Analyst: Xbox 360 Failures Caused by Cost-Cutting

The Xbox 360's infamous 'red ring of death' woes stemmed from Microsoft's attempt to cut corners, an analyst recently said.

"Microsoft wanted to avoid an ASIC vendor," Bryan Lewis, research vice president and chief analyst at Gartner, said during the Design Automation Conference in California.

Microsoft designed its own graphic chip and handed the specifications to the manufacturer directly, Lewis said. In trying to save itself some tens of millions of dollars, Microsoft ended up eating more than $1 billion in recalls, he added.

Lewis said that Microsoft ultimately had an outside ASIC vendor look at the problem and revise the design.

Microsoft has never provided a full explanation for the relatively high failure rates for the Xbox 360, but has denied that the problem stemmed from production issues.

Source: EETimes.com, via Ars Technica