Earlier this week, we told you about a few problems that Xbox One owners were reporting, what with "green screens of death" and disc drive problems, mostly. When consoles are new, some hardware issues are expected, and said problems seem to be in the minority, but there's been a more, shall we say, "unusual" problem. Two users were reporting that their Xbox Ones were actually smoking. The issue caught the attention of Microsoft, and the company has issued a statement on the matter. It's not directly stated, but Microsoft seems to think that the gamers reporting the problem are the ones blowing smoke, not the console.
A Microsoft staffer issued the following statement to iGamesResponsibly:
"The situation described is not something we're seeing. If customers are experiencing any issues, they should contact Xbox Support at https://support.xbox.com...To clarify: that's correct; it's not something that the support team is seeing."
Does it mean anything? Technically, no. No matter what you think or feel about Microsoft, corporations generally make sure their products go through a long period of testing to ensure that once it ships, there's no hiccups like a smoking console. Such an event would obviously cause even more PR damage to Microsoft (if that's even possible), and this isn't the sort of thing that any company would let slip through the cracks provided they knew about it.
Could somethinglike this have slipped through? Certainly not easily, but it's possible, just as it's also possible that the two complainers could have backed up their report with some sort of tangible evidence, like a video, or photo. Though, taking a picture when a console starts smoking like an abandoned building in Detroit isn't the first thought that comes to mind.
It's possible that the first (and only) two users, innerWrAiTh and TheZeeMan, who reported the problem were just trolling. Gamerscores don't account for much as far as credibility, but both users had a high score, indicating they are indeed Xbox supporters.
A Twitter user, also with the handle innerWrAiTh, likely the same person, reported Xbox One problems on the same day, but there was no mention of smoke in any of the tweets.
We'll keep you posted if there's any further developments, but keep a salt lick close by, and keep your fingers crossed this gets beyond a he-said she-said squabble.
