News Microsoft fires Xbox 360 whistleblower

[CardJoe]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/09...histleblower/1

Microsoft has terminated games tester Robert Delaware for publicly speaking about Xbox 360 failure rates to the press.

[icutebluezone]

I havent had RROD but 2 weeks after buying a brand new Xbox 360 the dvd drive died in it. Got it fixed by microsoft and after 6months i sold it. Played GTA4 and Forza 1 and 2 on it lots. BUT Sold it as got sick of it and love PC's more.

Have seen loads of 360s on trademe for sale with the RROD.

I still have to say i love the 1st xboxs thay make nice media centers. :P

[Veles]

My gf bought an xbox off ebay which RRODed not long after she got it. When I looked at the case it was obvious he had tried to open it up. That's the only RRoD I've seen though, her new 60Gb 360 works fine and both my old Premium and my new Elite have had no problems.

Utterly stupid they're firing and sueing the guy. What's the point? If they had made the 360 better in the first place they wouldn't have this problem.

[phuzz]

Whether or not he should have talked to the press about failure rates etc. Considering he'd signed a contract promising not to, it seems a bit of a daft idea not to hide his identity, legally he doesn't have much of a leg to stand on*. (*by the sound of it, IANNAL etc. etc.)

[mmorgue]

@phuzz

True, he did sign a contract and he broke it.

However, I'd have 100x more respect for a company that just came clean and said, "Sorry, we fuct up guys -- we're trying to improve things but we did screw up initially with some bad design decisions but we are making every effort to rectify it", rather than M$'s current, "No, nothing wrong here, only a *minute* amount of issues, no real probs, no faulty batches, our machines are in expected yields, everyone is overrating the issue, etc" ....

[liratheal]

He broke his contract.

Don't care who he works for or what he does, he broke his contract, I'd fire him.

Personally, I'd not bother suing in this case, as the 'damage' has already been done, and they aren't going to regain much, if anything, through doing it.

I don't see what the big deal is, to be honest.

[Mister_X]

The guy deserved to get fired and quite frankly i hope he does get sued. Staff you can't trust weakens a company.

"This kind of witch hunt mentality is wrong-headed" said Dean. "People like Delaware are more useful hunting down bugs and fixing problems. I think the company really should apply their energy in different directions, like making sure that consumers are treated right. The firing disappoints me, and I wish Delaware well,"
Well Dean is an ass, defending people who think that rules don't apply to them makes him as bad as them.

I bought a 360 on UK Launch day and got the dreaded RRoD about a month ago. It was fixed in about 2 weeks.
Sure Msoft screwed up with the design somewhere, but at least they put there hands up and did something about it. COuld anyone see sony doiny that? They would let your ass hang in the breeze hoping you buy another of their mostly useless consoles. ( I have one of the them too, yet to play a game worthy of the price tag)

[LeMaltor]

Originally Posted by Mister_X

Sure Msoft screwed up with the design somewhere, but at least they put there hands up and did something about it. COuld anyone see sony doiny that?

Maybe they prefer to focus more on making a console without design problems in the first place.

[DougEdey]

they haven't actually admitted that there's a hardware issue, they've just admitted that there's a high failure rate

[War-Rasta]

I agree with liratheal, I wold have fired him just as MS did. He broke his contract and whether we like it or not, what he did was very harmful to MS and they have the need to fight this kind of actions or the company would sink. I'm not saying it's not a good thing for the consumer to be informed, but I do understand their position as a company.

I would also not bother suing him as there's definitely not enough money to be gained to be worth MS's trouble, yet the bad press this would generate would only hurt them more.

Personally I've owned a 360 for about 3 months now and have had no problems with it. I must point out that I live in the Caribbean where it's burning hot all year long and it's also sitting next to my HT Receiver, my original Xbox, NAS, DSL router, Wireless router and my VoIP box, all of which are usually on at the same time and making the whole area pretty hot.

[Krikkit]

Originally Posted by War-Rasta

I would also not bother suing him as there's definitely not enough money to be gained to be worth MS's trouble, yet the bad press this would generate would only hurt them more.

It's not about the money - it's about setting the continued example that anyone who damages the company will face the consequences. It'll probably be settled out of court later for an insubstantial amount.

Personally, I'll echo on the side of most people in this thread - he deserves to be sacked, because he broke his contract. It's nice to have the inside facts, but if you must leak prohibited info, do it anonymously tbh.

[MrMonroe]

I can't imagine they have anything on him over which they can bring him to court.

The firing is entirely justified, I'm sure. If you sign a contract that says "I'm not going to talk publicly about X unless duly authorized," you're pretty much done if you go public.

Somehow I doubt he signed a contract that said "I'm not going to talk publicly about X unless duly authorized, and if I do I owe you Y dollars."

[devdevil85]

Originally Posted by LeMaltor

Maybe they prefer to focus more on making a console without design problems in the first place.

+1

[-EVRE-]

My 360 is useless.... my cd rom drive wont open.. called MS they basicaly gave me a run around.. do this do that..
In the end they kinda gave me the finger... so to get my game disk out... I rippd open the drive from the front.. gears flying and all..

so I'm going to have to buy an external drive.

Another win for PC!!
Drive failes, replace it

xbox drive failes, buy another, void warrantee (not that it did alot of good anyway...) flash drive to make it work with xp...... you get the idea..

[spectre456]

Originally Posted by War-Rasta

I live in the Caribbean where it's burning hot all year long.

tell me about it

[Nature]

fascist ***** Microsoft.