News

Apple Engineers "Totally Wrong", Nintendo Misjudged Excitement And Other Great Corporate Excuses

This morning iPhone owners woke to a very unusual thing: an apology letter from Apple.


July 1, 2010
News

Microsoft: We Have “Learned From” Xbox 360 Mistakes

Kotaku AU

Today sees the new, redesigned Xbox 360 console launch in Australia. We asked Xbox Australia chief David McLean to explain Microsoft’s approach to the new console.


May 4, 2010
News

Might Sony Suggest An Extended Service Plan For Your PS3?

Why succumb to the high-pressure retail pitch for an extended service plan, when you can extended the warranty on your PlayStation 3 or PSP directly through Sony with the PlayStation Protection Plan?


April 18, 2009
News

Microsoft Explains the E74 Code, Sorta

When Microsoft announced they were extending their warranty for Xbox 360s that received a E74 error, I was curious how different the code was from the red ring of death. Not very, it turns out.


April 14, 2009
News

Microsoft Extends Warranty For ‘E74′ Failures

For a few months now, Xbox 360 users have been quietly venting about a “new” hardware fault with the console, where instead of displaying three red rings, machines would display an “E74″ error.


March 23, 2009
News

Launch 360 Owners Now Gaming Unprotected

Kotaku AU

March 23 marks the third anniversary of the Xbox 360′s Australian launch. And to celebrate, as Jason Hill notes on his Screenplay blog this morning, gamers who bought their console on launch day will now find that extended warranty to cover “red ring of death” hardware failures no longer applies.


August 31, 2007
Uncategorized

Repaired Xbox 360 Comes With Freebie

My Red-Ringed Xbox 360 Elite showed back up at my house when I was in Leipzig. The majestic black console was cloaked in bubble wrap, stuffed between two pads and placed in a box along with a letter of apology from Microsoft.

The letter apologised for the inconvenience of having to ship my console off to have it repaired and said they were going to give me a free month of Xbox Live Gold membership. Sure enough, there was a plastic card taped to the bag protecting the Elite good for one free month.

Of course I’d prefer that Microsoft get to the bottom of their RROD issues, but this certainly is a step in the right direction.


August 15, 2007
Uncategorized

Robbie Bach Actually Unloaded $9.2 Million In Microsoft Stock

Previously, we reported that Microsoft’s Robbie Bach unloaded $US6.2 million in company stock between May 2 and May 30th (right before the July 5th announcement of Xbox 360′s warranty extension). That number was and is still completely accurate.

But it turns out that Bach had already unloaded an additional $US3 million in Microsoft stock on May 1st. (A late SEC filing caused many to overlook this number before.) So that brings the total to $US9.2 million shady stock practices by Robbie Bach. Ironically, the stock didn’t plummet and all is good in the world. Other than, you know, Bach being front page news on MarketWatch.

Microsoft’s Bach sold more stock before Xbox news [via maxconsole]