Microsoft has done a bit of nimble footwork lately to take some long-overdue and quite crucial steps towards fixing it's torrid Red Ring of Death (RRoD) issues with the Xbox 360. It's though (hoped) that when the next 65-nm process 360 (possibly included in the unit codenamed Falcon) arrives, that the lower heat production will fix this issue, but in the meantime there have been truly outrageous reports of 360 failure.

How outrageous?

Well, Brian Crecente at Kotaku is currently on his 11th Xbox 360, and not happy about it (to be fair, #10 died from a DVD drive, not RRoD). Justin Lowe also went through over 10 Xbox 360 consoles. People have made condolence cards suitable for the seeming inevitable occurrence, 360's are being refused by service centers that would formerly take a crack at repairing them, and most shockingly, two reports have pegged the failure rate of consoles sold via retail at 30-33%.

30-30%. 1 in 3. One third of all units sold.

Ouch.

Microsoft had (in)famously suggested a failure rate that was much lower than these actual figures, but fortunately they're all geared up to do the right thing. Now-departed Xbox chief Peter Moore has gone on record saying that MS is committed to doing the right thing (also noted in this Kotaku interview), and extended the Xbox warranty to a full three years to solve the RRoD issue.

In sum, they can break, 1/3 broke, they'll fix the ones that done did broke for 3 years, but I'm still waiting to get one.

It's the time-honored classic, with people, a tight fit, and a pit of failure:

Japanese game shows. I miss 'em. Sorta. 日本人は大丈夫じゃないよ, ne?

Two political developments as of late: right here in my backyard, the NY State Senate passed an ESRB Oversight Bill, seeking to "take steps to crack down on video game violence, and combat and reduce children's exposure to violent and inappropriate materials within these games." If the official release is too boring, here's a good summary of what they put into the books.

And over in the midwest, another case proved once again that legal efforts such as these often end up wasting money. Lots of money, money that could have been spent on after school programs or other actual efforts to reduce teen violence by positively directing their development. Instead, we end up in expensive, pointless, and typically unconstitutional cases that fail to assign blame, fault, or restrict the types of content video games can offer or represent. Even if one of these cases did succeed, would restricting or banning video games lead to a drop in youth violence? No. So, with all this in mind, go read the sad tale of how the Illinois Gov. pissed away $1,000,000 losing such a case against the gaming industry.

UPDATE: Looks like said NY Bill is really going nowhere, fast.

"[The bill] would place limits on who can see violent video games. It would make it a felony to sell violent and obscene video games to minors. In addition, manufacturers would have to equip game consoles with parental-control devices, retailers would have to label games that are violent and obscene, and the state would establish a committee to study the problem."

They're essentially requiring the status quo. The ESRB ratings label all games with warnings based on content, consoles already have parental controls, and good luck enforcing that felony charge (though I think it's a good idea, and wish they would or could). Oh well. At least they're pandering to the masses that think games are the downfall of society and want something done NOW (even if it's just putting the existing structure into the law books).

In a related story, the American Medical Association is looking to classify video game addiction as a disease. Which is fine by me (WoW players, take a break!), but I hope they're not looking at online gaming alone. eBay addicts and online shoppers, anyone? IM addicts? Blackberry addicts? The additions are all real, but let's only start calling them diseases if we focus on the addiction and not the particular (Jack Thompson-directly) manifestation. Boo AMA (they're addicted to medical studies anyhow).

Personal hero Brian Ashcraft over at Kotaku has done an amazing, beautiful and thoughtful feature on Japanese arcades in Osaka. I loved it. You should really take a look:

Sex, Gambling, But Not Games in Japanese Arcade Hell

Oh dear. Oh my.

Thanks for bearing with me this week. Random notes to take you to the weekend:

Darwin award presented by Sony to the dumb shit that electrocuted himself by pissing on his PS2. My PS2 is still a major performer at home - totally un-piss-worthy. The PS3, on the other hand...

In the HOLY CRAP department (and speaking of reasons not to whizz on your PS2), there's a hair metal expansion pack coming to PS2 for Guitar Hero II!!!! Check out the 8 tracks mentioned so far:

* "I Wanna Rock" (by Twisted Sister)
* "I Ran" (by Flock of Seagulls)
* "Round and Round" (as made famous by Ratt)
* "I Want Candy" (as made famous by Bow Wow Wow)
* "Metal Health" (as made famous by Quiet Riot)
* "Holy Diver" (as made famous by Dio)
* "Heat of the Moment" (as made famous by Asia)

Mmmm....

On the blueballs front, don't expect to see Spore anytime soon. Damn.

The PSP is having a nice run of it, in addition to robust sales, it's seen favorable review for its own version of God of War, and is lucky enough to get its own Final Fantasy franchise.

On the political front, the mayor Boston, trying to have his cake and eat it too, is attempting to lure game house HQ's to his city, but is also backing Jack Thompson. Thompson has also had a nice run of it lately, after suckering Democrat Roy Burrell into sponsoring a crappy bill that he abandoned, aimed at the video game industry. Nevermind that the whole thing flopped, and cost his state's taxpayers $100,000. Moron.

On a cheerful note, my personal hobby of nostalgic game hoarding has been the subject of feature on GameSetWatch, talking about the almost accidental utility of services like Steam and GameTap as archivists. One of the brightest gems from years past, X-Com, was just released on Steam to boot!.

Finally, while the PS3 may have it's own class at MIT now, Capcom is releasing textbooks in manga format, which is reason #16573 I'm re-packing my bags and hopping on the next plane to Japan after all.

Hey kids. So, been a little AWOL lately, I know. Not that this site has the traffic (yet) that will have millions of fanboys howling in withdrawl, but apologies nonetheless. I've been super under the weather in the past few days, and slammed at the 9-5. So expect content this week, but in hyper-condense, parsed-by-console fashion.

In the meantime, since my body/immune system is more or less busted, please enjoy the following video regarding equally busted consoles:

Why DoCoMo cell phones on a games blog? Gaming is nothing new to Keitai culture, but with the introduction of new technology such as motion sensing capabilities, we now have Wii-mote functionality in a cell phone!

What do you do with such tech? Well, how about port over a family favorite? That's right, Katamari Damacy will be available for the new 904i as a pre-installed game!

Lucky jerks. I miss both Japan and my old J-P51 Keitai immensely.

Well well well. Looks like Jacky boy had to make a deal with the devil to keep his looney ass out of jail. Dude needs a hobby. Where does he get his money, anyhow?

Hell, as Kotaku points out, even MSNBC is giving Jack the workover. Seriously, you'd think good lawyers everywhere would band together and feed this jackass to an Orca or something to keep him from sinking their collective rep even further. Sheesh.