Is Kinect killing your Xbox 360?
New 'red ring of death' issues reported.
The Kinect peripheral is causing a new rash of 'red ring of death' Xbox 360 system crashes, according to a report from the BBC.
The article cites numerous consumers who claim that the new hardware caused their consoles to keel over shortly after being used for the first time.
Ten-year old Adam Winnifrith was one such disappointed gamer. His 360 conked out after only a couple of Kinect sessions.
"It's very disappointing," said his father James. "We were planning to have a big New Year's Day party with karaoke microphones and a Take That competition. But now the Xbox is just sitting idle."
The BBC insists that gaming forums have been "buzzing" with reports of a fresh spate of Kinect-induced RRoD console fatalities.
The official Xbox.com forum has a four page thread devoted to the issue, with the consensus being that the problem is most common with the original Xbox 360 units, rather than the recent Slim update.
Microsoft, however, has denied any link between Kinect and 360 system failures. According to a spokesperson for the platform holder, the motion-sensing add-on is "designed to work with every Xbox 360 sold to date."
"There is no correlation between the three flashing red lights error and Kinect. Any new instances of the three flashing red lights error are merely coincidental," it insisted.