Where Politics And Video Games Collide

I am a 360 fan, I will not own a sony product for the time until they change certain practices. I have no dislike of sony as a game company, I think the cell is an amazing piece of silicon and I would kill for the chance to program one of these things. I have been giddy about them since i first read about them from IBM.

The following is completely off the wall and hypothetical. Everything I say is based on limited information and minimal research. I am attempting to not give a point of view and maintain some neutrality. This is not a condemnation of any system. It is simply the musings of a concerned consumer and as someone with a significant interest in the continuing competition between the big 3 console makers. I am also concerned because I hope to graduate from college and make games. These are my theories and my genuine concerns.

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Guys, this is not a part breaking. Looking back at the issue, Im wondering.

RoHS compliance means removing certain hazardous materials. Lead Cadmium and the like. Lead is a great material for securing a chip to a board. It doesn’t oxidize, it has a very low melting point and it is soft enough to deal with flexing and expansion due to heat. Europe stated RoHS would go into effect on July 22 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoHS

In Europe RoHS has for the most part banned lead from being used in consumer electronics. This means computers, cells phones, and the like.

To replace lead they use silver. One issue, silver is brittle, very brittle. Really any stress (Expansion, vibration, anything) can pop a chip soldered to a board with silver. Its not that hard, silver just doesn’t work as well as lead. Oh yeah, silver also costs more.

I have heard many a time someone say “I have a box from launch and it is still chugging away.” Well I say the same thing, I got mine in early January 06, its still running. In fact all the people I know who got one within 5 month of launch none of them have had a 3 rings error. 2 Were sent back for repairs because ti stopped reading disc. Just a quick look at the games club at my college, this gives a 5% failure rate. I would like a better sample but this only occurred to me today while at work talking to the guys in production and my mom who works up in test engineering.

Many electronics manufactures rushed out a ton of stuff to beat the dead line. They wanted enough products in stock that they could sell under an exemption so they would have time to switch over to RoHS compliant manufacturing.

Looking at this I have realized something. When did we first really see the 360 supply shortage stop? Summer 06 if memory serves, when did the red ring of death stuff start happening in droves? Well if memory serves, fall 06. Just in time for RoHS compliant boxes to be rolled out and used for a time, enough time for them to start breaking.

The worst part is? The only solution is to find a replacement for silver that works like lead but isn’t banned. No amount of super cooling is going to solve the problem. Eventually the solder points are going to crack and break then the chip will fall off.

Now looking at the bigger picture I realized something. Big N could be avoiding the issue completely. They have a small quiet console that doesn’t generate a ton of heat, and thus by the time it breaks it won’t matter because the console will be rather old.

What about the PS3? Toshiba, Sony, and IBM, they in theory, could have the capacity to Produce RoHS compliant systems for Europe and non RoHS ones for the other major markets. What could this mean? Well PS3s could start failing droves in Europe too. However it RoHS like standards are being put together all over the world. The US is going to have a similar one soon. So this could be a problem for both MS and Sony. Who knows.

If I’m right, well console gamers get screwed. If I’m wrong well the world turns and the console war goes on.

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