N'Gai Croal
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Jul 10, 2007 12:03 AM
A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60
mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with
everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the
number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of
failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times
B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do
one.
--The Narrator, "Fight Club"
Next, an analogy.
The staff of Level Up have been Laker fans
of long standing. This, in turn, has made us fans of one Kobe Bean
Bryant. But this fandom is not absolute. Nor does it preclude the right
to critique, to question, to opine--especially in situations best
described as force majeure. We did so when Bryant, in the days
immediately following his being accused of rape, attempted to use his
up-until-then squeaky-clean, devoted family man persona as his defense
in the court of public opinion, saying, "But you guys know me, I
shouldn't have to say anything. You know I would never do something
like that." Um, no, Kobe. We knew you--at least, we thought we did,
when thought you might be the one NBA player that wouldn't cheat on his
wife. But since the best-case scenario here is that you broke your
vows, we'd be fools to assume your innocence based on our "knowledge"
of your character. As for more recent matters, when Kobe finally goes
before the media--either this summer with the U.S. men's basketball
team or this fall during training camp--we'd want to know exactly what
was going through his head during his recent tantrum, which--as
warranted as it may have been given the ineptitude of Lakers'
management--went on far too long and far too disrespectfully to be
swept under the rug and forgotten. Blandishments like
"I haven't thought about that in a long, long time," and "What I say is
what I say. We'll just have to see where it goes," aren't good enough
after an outburst of that magnitude. In other words, when something of
this magnitude happens, all former assumptions and good faith are
inoperative. The offending party begins once again at zero.
Similarly, we like Peter Moore, Robbie Bach,
and a number of other Xbox employees. They've built a great online
service; they've delivered some great games; they've assiduously wooed
third parties; and they've snatched a good deal of thought leadership
in the process, forcing Sony to alter its pricing strategy much sooner
than expected. And, to be perfectly clear, our just-before-launch Xbox
360 is still working flawlessly. But the recent announcement that the
Xbox failure rate is significantly higher than the generally accepted
3-5 percent standard for consumer electronics products raises questions
some important, as-yet unanswered questions. Did Microsoft's zeal to
have the Xbox 360 both launch first and turn a profit--after the first
Xbox launched second and lost billions of dollars--cause it to cut
corners in a headlong rush to market, resulting in the current debacle?
What, precisely, are the factors causing Xbox 360s to fail? What is the
failure rate? How many devices have been returned thus far over the
flashing three red lights? Was Microsoft aware of the magnitude of this
problem before it launched the Xbox 360 Elite?
In the absence of full and forthright answers to these
questions--answers that are critical to restoring consumer confidence
in the Xbox 360--it is our firm belief that Microsoft should strongly
consider a product recall, or at the very least, offer to replace those
machines whose batch numbers indicate that they were manufactured
before the design flaws were corrected.
We have not arrived at this position lightly.
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