My 360 is dying
Dateline: Game Developers Conference, March 9, 2005 – Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA. I’m sitting in the Grand Ballroom, waiting for the Microsoft keynote, titled “The HD Era”. J. Allard looked tragically hip, with his suited hoodie and preaching the MS game gospel. I, being a corporate droid, fell hook line and sinker for the endless possibilities of micro-payments and downloadable content and the this and the that and the other.
Then, J shows us Forza Motorsport. For the unwashed, this was the moment when Microsoft gave away 1000 HD TVs to anyone wearing the badge colored the same as the winning car. I had blue, Mrs. G had yellow. Or was it the other way around?
In any case, one of the two was the winning color, and I was sent to wait in line and sign the forms. Effectively, it became mine.
That’s why there is a TV in the bathroom, and sponsored by Microsoft, no less!
Anyway, as I said, my good buddy J had me at “micro-payments.” To me, MS really had it right with the new Live and the 360 was going to be the shizzle. I had to have that machine!
So I showed my commitment by making sure not to pre-order the 360. Genius. This led to many a night of considering standing in line, but not. I mean, the age of the 360 was the video game event of the epoch, but it was cold outside!
I finally managed to get one on Christmas Eve. That is a long and complicated story, and I don’t tell those, so I’ll skip it. The long and short of it is, I got a 360, and I got it after all the bugs had been fixed! My 360 is 604 days old.
And just 2 days ago, my drive started stuttering while reading discs and sometimes not starting at all.
