For owners of the Xbox 360, the was no greater fear than going into the game room to play with your console, only to see 3 horrible glowing red rings staring at you. These rings were more frightening than the actual horror movie, The Ring. Former vice president at Microsoft, Peter Moore, remembers it just as well as those who suffered through it.
“It was sickening,” he told IGN. “I think we have a billion dollar problem here,” Moore remembers telling executives at Xbox. Taking a lot of personal hits as a face of the company, he made a proposal to Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, to pull back many consoles and take a hit. As predicted, the company did take a billion dollar hit, but surprisingly the stock did not move down. More importantly, the brand was saved. “If you’re an Xbox gamer, you can thank Steve Ballmer for not even hesitating,” Moore exclaimed. “If we hadn’t made that decision there and then, and instead tried to fudge over this problem, then the Xbox brand and Xbox One wouldn’t exist today.”
Peter Moore is now the COO of Electronic Arts. Steve Ballmer is still the CEO of Microsoft and had recently been in the news for purchasing the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers. The Xbox name brand is now worth approximately 3 to 4 times more than the billion dollar hit they took, during the infamous time of the Red Rings.