Microsoft Fires Xbox 360 RRoD Whistleblower

Last week, I linked to a story that discussed how the Xbox 360 could have been launched to avoid the flurry of Red Ring of Death issues, but wasn’t. Problems detected early on were not taken care of, despite employee’s who brought the issues up to the management. Microsoft took their chances, and even after losing $1B to fixing the problems, they don’t seem to regret their decision.

Well, apparently they did mind about the employee who brought the issue to light, because after the story was posted, he was fired immediately. Robert Delaware was a game test contractor who claims to not regret his decision to bring the issue up, and it’s good, because as a consumer, we should know about these things. Not to mention it would be worse if you actually invested into the company… you should definitely know above anyone about these idiotic decisions.

Sadly, the fact is that now nothing will happen, really. The issue was brought to light, but there’s little doubt that Microsoft would take the exact same chance in the future. The worst victim might be Robert himself. It’s going to be some difficult to find a job in this industry after everyone knows your a whistleblower. Good luck to him regardless and thanks for being the one to speak up.

Delaware is expecting to face civil charges from his former employer VMC (which tests games for Microsoft) and Microsoft as well. Delaware is planning to fight any future lawsuits. “I don’t regret it,” he said in a phone call on Thursday. “I’ll fight it. If they want to come after me, bring it on.” An HR representative for Excell Data was the one who told him that he would likely face legal trouble.