One of the most common problems that
annoyed EARLY XBOX 360 ADOPTERS was the appearance of the “red ring of death,” a
flashing red light on the console’s start button indicating that its hardware was essentially
fried and would need to be sent to Microsoft to be replaced. But Microsoft Game
Studios vice president Phil Spencer tells Edge that the company has learned its lessons
and that the new Xbox One will not experience hardware failures on a mass scale like the
Xbox 360 did. In particular, Spencer noted that Microsoft’s success rate on the more
recently released Xbox 360 Slim was “very high” and said that the same team behind the
Slim also built the Xbox One, so chances are very good that the new console won’t burn
out within months of buying it.