Microsoft fires Xbox 360 whistleblower
- September 15, 2008 00:00 AM PST
A week after exposing the shoddy manufacturing of Xbox 360s to Venture Beat, Robert Delaware lost his job for speaking out about the Red Ring of Death.
Robert Delaware, 29, was fired for talking about Xbox 360 failures
"I don't regret it," Delaware said in a phone call to Venture Beat on Thursday. He says it was important to come forward as a game tester to ensure the problem gets corrected.
Delaware worked for Excell Data, a temp agency, but was fired by his Microsoft manager last Wednesday for speaking to Venture Beat, the paper said. As a result of his whistleblowing, he may face civil lawsuits from both his former employer and Microsoft for breach of contract.
"I'll fight it," he said, speaking of possible litigation. "If they want to come after me, bring it on."
Last week, Delaware told Venture Beat in its six-page expose of Xbox 360 defects that Microsoft rushed development of the console to beat PlayStation 3 and Wii to market, resulting in a reported 33 percent failure rate. Microsoft has since increased the original 90 day 360 warranty, first to one year, and later to the current three year extension.
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- Sep 15 2008 at 08:23:53:AM PST
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he lost his job for telling people what they already knew!!! wtf??? thats like firing john madden from monday night football for stating the obvious..... im a 360 fanboy.... i dont really care about the ring of death. i have gotten 3 xboxs since it launched, but as long as microsoft fixes them or sends new ones for no charge its whatever!!!!
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Good for him! The world needs more whistle blowers to keep corporations and government honest.
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when you go blabing your mouth, what did you think would happen? A promotion? what a tard
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Firing him only confirms that M$ knew the 360 was a full of hardware problems.
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sonyboy69 wrote:
MS is a group of scumbags for firing him. i mean, its not like we already didnt know they rushed 360. i think a fetus can tell u that (well tell that to the mother). "Tell the truth and u DIE Mr. Delaware!!!!!"
they can try and sue him, but hes gonna win. why? b/c he has the complaints off MANY MANY MANY ppl on his side in regards to RROD.
Snitches get stitches! He knew when he started game testing that he signed a contract that forbid him from releasing information. No matter if everyone knew that the 360was faulty, he posted what he knew he wasn't supoose to. He might be saying " bring it on MS "with the lawsuit but what he fails to realise is this: MS has deep pockets and having a top notch legal team is no problem for them. He on the other hand has to hire an attorney,that attorney knowns that its not going to be an easy task to defend him and he will need some pretty hefty cash. Filing paper work alone is going to cost some big cash. The are going to hit this dumbass where it hurts, in his pockets.
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..another thing is this. If MS wins the lawsuit against this guy and he doesn't have the cash and doesn't pay up he risk loosing alot more. His credit is going to get messed up big time for the next 5+ years. I know alot of you kids don't care about things like that but try getting a car or renting an apartement with bad credit and see how fast you get turned away. If you don't get turned away, you will be paying some really high intrest rate and get robbed legally.
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Win or lose, this guy lost his job for giving out the obvious truth. I feel alot of lawyers can see a potential in class action lawsuit for the consumers who had the inconvience of buying a defective product, replacing it with another defective product. What microsoft won't do is admit they rushed a known defective product for now. This will hurt microsoft alittle, do they want a showdown in court to be forced to expose their negligence? Whistleblowers are needed out there and this guy is commendable to standup and say something was going wrong and the consumers have the right to know why their consoles failed so much. If I bought a console that had to be replaced 3 times in 2 years, its a PIECE OF SHIT!
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