MS rubbishes Kinect RROD claims

A seemingly lightweight report on the BBC linking motion camera Kinect to new instances of the ‘Red Ring of Death’ on some Xbox 360 consoles has been dismissed by Microsoft.

The story claims that "console owners told the BBC that their machines crashed shortly after plugging in Kinect".

Ten-year-old Adam Winnifrith even getting air time on Radio 4 to explain that: "We plugged it in the day we got it but only played it a few times before we got the red lights. The next day when we tried it again we still had the red rings of death and haven’t been able to use it since."

His father added: "It’s very disappointing. We were planning to have a big New Year’s Day party with karaoke microphones and a Take That competition. But now the Xbox is just sitting idle."

However, Microsoft issued an uncategorical statement rubbishing any possibility of a link between Kinect and the RROD.

"There is no correlation between the three flashing red lights error and Kinect," it said. "Any new instances of the three flashing red lights error are merely coincidental."

It’s not the first time the BBC has turned its attentions to Xbox 360’s tech problems – which in themselves are something that Microsoft has previously confessed to and addressed with new designs for the machine.

As long ago as 2007 consumer show Watchdog ran a segment on RROD and in 2009 it ran another piece on alleged disc scratching issues.

Last year it also ran an embarrassing piece on the PS3, claiming that the YLOD (Yellow Light of Death) was becoming a big problem.

UPDATE: As has been pointed out by several readers, the main barrier between Adam’s dad and a Take That competition is the fact that Take That SingStar is a PS3 exclusive and not available on Xbox 360.