4. RROD is not a systemic issue…

Something unexpected began to occur shortly after the global launch of the Xbox 360. It began when a single customer complained that his 360 failed, displaying nothing but three flashing red lights on the console’s face. Shortly one became two, and two grew to eight, and eight mushroomed to thousands and thousands became millions.

The Red Ring of Death is an uninvited gaming phenomenon that still strikes users today. Early in July 2007 Microsoft announced a pretax cost of over $1b relating to repairing consoles struck with the RROD. Reports and self-proclaimed ‘insider information’ share the view that the failure rate is probably around 30%.
There was a time, however, when Microsoft vehemently denied the existence of the phenomena. Following coverage of the issue by a BBC watchdog show, Microsoft claimed that the failures were “isolated reports”, and that there was "no systemic issue" with the console. “Each incident is unique,” the company said, adding that the return rates were significantly less than 5%.

In an open letter published on the official Xbox website, Peter Moore, the then-VP of Microsoft’s interactive entertainment division, finally put an end to the company’s increasingly imprudent denials.




3. Find a PS3 and I’ll give you $1,200

Hype brings the worst out in people. A consumer’s reserved, level-headed expectation for a game can quickly fall into a frothing demand for immediate perfection once a couple of impressive trailers make the rounds. Sympathise, then, with how hype can turn company executives into the mouthpieces of their own fallacies. Speaking to EGM in early January 2007, Sony America CEO Jack Tretton briefly flashed thousands of dollars around the general area of his mouth with the promise that “if you can find a PS3 anywhere in North America that's been on shelves for more than five minutes, I'll give you 1200 bucks for it."

Following numerous date-stamped pictures, hundreds of calls to game store owners and mountains of proof that the CEO now owed something in the region of $2m, the Tretton banks closed for business. 







2. Rumble is a last-gen feature

At a time when a certain Nintendo controller was making headlines with each new drip-fed detail, Sony’s new PS3 controller was grabbing attention for all the wrong reasons. Following the unveiling of the Sixaxis (instead of that infamous boomerang prototype), Sony announced that the controller would lack vibration, claiming the technology would interfere with the controller’s revolutionary motion-sensing capabilities.

Sony maintains the omission of rumble had no relation with the company’s 2004 lawsuit with Haptics developer Immersion, which sued Sony for infringing on two patents with its DualShock vibration system. A jury awarded Immersion $82m for the seven years that the DualShock controller had been on the market. Sony appealed the decision.

Immersion CEO Vic Viegas went on to scrutinise Sony’s claim that rumble would have a detrimental affect on the Sixaxis technology. "I don’t believe it’s a very difficult problem to solve,” he said, adding that Immersion would be “happy” to solve Sony’s problem providing it withdrew its court appeal. The press, scouring Sony’s upper echelons for a retort, found one in the guise SCEA Senior VP of Marketing Peter Dille. "It seems like the folks at Immersion are looking to sort of negotiate through the press and try to make their case to us. We've talked about how there's a potential for that rumble to interfere with the Sixaxis controller," he scorned. 

However, in February 2007 Phil Harrison upped the ante, claiming that even if the rumble technology did work, the company wouldn’t want to use it. “Now, rumble I think was the last generation feature. It's not the next-generation feature. I think motion sensitivity is. And we don't see the need to do that. I believe that the Sixaxis controller offers game designers and developers far more opportunity for future innovation than rumble ever did,” he said. 

It was hard to find a developer, commentator or gamer anywhere that sincerely supported Harrison’s claim, and within a year, Sony showed it didn’t either. Following its resolution with Immersion, the company unveiled the DualShock 3, essentially a Sixaxis controller with the same rumble technology as the old DualShock 2.




1. "This is my final Metal Gear"

You can almost hear Kojima’s mischievous laugh as players open locker doors to reveal a somewhat crinkled magazine centerfold, or when certain cut-scenes are punctuated with rather promiscuous first-person ‘opportunities’. That’s not to say Kojima needs to get out more, but that he enjoys surprising his audience. 

The Metal Gear series’ collection of control port puzzles, fake game-over screens, Act IV déjà vu and, of course, that Raiden bombshell certainly shows that Kojima has a talent for twisting expectations. Yet, outside of his own discs, you could say that the series’ creator is even better at fooling himself.

How else could you explain the existence of a videogame series that has died three times? Kojima had made his intentions clear upon the release of Sons of Liberty (2001) that he wanted to end the series and move on to entirely different ideas. Onwards, the release of Snake Eater (2004) was affixed with a second firm promise that his involvement in the series had, definitely, come to an end. Today, rumors abound that MGS4 will see a sequel, with Kojima expressing an interest in some involvement.

"It's like when Hayao Miyazaki says he is not going to do more, and then always ends up doing it,” Kojima recently told Kikizo. “After each Metal Gear, when I say I am going to move on to the next project, I always intend to stay true to these statements. I do always say what I actually feel at that time.”