsoft as people claim replacement machines for fun, but if MS really is in this console business for the next couple of decades like it's promised, the respect and distant profits will be worth it.
Imagine if all the angry threads about broken Xbox 360s and Microsoft sucking were turned into positive messages about how great Microsoft was in helping with a problem. It'd make a huge difference.
At the moment, the general public thinks of PlayStation3 as the expensive console with no games. If Microsoft isn't careful, Xbox 360 will soon be called "The one that breaks all the time". And nobody's going to want one of those.
Personally, I can't wait for the day my Xbox 360 gives me the Red Ring of Death - it'll be a chance to unleash hell like never before.
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