If We Hadn’t Done It, Xbox Wouldn’t Exist”: The Man Who Saved the Brand With $1.15 Billion

Peter Moore recalls how the "Red Ring of Death" crisis nearly killed Xbox 360... and everything else.

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Few consoles have had a life as intense as the Xbox 360. And while many remember its legacy of games, pioneering services, and online community, there’s one episode that almost erased it all: the infamous red ring of death, which led to Microsoft spending $1.15 billion on repairs. A colossal sum that, according to Peter Moore himself, **saved the Xbox brand from disappearing forever**.

In a recent interview with The Game Business, Moore —who was one of the key figures behind the launch of Xbox and Xbox 360— assures that, without that drastic decision, “I’m not sure the Xbox brand would exist today”. What seemed like a mere technical failure ended up becoming a turning point: a critical moment that defined the future of Xbox.

The Decision That Changed Xbox History Forever

“We struggled to understand what was happening”, recalls Moore about the technical problems affecting millions of consoles. “Were the fans properly placed? Did warming them with a towel really reconnect loose components? It was madness and it was very stressful”.

Faced with the disaster, Moore convinced Microsoft’s leadership to invest over a billion dollars in replacing faulty consoles and restoring players’ trust. “We felt it was money well spent to keep alive a brand we deeply believed in,” he states.

Today, Xbox faces other challenges, such as the recent waves of layoffs at Microsoft Gaming. But the memory of that moment remains very present: a risky bet that, according to Moore, was “doing the right thing for the players” and what truly prevented the collapse of the entire project.