Former Xbox head and current EA COO Peter Moore has opened up about what happened at Microsoft with the Xbox 360 "Red Ring of Death" situation.
"We knew we had a problem," Moore said. "I remember going to Robbie Bach, my boss, and saying, I think we could have a billion dollar problem here.
"As we started to do the analysis of what was going on, we were getting the defectives in, it was a challenging problem for our engineers, and we couldn't quite figure out what it was. We knew it was heat related. There were all kinds of [homebrew] 'fixes.' I remember people putting wet towels around the box."
With people upset that their Xbox 360 consoles were not working and the situation becoming damaging to the brand, Moore knew Microsoft needed to address the issue. To put things right, though, Moore and his financial team figured it would cost Microsoft $1.15 billion.
The next step for Moore was presenting his plan to then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. After explaining the situation, Moore had to reveal the price tag of the solution to his boss.
"He said, 'What's it going to cost?' I remember taking a deep breath, looking at Robbie, and saying, 'We think it's $1.15 billion, Steve.' He said, 'Do it.' There was no hesitation," Moore said. "I'm thinking, I'm about to crater Microsoft's stock. [But] actually, nothing moved."
As such, Moore credits Ballmer with saving the Xbox brand and doesn't think there would even be an Xbox One without him green-lighting the plan to fix the situation.
