16% RROD 360 went to SquareTrade, while the other 15-30% went back to Microsoft for repaire. and nother 2-3% of jackasses buy another one and return their old xbox in the new box.

Yeah, you know who you are. ;)

I can't be the only one that thinks those comments are outrageous. This 1up guy is actually trying to convince readers that the failure rate is lower than suggested! I think the estimate of 16% is being incredibly generous to MS. Among the people I know, the failure rate is over 100% (yes, that is possible). I know 2 people that have their original 360 (received this xmas) and all the rest are on at least their second, some on their fourth. In contrast, I don't know a single person with a PS3 or Wii that has experienced any hardware failure. That is obviously anecdotal, but it seems to chime with the experiences of others.

You have to ask yourself why 1up would suggest it is lower than 16%, when that is in direct contradiction to the experiences of most people. 

 do you understand how statistics work? of the warranties held through sqaure trade 16% of them were invoked for repairs, and of that 60% were rrod, and they were primarily the older motherboard,

well I hopes it's true, as microsoft repaired my 360, so I see another rrod in short order and eventually they'll have to replace it instead of repairing it and it'd be nice to get a more reliable falcon motherboard 

nice to see it comming down

I think this is a frieghtening statistic.

Let us not forget that a large portion of people never use these extended warranties, that is why companies make so much money off of them(much like mail in reabtes).

Someone has already pointed out that the manufacturer has extended everyones warranty to cover the RROD. So many people, and I would be one of them, would assume the manufacturer would be the better choice when they are covered both ways.

Many people just buy a new one, or give up on a product when it breaks. Just becasue we are all well-informed and passionate about gaming doen't mean others will bother(most of their sample will as they bothered to get an extended warranty but there are some who won't).

The add on warranties always go into effect for a product after the initial manufacturers warranty expires, so many units could have died in the initial period. I also doubt these warrantes will last to a resonable lifetime (5 years) let alone the 10 years I expect out of a console.

The quote suggested that the rate could be higher because many of those systems just haven't been pushed enough yet, so why is 1up saying it is only power users who buy warranties have screwed up the average.


For me I assume the 360 has a 100% failure rate. If it is used hard enough for long enough it will RROD. Hate me if you will but the problem is a design flaw not a case where one manufacturing line had a problem of they had a case of faulty components. Now for the average use over a 5 year timeframe it probably wont be 100%, but I think north of the 33%. Also the new heatsink and falcon chips help and may push it closer to resonalbe but I am still guessing mare than average for a console.

The GPU puts off too much heat and warps the motherboard, until that goes 45nm(it will this year) the problem will not go away even for new models. The falcon was only the CPU.

And what is with the other 40% of the problems, that is like 6% failure rate. Double the console average without even taking into account above factors or the RROD. Please Microsoft take extra time with the next system, if you ever wont to succed outside the US, no more Pintos.

And if Microsoft really is thinking 3% for the $1 Billion they set aside. My guess is it will end up costing them 10 million systems times $300 or $3 Billion. Ouch!

I have had 2 I sold the one I bought launch day and had refurbished when the Elite came out, and I am awaiting my Elite's return now from MS. First one was RROD second was disk read error.

I'm glad I don't have to deal with that shit. I'm truly amazed that this is socially acceptable and believe people on their 3rd, 4th,etc... are masochists. It's almost as if they are brainwashed not to care!!!!

hmmm...........

 If I may, King:

I think what King means is that a certain percentage of people who could have delt with SquareTrade for their warranty went directly through Microsoft's customer service. Therefore, they would still have failure, but they will have delt with the problem privately with the manufacturer and not through a third-party warranter, such as SquareTrade.

 I think that the natural order when something breaks down is to call its customer support, then if that fails, in desperation you try to find a third party.

 Example: SquareTrade warrants 1000 fubars (fictitious product)

                 500 fubars fail. 200 fubar owners call Acme customer support and they handle the situation. 300 fubar owners call SquareTrade who handle the situation. To SquareTrade, 30% warranty contracts are invoked. This does not change the fact that the actual failure rate was 50%.

This report is hardly conclusive, and it assumes that all failures were returned directly to them. It's a broken report as most people call MS first and get their replacement directly from them. Further, a lot of these warranties do not cover you if MS will still replace it.

The failure rate is way, way above 16%. Most likely way above 30%. Look at the gaming press as a sample: Joystiq had 9 out of 10 of their Xbox owners replaced it at least once. This is a > 90% failure rate. Arstechinca had one reporter with 4+ failures and another with multiple failures also.

Claiming the failure rate is 16% or even anywhere in that ballpark is outright denial and flies in the face of all of the evidence we see. Including, but not limited to, the amount of Money MS set aside for repairs. Do you really believe it costs them $1000 to repair a unit? Chances are it is much, much less (under $100) and chances are they'll have to issue additional funds to keep the repair process going.

The former MS employee said the failure rate was "about 30%", and he'd have a lot better information than a tiny sample warranty reseller.

We have no real information here.  Just some company claiming the failure rate is much, much lower than it appears to be.  Even at 16%, the 360 would officially be the shittiest hardware ever released into the home console market (not surpring that it's from MS as no one would expect that from Sony, Nintendo or Sega), but claiming that it's 16% based on some poor data is just silly. 

Even if it is 16 percent -- that means one out of every six 360s die within a year.

That is not exactly good news. Twice as good as one-out-of-three. Twice as bad as one-out-of-30ish (the industry standard).

Anecdotally, virtually every 360 owner I know has had to send their unit back for repairs. Not a good sign.

I will say that similar anecdotal evidence points to better QC with the newer units.

Mike from Morgantown