From the red rings of death to the unreadable disk errors, 360′s were turning on their owner’s like that scene in the Transformers movie. I was sick and tired of it, and I wanted results, so I emailed Bill Gates.

If you know me, you know that I hate the word NO. I hate it from anyone. Call me an Alpha male, stubborn, persistent, greedy… I don’t care. I get my way.

What got my juices REALLY flowing was that I had contacted Xbox PR in Canada to receive a loaner system while mine was in the shop. You see, even though my 360 had RRoD’ed twice, it still functioned ever so slightly. It was only a matter of time, however, before it froze, or would give the dreaded “disk is unreadable” error. It got to the point where it was happening about twice a day religiously.

I couldn’t really part with it for a month (the time quoted to me for repair), since my livelihood is based on my ability to review games and movies on the console. The pending release of Halo 3 sealed the deal. I absolutely NEEDED to find another way to solve the problem as being left without a console was not going to be an option.

As if that wasn’t enough, what pushed me completely over the edge and had me seeing red myself, was getting word that certain “large websites” and other media outlets were receiving duffel bags filled to the brim with swag and topped off with the new Halo 3 themed XBOX 360 console.

Now, call me irrational, but the thought crossed my mind that these websites have budgets, connections, offices — did I mention budgets? They can obtain a new working system in a heart beat from any one of their own offices. I know this because it happened all the time when I worked on location at similar companies in the past. So here they are, with a pile of free Halo stuff, while I was left staring at a red ring, simply asking for a loaner so that I may do my job. The steam started to whistle from my ears.

I calmly sat down, and began to type a very respectful email requesting a loaner once again. Still, no reply from Canada’s PR firm. Like I mentioned earlier, NO is not something I enjoy hearing, however I despise silence even more.

So, I emailed Bill Gates — yes, THAT Bill Gates. For those who doubt he pays attention to such correspondence, within 12 hours I suddenly was bombarded with emails and phone calls from the very PR people who for weeks either ignored me, or just didn’t seem to care. My email to Bill read as follows…

” … I understand that this may sound like someone looking for a handout, but I have built a personal business around reviewing these games, consoles, movies, HD-DVD’s, etc. on the review console your company (so generously) sent me 2 years ago. Without a 360 available to me for a month however, I will lose out on most of the income I generate to support my son and I. This isn’t just a cute little hobby for me. The money I make writing isn’t spent on more games or partying, but on groceries, clothes and everything my little guy needs… so purchasing a second 360, is impossible, even if it is necessary for my writing.

Please note I have sent a similar e-mail to Xbox PR in the Canada, since they are who I usually deal with. However, my review system came from Edelman, so I honestly wanted to get a hold of whom ever could help me best.”

There’s more to the email, but for privacy reasons relating to the PR companies involved, I decided to leave it out. In fact, I honestly wasn’t even sure if I was going to publish this story at all. Do I post it? Will anyone care? Is this reporting or this more along the lines of online whining — the very thing I simply can’t stand to read when published by others.

In the end, I thought it would be beneficial to share the information, as I felt the need to stand up for myself as a writer and avid gamer. My hope is that others who’ve experienced the same thing will not give up, and never accept NO for an answer.

I must admit though, as I sat down with my son, I began to wonder, am I too much of a gamer? There are people starving in this world (I know, I met a few of them when I was living out of my car) and here I am, worried about a video game system, possibly getting some PR rep in trouble because of my actions.

I understand how the game of PR politics plays out, I really do. Marketing and Public Relations are delicate and high stress industries, made even more stressful by people like me. In a round about way, the situation had me questioning my career decision. I love playing, I love reviewing, and I absolutely love writing, but at times I feel that my passion for what I do gets the best of me, and I end up losing sight of how my actions may be effecting others. I loathe hearing NO, but before this, I rarely thought about why.

In the end, I got my way. At one point, I had THREE XBOX 360′s sitting in front of my office. Who if anyone was made to pay the price for my tirade? While I may never know, what I do know, is that if I ever email Bill Gates again, it will be to ask him how his day was. We all like to be asked that once in a while.

Update: 10/27 – 3:58PM EST
For those interested in checking out the English version of the  XBOX 360 Manga Girl above, Kotaku has it posted here.

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While most of the country was celebrating the 4th of July, one has to wonder if Microsoft’s legal department was burning the midnight oil, putting the final touches on new coverage warranty.

The past few days have seen much negative press for the company’s next gen gaming console and today Microsoft announced that they will be extending the Xbox 360′s warranty coverage from one year to three.

The new warranty will be, brace yourselves current owners … retroactive, meaning that the changes to the contract will cover existing owners of the system as well. Way to step up Microsoft!

“The majority of Xbox 360 owners are having a great experience with their console and have from day one. But, this problem has caused frustration for some of our customers and for that, we sincerely apologize,” said Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division. “We value our community tremendously and look at this as an investment in our customer base. We look forward to great things to come.”

We put a call into Microsoft’s Seattle based PR department to find out if the retroactive coverage will reimburse customers who sent their systems in and incurred expenses for doing so after the original year warranty expired. We will update you as soon as we hear back, stay tuned.

Update: 7/5/07 – 7:45PM EST
Apparently we gave Microsoft the “atta-boy” a little too soon. If you sent a system in for repair due to the “red ring of death” then any expenses you paid will be reimbursed, but the retroactive warranty will only cover current owners whose system experienced the “red ring” issue, any other service done to the system after the one year period will not be reimbursed. Furthermore, the extended three year warranty will only kick in for users outside the initial one year period if their system experiences the “red ring” defect.

If you own a system that has yet to experience this symptom and you are over the one year coverage warranty period the only way to get Microsoft to grant you the new three year warranty is to pray that your 360 turns your late night gaming room into the console equivalent of a red light district.

• Failure Rate: Xbox 360 High As 33% – Sony PS3 & Nintendo Wii Less Than 1%
• How Bout’ The Time I Emailed Bill Gates…

Retailers estimate that one in every three Microsoft Xbox 360′s sold fails leaving frustrated owners staring at the red ring of death, or worst a black screen that reads “disc unreadable”. When compared to other systems, former EB games associate Matthiew G said…

“Failure rates for all other consoles were not high enough for EB to consider revising their policies. Most other console systems have a failure rate of less than one percent, including the PlayStation 3.”

Not to be left out of the conversation, when another EB Games manager was asked if the store warranty was “worth the price”, he mentioned that the Nintendo Wii, with hundreds of units sold at their location has had ZERO come back as defective. We can hear Nintendo executives patting themselves on the back right now, no wait that’s just thunder.

A Best Buy associate who chose to remain anonymous claimed that the failure rate of the Microsoft Xbox 360 was in the ballpark of “between a quarter to a third” of the systems sold.

That said the Xbox 360 is the most successful console of the next gen bunch worldwide and has the largest market saturation to date with an impressive list of exclusive titles. Simple mathematics tells us that the more there are out there the more of a chance that some will fail, but 33% is still very high.

Microsoft stands behind their estimate that the Xbox 360 failure rate is within three to five percent, which they believe is well within the industry standard and in 2006 increased their warranty from 90 days up to 1 year. While they stand behind their estimate, it unfortunately does not seem to be accurate according to retailers of the product.

Based on a recent poll that was conducted by DailyTech with retailers nationwide, the Xbox 360 was unanimously named the least reliable gaming console in recent history. The high failure rate of the 360 has sent EB games officials back to the drawing board to revise their console warranty policy in 2007 and as a result the one year warranty price on a console is now nearly double!

“We had 35 Xbox 360s at launch I know more than half of them broke within the first six months (red lights or making circles under the game discs). Two of them were dead on arrival.” – said former EB Games employee Matthieu G.

Microsoft has made an effort in the realm of customer service to address the “ring of death” by adding an option to their customer support line (1-800-4MY-XBOX) called “three flashing red lights”. Those of us that still have the Johnny Cash “Ring Of Fire” parody still stuck in our heads, please try and control yourselves.

So while the 360 is the market leader with the Wii gaining fast, maybe consumers should be giving the Playstation 3 a second or “third” look before picking up a next gen console. While we admit that things are not looking great for Sony right now, the company is not going to roll over and die, Blu-ray is the current market leader, and the Playstation 3′s list of titles will only improve as time goes by and more developers familiarize themselves with it’s specs.

Source: DailyTech

Update: 7/5/07 – 8:20PM EST
Microsoft Responds To Failure Reports – Extends 360 Warranty To 3 Years
While most of the country was celebrating the 4th of July, one has to wonder if Microsoft’s legal department was burning the midnight oil, putting the final touches on new coverage warranty.

• Microsoft Responds To Failure Reports – Extends 360 Warranty To 3 Years
• How Bout’ The Time I Emailed Bill Gates…