Xbox
Microsoft announces the cause of the infamous Xbox 360 “Red Ring of Death” failure and launches a commemorative poster
players who have owned Xbox 360 should know what the “red ring of death” is, usually abbreviated as RROD, this is a sudden and fatal hardware failure, and a large number of Xbox 360 systems This kind of malfunction has occurred. When the Xbox 360 has a “red ring of death” failure, the LED light of its power button will turn red instead of white, and the system will refuse to start.
Although people have always speculated that the malfunction is caused by its poor heat dissipation, the documentary “Power On The Story of Xbox” shows that this is only part of the fact.
According to Leo Del Castillo, he has been a member of the Xbox hardware engineering team since 1999, and the “red ring of death” was caused by a broken connector in the main unit.
These components are solder balls used to fix the GPU on the motherboard. Although the cause of the break is heat dissipation, the high temperature inside the Xbox 360 is not the only problem. In contrast, according to Todd Holmdahl, Xbox’s hardware director from 1999 to 2014, the problem is that the temperature of these balls often went from hot to cold.
“All these people like to play video games,” Holmdahl said, “so they will turn this thing on and then off, and when it opens and closes, you have all kinds of pressure.” These pressures eventually cause the solder balls to break. Partially cut off the connection between the Xbox 360’s GPU and the motherboard.
The DNS understands that Xbox’s solution to this problem is very simple and straightforward. The company will repair every Xbox 360 sold for customers for free. However, this has brought huge losses to the company. According to Peter Moore, the former head of Xbox, the repair costs and loss of sales caused by the problem were approximately $1.15 billion. However, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (Steve Ballmer) quickly gave Moore the funds needed to solve this problem and rescue the Xbox brand.
As the “Red Ring of Death” event goes away, to commemorate this notorious malfunction of Xbox. The Xbox Gear store has now launched a poster, which is a picture of the Xbox 360 Elite power button affected by the red ring, with the text “Red Ring of Death” printed in the blank space below. This poster costs $24.99 and has a slightly glossy “anti-fingerprint” coating. It measures 18 inches (approximately 45.72 cm) x 24 inches (approximately 60.96 cm) and is approximately 0.25 mm thick.
Xbox
Microsoft’s Xbox pushes the Japanese market, is working with top developers
Microsoft Xbox publishing director Matt Smith recently tweeted that his Japanese team is working with top developers, but did not disclose which one.
Microsoft’s Xbox has not been very popular in the Japanese market. According to “Famitsu” magazine, Microsoft’s Xbox console has sold about 2.3 million units in Japan in the 20 years since its launch. Sony has sold more than 1 million PS5 units in Japan alone, while Switch has sold 20 million units.
The DNS has learned that it was previously reported that Hideo Kojima is working with Microsoft Xbox to develop new projects, and Kojima Studio published 21 job postings on the recruitment website last year, including character designers, animators, game designers, sound designers, and other occupations cover almost the entire game development team.
Xbox
Minecraft launches preview version, which is actually a beta test bedrock edition standalone app
The Windows “Minecraft” Bedrock Beta will now have its own standalone application, the “Minecraft” Preview Free for owners and XGP subscribers.
Developer Mojang explained in its announcement that one of the goals of Minecraft Preview is to expand early access to future versions of content to players on platforms that are not supported by the existing beta version, currently limited to Xbox, Windows, and Android, while Minecraft Preview can Works on iOS, Xbox and Windows 10/11.
For example, on Windows, anyone who already owns Minecraft Bedrock Edition or played it through Game Pass can now install Minecraft Preview through the Windows Store, though Xbox is a little more complicated and currently only available to Xbox Insider users.
Later this year, with the 1.19 “Wild” update for Minecraft, Mojang will bring some new features and new creatures to Minecraft Bedrock players, such as frogs and mangroves.
It’s worth mentioning that the existing Minecraft Beta is still available on Xbox, Windows, and Android. But Mojang noted that it will begin phasing out in favor of Minecraft Preview, allowing it to “push the upgrades and improvements of the beta version in a more robust way.”
We understand that the preview version of Minecraft will be a completely independent application from Bedrock Edition. As a result, save games, market items, and achievement awards are not available, nor are multiplayer features available.
Previously, Bedrock Edition players had to load the Xbox Insider Hub and opt-in to the Minecraft Beta program in order to switch the Bedrock Edition game to the Beta version, which was cumbersome for some friends and sometimes even required re-downloading the entire game.
Xbox
Microsoft Xbox Design Lab launches deep customization of gamepads starting at 448 yuan
According to a foreign media report Neowin, Microsoft’s Xbox Design Lab has launched Xbox Gamepad deep customization function. Players can choose from a variety of presets, or design colors for the various components. And the content can be customized on the official website. In addition, the official also provides “Forza Motorsport: Horizon 5”, “The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Anniversary Edition”, “Battlefield 2042” and other game controllers.
This customized project starts at US$69.99 (about RMB 448) and is based on the Xbox Series X/S wireless controller. Specifically, users can choose the color of the handle rubber, buttons, front and rear shells, joystick and buttons. Each product will be handmade by the staff after the order is placed. It is expected that the product will be delivered in 3-4 weeks.
According to IT Home, today Microsoft has also added an optional rubber handle to the customization function along with better anti-slip performance, which helps to improve the comfort. In addition, the trigger button and the handle’s D-pad can be selected from different colors of metal material.