- Microsoft made a sweater featuring the Red Ring of Death.
- The sweater has a power button that lights up in green or red.
- Only Microsoft employees can purchase the sweeter.
Microsoft decided to celebrate the holiday season in an interesting way this year. The tech giant is highlighting its own ghosts of gaming past in the form of an Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death ugly sweater. The sweater, officially called the "Xbox 360 glitch holiday sweater," has a power button with green lights. You can swap out that power button with one that shows the infamous Red Ring of Death that indicated an Xbox 360 console was broken.
If you want to buy the Red Ring of Death ugly sweater, you'll have to update your CV, hop on over to LinkedIn, and get hired by Microsoft immediately. Unfortunately, the holiday sweater is only available to Microsoft employees at the moment. The Verge first shared the news about the new holiday sweater and the fact that the sweater is a hit among Microsoft employees.
The Red Ring of Death was a horrible error that struck terror in the hearts of gamers. With some distance from bricked consoles, the ominous ring is now joked about more, though I imagine some are still understandably upset about it.
A documentary titled "Power-On" details the history of the Xbox brand, including the infamous Red Ring of Death. The six-part series has an entire episode dedicated to the warning light.
While the most immediate damage was done to owners of Xbox 360 consoles who were left unable to play games or use their system after the Red Ring of Death appeared, the issue also caused stress for Microsoft's leadership and those who had to fix the consoles. Ultimately, the Red Ring of Death saga cost Microsoft $1.15 billion, according to former Xbox chief Peter Moore.
Microsoft has embraced its retro increasingly over the past few years, including some nods to Clippy. The Red Ring of Death also received some surprising love, including a poster that came out alongside the Power-On documentary back in 2021. Now, Microsoft employees can shine this holiday season with a limited-edition sweater featuring the Red Ring of Death.
