http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/levelup/archive/2007/07/10/why-microsoft-must-be-more-forthcoming-about-xbox-360-flaws-or-initiate-a-recall.aspx

I always knew I liked N'Gai.

I gained a lot of respect for him for this, especially being the only gaming journalist to publicly call out MS ( that I'm aware of ) on their terrible track record of attempting to cover up their even more miserable failure rate.

I think he wrote a great article, and I think it would be in Microsoft's best interest to lay this issue to rest as soon as possible.

As it looks, there are about 1.5 million questionable 360's at retail right now; not to mention the millions already sold that will get heavy use with HALO3.

What would Microsoft prefer: millions of users screaming how good HALO3 is, or millions of users upset because they cannot play HALO3 (dead XBOX).

Yea, I'm wondering how much the extended warranty will quell people's voices since it doesn't magically fix all the systems at risk for a fault. I don't know about a recall, but all of those current defective systems wont suddenly just go away. That would really suck if a whole new wave of faults crashes in because of everybody playing Halo 3.

Would any other company do a recall in that position? They gave a 3 year warranty so lets see what happens first.

They won't recall because it would be disastrous if they did.

with a defective rate of 30% they probably would have no choice.

Uh, okay. First, we have no idea if that 30% is accurate. Only MS knows that and there might be a specific failure on certain 360s that causes one to fail while another will be fine until the end of time. That would make a recall a big waste of time and money. We don't know ANYTHING about this, really. MS is extremely tight-lipped in this regard.

Anyway, the 3 year warranty is just fine. It's an unprecedented move on Microsoft's part and we should just be thankful they did it and shut the hell up about this until more is known about it.

What an utterly mindless comment.

I have absolutely no reason to be thankful to Microsoft. Their decisions are based on economics, not loyalty to the userbase.

If everyone took your attitude then Microsoft would be laughing their tits off and would have had no reason to extend the warranty because people should 'shut the hell up'.

First off, "laughing their tits off" is a funny phrase!

Secondly, they basically DO have a recall. Whenever your system melts, they recall it and give you a new one. If you bought one at launch, and it hasnt melted yet, you better hope you get the ring of death before november 2008!

I feel that the extended warranty was just trying to shut people up, it's not like the warranty is going to suddenly fix all the systems. I think they were just hoping that people would be less vocal about the problems if they tried to offer free repairs, reimbursements if you had to pay, and then extend everybody's warranty. It could help, but it could backfire if 360's continue to break down and it sounds like length of the repair turnovers for people have been growing longer recently too.