Looking back at the 360/PS3 generation, there are a great many things that stand out as definitive. There were PR drives and overhyped campaigns; there were all-time great games and titles that should never have been released.  But when it comes down to it, really, there’s one issue that really, truly defined the whole console generation:

The Red Ring of Death.

That’s right, the real defining issue of the 7^th generation of consoles wasn’t a game, a graphical feature or even a company war. No, it was a single, little ring of light that defined the most heated console generation known to man.

But what was the Red Ring of Death? Well, back when Microsoft’s hardware team were working on the prototypes that would become the Xbox 360, they determined that it would need some sort of error indicator, in the event that something went wrong. In their infinite wisdom, they decided they could use the coloured light ring around the power button. Split up, as it was, into four separate segments, this set of lights was perfect for the job; not only could they make it light up red if an error occurred (red for danger; those mad geniuses!) but they could light up a different number of segments for different issues. The day of a self-diagnosing console had arrived: any customer with a technical issue could tell the operator what they saw and the basic issues, like not plugging the AV cable in properly, could be identified and solved without costly and inconvenient console returns. A win-win all round…

Or so it seemed…

Not long after the release of the console in 2005, Microsoft started getting a lot of customers complaining that their console had stopped working and their power ring was red in 3 parts, not green as it usually was.

This was the signal for a ‘General Hardware Failure’ and meant that something inside the unit had given up the ghost. The problem was that it wasn’t just a few isolated incidents; hundreds of reports quickly became thousands and then, reportedly, tens of thousands. Microsoft began to realise pretty quickly that something was badly wrong and it wasn’t very clear exactly what it was. Hell, at one stage they were receiving 2500 faulty consoles per day from the UK alone…

There was little information known then about what was happening; all that people knew was that lots Xbox 360s were failing and all showing the same red circle when they did. Its unsurprising, really, that the feature became known as the Red Ring of Death (or RRoD) in the typically hyperbolic way the internet is so fond of.

Exact details about what it was that caused these failures are thin on the ground, from a public perspective at least. Understandably, Microsoft were less than willing to confirm what the issue was with their flagship cash-cow, meaning that any speculation around the causes are , well, just that: speculation.

However, plenty of reputable third-party companies have done their own analysis and identified what they believe to be the issue.

German magazine C’T believed the fault to be caused by a specific type of solder being used to connect various aspect of the system’s hardware. This solder was being used due to European regulations at the time and had a tendency to become brittle if exposed to heightened temperatures over long periods of use; say for example the length of time someone might play there brand new video game… It was said that the console would heat-up over time due to inadequate cooling facilities and that the components would expand and move, putting pressure on the now-brittle solder, which would fail, thus taking down the console with it.

Another theory was put forward by EE Times, an industry newspaper that identified the graphics chip used in the console as the culprit. Microsoft had decided to go with a lower-cost and less-renowned hardware company for the new console and EE Times believed that the chip’s inability to dissipate heat effectively caused it to overheat and fail in a number of units.

There were numerous other theories doing the rounds, such as inadequate hardware housing that did not account for the expansion and contraction of components caused by heat during extended play, incompatibility between older systems and the newer Kinect sensors and many, many more.

The real problem for Microsoft, when it comes down to it, was that the Red Ring of Death issue was never really one issue. Most likely they were unlucky enough to have a number of technical issues occur concurrently, but with all of them displaying with the same symptoms: a dead console with 3 red ring segments showing on the front. To the general public the problems all appeared to be a single issue plaguing one of the big two consoles and they took notice.

The tide of public opinion started to turn against Microsoft, amounting to a massive public relations nightmare. The company began to address the issue in a number of ways; offering an extended warranty on all 360 consoles for general hardware failure issue from three years to five years and addressing the technical issues in later version batches of the console, re-designing components and adding extra cooling facilities.

However, the damage had been done in the eyes of the public and it resulted in a great number of people vowing to never purchase an Xbox-branded item again.

The Red Ring of Death issue was a huge moment in gaming history as a whole, not just the console generation in which it occurred. It was the first time that a major fault had required a huge, concerted effort from a company to address and rectify. It had the potential to compromise the console’s image as a whole and could, feasibly, have sunk the console for good. It is perhaps to Microsoft’s credit that they not only survived the situation, but managed to maintain their market share to such an extent they remain one of the big two console companies.

No recollection of the Xbox 360/PS4 generation can be made without referring, at least in part, to the Red Ring of Death issue and the effect it had on the console war.

The issue affected not just Microsoft and the Xbox 360, but impacted the industry as a whole, public perception of companies involved and technical and quality standards for consoles from then on. Indeed, the ramifications are still being felt in the industry today and will affect policy in the industry for as long as a gaming industry exists.

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