According to numerous Xbox 360 owners, Microsoft’s new Kinect device is causing their consoles to suffer the ‘Red Ring of Death’ (RROD), the three red flashing lights that signal your Xbox is kaput.
The BBC is carrying a report citing a few unhappy 360 owners, including 10-year old Adam Winnifrith, whose father told the site, “It’s very disappointing. We were planning to have a big New Year’s Day party with karaoke microphones and a Take That competition. But now the Xbox is just sitting idle.”
Adam and his dad aren’t the only ones suffering, however. The forums at Xbox.com are buzzing with other RROD victims, many of who insist their console has been brought down by Kinect. Posters there also note that it’s the the original Xbox 360 units that seem to be suffering more, and not the newer Xbox 360 Slim models.
For its part, Microsoft has denied all links between Kinect and failing 360s, stating that, “There is no correlation between the three flashing red lights error and Kinect. Any new instances of the three flashing red lights error are merely coincidental.”
It’s hard to disbelieve Microsoft, because this story is based on purely anecdotal evidence, with no hard numbers to back things up. Maybe data will materialize in time, but for now this sounds like a bunch of old Xbox 360s doing what old Xbox 360s have done all along: breaking.
See also: Show some respect: The Xbox 360 coffin
