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."

Comments

Still, they break.

[Karganeth]

I wouldn't want the hassle of having to send my console away for it to be repaired. I'd rather buy a quality console first time around.

Re:Still, they break.

[brkello]

You are a moron. All consumer electronics have a failure rate. And that rate goes to 100% as time goes on. I guess you should buy nothing.

An Utter Train Wreck

[Anonymous Coward]

Being forced to admit to over a billion dollars worth of repairs for defective consoles just days before E3. Ouch!

So if you are one of the diehard Xbox fanbase, this gen you are looking at:

* Botched backwards compatibility
* A 30-40 percent failure rate
* Disc scratching
* 50 dollars a year to play games online
* No dedicated servers
* Crappy graphics - Halo 3 and Forza 2 - YEECH!
* Noisy as hell
* Can't handle 1080p for real games
* Smaller than last gen storage format - only 7 gigs of space versus 8 gigs last gen
* Ripoff peripheral prices
* No BluRay playback for 1080p HD movies

So now if you were dumb enough to go out and waste money on a third party warranty you now have wasted a bunch of money for nothing. The disc scratching problem is still unfixed and you still have to pay for the fixes yourself - this move by Microsoft is only for the overheating/motherboard problem.

Microsoft was already burning through cash at a faster rate than the first Xbox mess where they racked up 5 billion in losses. Now they are adding 1.1 billion on top of the current losses and that is just for right now and doesn't address the other hardware problems people are having.

Do we laugh or cry at Microsoft's seven year long train wreck called the Xbox?

They Still Haven't Fixed the Problem

[Dr Kool, PhD]

Even the new 360 Elite model is getting RRoD at what seems like the same rate. Microsoft blew it big time, it's good they are extending the warranty but it would be better if they fixed the root problem too.

Re:Bravo Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

So were you one of the people "bravoing" Nintendo when they fucked up some firmware updates and rendered a bunch of consoles useless, but then offered exchanges fairly quickly? If so, fuck off hypocrite.

Re:Bravo Microsoft

[aichpvee]

I don't think anyone at microsoft cares. They have enough money to replace every 360 they sell every three months until they discontinue the thing and still have tons of cash in the bank. Three years from now they'll be selling xbox 720 (also rushed to market and broken) so this warranty should be expiring right around the time the system does.

Do you honestly think that microsoft is in the game console business to make money or a quality product? They might employ a few people who would like to make quality products, but its really all about lock-in. This is what happened when they realized that the dedicated "set-top box" wasn't going to fly and that what was going to work was the game console as living room entertainment convergence device. If you think xbox is about anything other than extending the windows monopoly you're not only nuts but very, very stupid.

Re:Bravo Microsoft

[MBraynard]

Who cares what government mandated warrenties were in your whites-only socialist fairyland? It probably makes it less likely for anyone to want to sell a product there or makes them cost more because for many companies, warrenties are insured and those costs are passed onto the consumer. If you doubt it, try raising the mandated warrenties to 10 years and see what happens to the cost of a product.