Robert Delaware was the only named Microsoft worker (a contract employee) who talked — without permission — to VentureBeat for our story last week on the Xbox 360 defects.
Microsoft had him fired on Wednesday. Delaware worked as a game tester at Microsoft but was employed by the temp agency Excell Data. He reported directly to a Microsoft manager, who told him he was being let go because of the VentureBeat article.
Delaware, a 29-year-old Seattle resident, expects to face civil charges from his former employer VMC (which tests games for Microsoft) and Microsoft as well. He will likely have to hire a lawyer. Microsoft spokesman David Dennis said the company does not talk about personnel issues.
“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.”
Delaware bravely decided to come forward and talk on the record for our story about the many problems associated with the launch of the Xbox 360. He talked to me about how he learned about problems with the hardware while working as a game tester for VMC. He worked there from 2005 to the fall of 2007. He left to join a start-up, Whrrl, and then returned to the game testing job at Excell, working for Microsoft, this summer. During his time at VMC, he saw how Xbox Live updates embedded in retail games could turn working consoles into worthless hulks. I found his remarks to be refreshing and candid.
He later moved to work for Microsoft, testing games for its Bungie studio. Clearly, from a legalistic point of view, Delaware broke company policy and it is the company’s right to fire him (he fully knew the risk he was taking, based on multiple conversations I had with him about using his name).
But this kind of witch hunt mentality is wrong-headed. People like Delaware are more useful hunting down bugs and fixing problems. I think the company really should apply their energy in different directions, like making sure that consumers are treated right. The firing disappoints me, and I wish Delaware well.
Delaware said he got some positive feedback at work about the story. On Friday, he believed a couple of people were arguing about his involvement in our story. But nothing happened until Wednesday, when he talked with his boss and communicated with an HR rep for Excell Data on the phone. The HR rep was the one who told him that he would likely face legal trouble.
When I was thinking about making a difference with our story, this isn’t what I had in mind. But there has been a lot of feedback on my story from angry consumers. Asked if I should write a story about this firing, Delaware said, “Rock and roll. It feels good. It was the moral thing to do.”
Updates on other fallout from our story
Tom Prettyman, a 24-year-old network administrator in Hamilton, N.J., wrote in to tell me that he has gone through 11 failed consoles. The first one broke three days after he bought it in November, 2006. It happened so many times that he bought the extra $60 warranties to get the machines replaced for free early on.
“I want to thank you for writing about this,” he wrote. “Especially in this day and age when investigative journalism seems to have become a thing of the past”
Prettyman wasn’t aware that there was another guy, Justin Lowe, a 22-year-old student in Pembroke Pines, Fla., who also had 11 broken consoles. His twelfth console, sent to him by the advertising team at Microsoft for free, has problems reading game disks.
A few people really didn’t want to hear about the defect problems again. But I heard from a lot of people who believed passionately that telling the story was the right thing to do.
Rob Cassingham, who had seven consoles break on him (as we noted in the story), wrote in from Moab, Utah, to tell us that he has now had eight break on him.
Jason Miskimins alerted us to a problem that results in a console failure but apparently does not lead to the Red Ring of Death problem for which Microsoft will offer free replacements. Miskimins says this “black screen of death” problem isn’t covered by the warranty and Microsoft charges for fixing the problem.
The story has spread pretty far. A writer in Poland asked if it was OK to translate it into Polish.
3:15 pm
Failed 360’s « Drunken LAN said:
[...] Tags: 360, ethics, microsoft, testing, xbox Quick post to point folks to an article about someone on staff to test 360s coming clean about their defective nature. I’m glad to [...]
4:32 pm
MMO Clerks » Microsoft Fires Tester Who Went On Record About Xbox 360 Defects [Xbox 360] said:
[...] Robert Delaware, a Microsoft game tester employed by temp agency Excell Data, was let go on Wednesday and is expected to face civil charges from his former employer, according to an update from VentureBeat. [...]
5:38 pm
MMO Clerks » Game Tester Fired For Going On Record About Xbox 360 Defects [Xbox 360] said:
[...] Robert Delaware, a Microsoft game tester employed by temp agency Excell Data, was let go on Wednesday and is expected to face civil charges from his former employer, according to an update from VentureBeat. [...]
6:53 pm
Top Gamer Blog » Archive » 360 failure whistleblower fired by Microsoft said:
[...] [Via VentureBeat] [...]
7:23 pm
Microsoft fires game test contractor who talked to VentureBeat | Clint Is A Geek.com said:
[...] fires game test contractor who talked to VentureBeat Posted by XanTium on Sep 12th, 2008 From venturebeat.com:[QUOTE]Robert Delaware was the only named Microsoft worker (a contract employee) who talked — [...]
8:19 pm
Microsoft fires game test contractor who talked to VentureBeat said:
[...] venturebeat.com:[QUOTE]Robert Delaware was the only named Microsoft worker (a contract employee) who talked — [...]
8:42 pm
From the Pipeline - 9.12.08 - WinExtra said:
[...] Microsoft fires game test contractor who talked to VentureBeat :: VentureBeat - sorry but this incident doesn’t bode well for people coming forward to bloggers to tell all they know about interesting tech stories. [...]
9:00 pm
Microsoft Has Robert Delaware Dismissed for Comments on 360 Defects | PSP NEWS said:
[...] dismissed directly by his Microsoft supervisor for his participation in the story according to an update on the site. Delaware also likely faces civil charges from both VMC (another testing company at [...]
10:00 pm
Microsoft Has Robert Delaware Dismissed for Comments on 360 Defects | Wii News said:
[...] dismissed directly by his Microsoft supervisor for his participation in the story according to an update on the site. Delaware also likely faces civil charges from both VMC (another testing company at [...]
10:00 pm
Microsoft Has Robert Delaware Dismissed for Comments on 360 Defects | Wii News said:
[...] dismissed directly by his Microsoft supervisor for his participation in the story according to an update on the site. Delaware also likely faces civil charges from both VMC (another testing company at [...]
11:10 pm
videogaming247 » Blog Archive » Whistleblower fired over 360 failure article said:
[...] contractor that participated in a Dean Takahashi feature about Xbox 360 hardware failures, reports VentureBeat, the site that originally published the [...]
12:21 am
Microsoft Has Robert Delaware Dismissed for Comments on 360 Defects | Nintendo ds said:
[...] dismissed directly by his Microsoft supervisor for his participation in the story according to an update on the site. Delaware also likely faces civil charges from both VMC (another testing company at [...]
5:46 am
Game Junkies » Blog Archive » Microsoft fires game test contractor who talked to VentureBeat said:
[...] venturebeat.com:[QUOTE]Robert Delaware was the only named Microsoft worker (a contract employee) who talked — [...]
7:55 am
Note to Contractors do not violate your NDA — TechWag said:
[...] be cool, start thinking of the bigger ramifications of what you are doing. A Contractor working at Microsoft was fired for talking about “Xbox’s shoddy manufacturing processes” to Venture [...]
9:22 am
Microsoft fires game test contractor who talked to VentureBeat | x360ME.com - Your trusted source for xbox news - Microsoft Xbox 360 News - Middle East said:
[...] Source: venturebeat.com [...]
10:48 am
Microsoft Blog » Microsoft Fires Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death Whistleblower, May File Lawsuit said:
[...] based on multiple conversations I had with him about using his name,” claimed Takahashi in a follow-up story today. At present, all references to Robert Delaware have been removed from the original [...]
6:55 pm
Microsoft Fires Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death Whistleblower - Computer Forums said:
[...] Death Whistleblower Robert Delaware faces Microsoft’s wrath for coming forward According to a follow up article on VentureBeat, Microsoft fired Robert Delaware a game test contractor who talked to Dean Takahashi about the Xbox [...]
11:19 pm
Nie ma jak u MS | Polygamia said:
[...] Opublikowany kilka dni temu raport na temat uszkodzeń Xboxa wzbudził w Was dość sporo emocji i chęci do dyskusji. Sprawa jednak się jeszcze nie zakończyła. Ci, którzy przeczytali dokładnie oryginał być może pamiętają, że Robert Delaware jest jedyną postacią, która zdecydowała się opowiedzieć kilka słów pod swoim prawdziwym nazwiskiem. Pracował on jako tester gier dla MS, następnie dla firmy Excell Data, która była podwykonawcą giganta z Redmond. Napisałem pracował? Ups, no właśnie. Chociaż podobno zdawał sobie sprawę z ryzyka, jakie niesie wypuszczanie firmowych tajemnic na zewnątrz, to jednak chciał pokazać światu jak się rzeczy naprawdę mają, za co zapłacił stanowiskiem. O dokładnym przebiegu tego procesu przeczytać możecie ze szczegółami na VentureBeat. [...]
12:20 am
Simply Gadgets » Blog Archive » Microsoft Fires Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death Whistleblower said:
[...] to a follow up article on VentureBeat, Microsoft fired Robert Delaware a game test contractor who talked to Dean Takahashi about the Xbox [...]
2:02 am
XAM » Blog Archive » Nie ma jak u MS said:
[...] Opublikowany kilka dni temu raport na temat uszkodzeń Xboxa wzbudził w Was dość sporo emocji i chęci do dyskusji. Sprawa jednak się jeszcze nie zakończyła. Ci, którzy przeczytali dokładnie oryginał być może pamiętają, że Robert Delaware jest jedyną postacią, która zdecydowała się opowiedzieć kilka słów pod swoim prawdziwym nazwiskiem. Pracował on jako tester gier dla MS, następnie dla firmy Excell Data, która była podwykonawcą giganta z Redmond. Napisałem pracował? Ups, no właśnie. Chociaż podobno zdawał sobie sprawę z ryzyka, jakie niesie wypuszczanie firmowych tajemnic na zewnątrz, to jednak chciał pokazać światu jak się rzeczy naprawdę mają, za co zapłacił stanowiskiem. O dokładnym przebiegu tego procesu przeczytać możecie ze szczegółami na VentureBeat. [...]
8:22 am
GameLuv.com said:
[...] inevitable — hardware malfunction. The article also has the distinction of leading to the firing of a named source who divulged some of the dirtiest bits. Posted By: [...]
12:20 pm
Xbox 360 defects: an inside history of Microsoft said:
[...] Whistle blower fired over leaking X360 defect rate [...]
3:41 pm
When Keeping is real goes wrong - SonyADDICTED.com said:
[...] and is expected to face civil charges from his former employer, according to an update from Microsoft fires game test contractor who talked to VentureBeat VentureBeat. Delaware was the only source at Microsoft to be directly named in the original article. He was [...]
3:18 am
Tester fired for talking about broken Xbox 360’s | LazyGamer .:: South African Gaming News ::. said:
[...] Source: VentureBeat [...]
4:12 am
Video Game Watchdog - News and Reviews on the next gen video game consoles » Xbox 360 Tester Who Spoke on Record about RROD Gets Canned, May Be Sued said:
[...] update to report that a QA tester who spoke to him on the record for the investigative report had been fired by Microsoft just days after its publication: Robert Delaware was the only named Microsoft worker (a contract [...]
6:00 am
MS Fires Man for Talking - Loot Ninja said:
[...] [Via VentureBeat] [...]
6:59 am
Dalia’s Small Home » Blog Archive » Xbox 360 Tester Who Spoke on Record about RROD Gets Canned, May Be Sued said:
[...] an update to report that a QAtester who spoke to him on the record for the investigative report had been fired by Microsoft just days after its publication: Robert Delaware was the only named Microsoft worker (a contract [...]
11:05 am
MMO Clerks » Microsoft fires tester for speaking out about red rings said:
[...] in the Xbox 360 gamer community.” Now, Delaware has been rewarded for that passion by being fired by Microsoft. Lest there be any doubt about Delaware’s job performance, VB reports that a Microsoft [...]
12:23 pm
Un ‘tester’ despedido por hablar de los fallos de la 360 « El Blog de los Videojuegos said:
[...] justifica el despido aludiendo a la cláusula contractual en la que se exige a los trabajadores un silencio absoluto sobre cualquier tema privado relacionado con la [...]
1:41 pm
Microsoft licenzia tester per aver parlato dei led rossi | Your Console Mania said:
[...] C’è da dire comunque che Delaware sapeva di possibili ritorsioni, ma ha voluto ugualmente dire la sua apertamente. Ora forse capirà perché molte altre fonti preferiscono rimanere anonime. via | VentureBeat [...]
2:21 pm
CrunchGear » Archive » Microsoft fires RROD squealer said:
[...] of you may recall the expose VentureBeat did on the whole RROD fiasco and VB is once again reporting that Microsoft went ahead and fired the guy you see pictured. Robert Delaware was let go last week [...]
5:04 pm
Employee fired for talking to journalist about Xbox 360 "Red Ring of Death" | MostReviews.com said:
[...] Microsoft fires game test contractor who talked to VentureBeat [VentureBeat.com] [...]
5:43 pm
Cheap Computer Monitors » Blog Archive » Microsoft fires RROD squealer said:
[...] of you may recall the expose VentureBeat did on the whole RROD fiasco and VB is once again reporting that Microsoft went ahead and fired the guy you see pictured. Robert Delaware was let go last week [...]
6:14 pm
Don’t Criticize Microsoft said:
[...] firing occurred within a week of the article’s posting. Delaware plans to resist any possible litigation from Microsoft or [...]
9:23 pm
Microsoft cans whistleblowing game tester [Great Moments In Journalism] : VCsAndAngels - Venture Capital / VCs, Angel Investors, Startup News, Etc said:
[...] about a bug he encountered during testing phases persisting as the Xbox went into production. Now he’s out of a job and faces a civil suit from Microsoft for violating a nondisclosure [...]
10:47 pm
Microsoft Fires Xbox Employee for Bad Mouthing the 360 said:
[...] be facing civil charges from his former employer. “I don’t regret it,” he told VentureBeat. “I’ll fight it. If they want to come after me, bring it [...]
12:05 am
Microsoft licenzia tester per aver parlato dei led rossi - Giochi-gratis.org News - News sul mondo dei videogiochi e sulle console nintendo, xbox, playstation 3, PSP said:
[...] via | VentureBeat [...]
6:50 am
zockerseele.com | the ultimate games weblog » archiv » 360: der rote todesring IV said:
[...] ins dunkel zum thema “roter 360-todesring” zu bringen, gefeuert. hier der artikel: via venturebeat.com. überrascht sind wir nicht… .: be social! // sei sozial! [...]
9:17 am
Megaline Games & Entertainment » Blog Archive » Microsoft se jode al soplon said:
[...] VentureBeat Share and [...]
11:28 am
VentureBeat’s look into the defect history of the 360 | Krunker said:
[...] (Mr. Robert Delaware, a game tester/contractor) interviewed in the original VentureBeat article was apparently let go by the temp agency. Yes, Microsoft had him fired and there might even be civil charges filed against the fella. We [...]
2:24 pm
Microsoft fires game test contractor who talked to VentureBeat | Tech Supersite Network said:
[...] job of a whistleblower is a dangerous one, and Robert Delaware has paid the price for speaking out against Microsoft. The contracted game tester had worked closely with the Xbox [...]
7:50 am
Microsoft cans whistleblowing game tester [Great Moments In Journalism] | Techno Portal said:
[...] about a bug he encountered during testing phases persisting as the Xbox went into production. Now he’s out of a job and faces a civil suit from Microsoft for violating a nondisclosure [...]
9:15 am
Tester Fired For Speaking Out About 360 Defects | www.Multiplayergames.com - Multiplayer Games said:
[...] used to be a tester for Microsoft, until they handed him a pink slip for breaking what was likely every part of his NDA. This leads to the question: Was it better PR to [...]
4:06 pm
Microsoft cans whistleblowing game tester [Great Moments In Journalism]| All Technology Oriented News, Articles, Reviews, Geek Friendly Site| Suffire.com | Geek Stuffs, Technology Related said:
[...] went into production. Now he’s out of a job and faces a civil suit from [...]
5:50 pm
Problems you wish microsoft would address about the xbox 360 - Page 2 - Game Podunk said:
[...] One person was apparently fired for talking to Venture Beat about XBOX 360 technical problems, Microsoft Fires Game Test Contractor Who Talked to VentureBeat. The article also said: [...]
2:28 pm
Problems you wish microsoft would address about the xbox 360 - Page 3 - Game Podunk said:
[...] One person was apparently fired for talking to Venture Beat about XBOX 360 technical problems, Microsoft Fires Game Test Contractor Who Talked to VentureBeat. The article also said: [...]