Microsoft Acknowledges 360 Issues, Extends Warranty to 3 Years

RamblinLonghorn writes "Microsoft has announced that they are extending the warranty for all Xbox 360s to 3 years. This appears to be entirely retroactive and that 'those who have already paid for such repair charges can expect reimbursement checks for the amount of their console repair.' It seems as though Microsoft is accepting the blame for the hardware malfunctions, but it is worth noting that this warranty modification only applies in the 'Red Rings of Death' situation."

Red rings of death

[Anonymous Coward]

...and for those of us who have no idea wtf the "red rings of death are", see here [teamxbox.com]

(Posted anonymously to avoid karma whoring)

Re:Still, they break.

[stratjakt]

They dont shell out a new console, they ship you a refurbed unit.

Give them a CC# and they'll cross ship (send your refurbed unit out right now, before they recieve your return).

Then they fix yours, and put it in the pool to be sent to someone else.

It's how RMA's work.

Re:A $1 BILLION DOLLAR cost?

[mediamonkey]

Actually, it is almost EXACTLY that much - according to the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6275728.stm [bbc.co.uk]

Re:Still, they break.

[senatorpjt]

The only specific PS3 failure I've read about is where some guy put tape over the vent holes to "keep dust out."

Not that they don't happen, the widely quoted figures I've seen, Wii and PS3 failure rate was about 1%, compared to 30% for the 360.

Re:Well...

[Anonymous Coward]

I've had success in maintaining/repairing NES systems by taking them apart and unbending and cleaning the contacts that are supposed to contact the cartridge so that they get a firm, clean contact between system and cartridge. Your mileage may vary, but pretty much all NES systems I've seen are pretty easily repairable and will work correctly with a few repairs and cleaning.

Re:An Utter Train Wreck

[Anonymous Coward]

The most amazing thing to me is that according to these figures the PlayStation 2 sold 188,000 units during May So the old gen PlayStation outsells the nextgen Xbox 360 and the PS3.

Top selling hardware for may is:

DS 423,000
Wii 338,000
PSP 221,000
PS2 188,000
Xbox 155,000
PS3 82,000
GBA 80,000

Even funnier. Handhelds are more popular then the big nextgen wonders.

Re:An Utter Train Wreck

[RamblinLonghorn]

The PS3 is selling at a rate that is right between the first Playstation and PS2..

That would be fine and dandy, if the market was a static, fixed, number of customers. 82,000 units in a month in todays market stinks. I agree with you that the PS3 is a marvelous piece of technology. The games look beautiful, and a few of them are probably pretty fun. It may even catch on and get back into competitiveness, but in my opinion, based on the NPD numbers and daily press stories, I wouldn't bet on it.

All the games people are going out to buy for the PS2 will run on their PS3s, all the franchises they are buying at a faster rate than the 360 are getting next gen sequels on the PS3. Developers who seven to eight years ago started working on PS2 engines are still being able to leverage that technology they created years ago in the giant and still expanding PS2 market.

Which means they (consumers and developers) will not be spending their money on PS3 related products. Just by looking at the wii versus gamecube, you can see an advantage in not having two product lines in the same market. The Wii is near enough in price to the Gamecube, that it is easy to justify shelling out the extra $150 or so to get the wii. Developers, who shunned the wii for the most part, now see the success of the Wii (in large part due to pricing and timing) and are scrambling to divert money to wii related projects. Unless you expect the ps2 to be there in another 7 years, and the NPD numbers show the PS2 under 200,000 for the first time since initial launch, you have to get the consumers and developers on the newer technology.

Re:Well...

[despisethesun]

That was actually the reason behind the redesigned NES that came out towards the end of the console's life (that and milking it for everything it was worth). The original Famicom and the NES 2 were top-loaded and didn't suffer the same problems.

Re:Well...

[LKM]

No, that's actually not the reason. The reason is optical drives. Go to a garage sale. You'll see countless N64s, but you almost never see PS1s. Why is that? Because PS1s break easily, while N64s don't break at all. I own dozens of consoles, some of them over 20 years old. Not a single one of them has ever had any kind of issue, except one of the Dreamcasts; I never bought a PS1 or a PS2.

My original Pong still works. VCS 2600? Still works. NES, SNES, Turbografx, all still work.

Nothing to do with the Internet. It's the moving parts that make consoles prone to breaking. Except with the 360: That's just bad engineering.

Microsoft Knew and Denied

[egNuKe]

http://www.megagames.com/news/html/console/microso ftconfessandfixrrodepidemic.shtml [megagames.com] has gone all the way to say: [quote]Some people would believe that Microsoft have just discovered the issue and fixed it, as expected from a reputable multinational company. But when asked, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division for a "little over first year" the "set of issues wasn't visible at all," but during the last couple of months the company has seen "significant increases, significant call volume, and significant attention" to the problem. During those "couple of months" Microsoft actively denied the problem several times. [/quote]