This seems accurate. I know 3 people here that have an XBox 360 and one failed.
The good news is that it only took 7 business days to repair and they did it for free.

Okay, if that's true, that's ridiculous.

"so you don't have to go all Picard and shout about how many lights there are over the phone."

Best.....reference.....EVER!!!!

I just laughed out loud in Panera so much that people are still staring at me!

While I don't get the reference, I found this post hilarious since there is an xbox 360 advertisement directly below it on the main screen...

My launch 360 broke, so did my friend's, but my brother's and the replacements have been fine.

I got the Thermaltake Mobilefan II External USB Cooling FAN.

[www.thermaltake.com]

I tie-wrap it to my Xboxen 360 and it draws power from a nearby USB hub.

Hope that does it till those dirty French learn to share their cooling technology.

I'm still going to buy one.

Lies. It's just that retailers are trying to cover up the fact that they can't sell as many Xbox 360's because the Wii and PS3 still have some hype into it. A few months from now, Xbox 360's will rise in sales.

I would trust MS word over the manger of an EB who is guesstimating returns from a product over a year ago. He has no support other then his colloquial recollection.

Also, I know when I used to work in customer service at Circuit City we would never actually test the units when people returned them defective. Often times, however, people lie about the working condition of a product because they think they can only return it if is defective.

"...so you don't have to go all Picard and shout about how many lights there are..."

Hahaha! Nice, spoken like a true nerd, you just made my day.

Well, at least their support is good, so you can say "Darmok and Jalad on the ocean".

I had my XBOX 360 for about 17 months and it died on me. Fortunately, I purchased the 2 year replacement plan from Best Buy. I walked in and they replaced it with a brand new one on the spot.

I know several people that have had to send in their original XBOX 360 for replacement. It's a known problem but it's being taken care of.

I wish i knew what the Picard comment was referencing.

I've sent my 360 back once . . . the replacement is oh so quiet and cool. i got lucky. my buddy is on his 3rd in a year and a half.

i don't care how many times mine fails, i'm sticking w/ Microsoft on this one.

I have to agree with rbf2000 and quikboy.

I'm sure these EBs and Circuit Citys and Best Buys and such are simply re-selling returns before finally giving in and sending them back as truly messed up, jacking the percentage rate.

I hope this is reported more widely so MS is forced to redesign the shoddy system.

We're 2 for 2 between my friend and I. Each has failed once. His Hard Drive also recently failed.

AWBoy666: right on the money. Thankfully I'm in my own office, but I just about split a gut at the picard reference.

Giz is foony

@AWBoy666

agreed though I was eating at the time so I didn't laugh but now there is ginger and green salad all over the place ... sigh

My Xbox360 is still at Microsoft right now being repaired... I wish my 360 didn't have to be repaired, but given the circumstances Microsoft has made the process as painless as possible. After 1 phone call to diagnose the problem, they sent me a box to put my 360 in (shipping covered) and promised me a free 1-month Xbox Live card when I get my system back.

The Xbox 360 I got at launch broke a little after a year but it was pretty simple to return it and have it repaired. They also gave me a new warranty since I got my console was from the first batch, so that pretty much made up for some of the inconvienence of having to return it.

I talked to 11 people, not cherry picked, who purchased launch X360's. Collectively they experienced 17 failures in about 15 months.

A coworker of mine went through 4 x360's in 3 months.

I don't have a large enough sample size to be of statistical significance, but there's a lot of breaking X360's out there.

It's like driving a jaguar. It's got some really strong plusses, but the damned thing breaks all the time.

See... now this is an interesting approach to breaking a story. "Retailers, on the other hand, have just reported a failure rate of somewhere over 30%." Really? Retailers, plural? Actually, the correct summary of the article is:

This one guy in Australia knows an EBGames manager and that manager says he thinks the failure rate is about 30%. Actually, the manager isn't too sure either, since he reports both a failure rate of "close to 30%" upon launch, but also a failure rate of "well over 30%".

So, no, retailers aren't reporting anything. Some dude in Australia is passing along hearsay numbers from a manager who isn't exactly sure what the failure rate is. That's some helpful news, yessir.

mhmmm ridonkulous I heard that word used on Mike and Mike on ESPN lol...but I probably still won't be able to talk my brother out of buying one beause he wants Mass Effect....

In my personal experience, the failure rate has been 100%, 5 for 5. Mine, my brother's, and all 3 of my 360-owning friends have tanked.

That said, I really have to hand it to Microsoft. The service is outstanding. Seven-day phone-call-to-new-unit turnaround. Mine was also a refurb, but personally I don't see a problem with that. My unit was over a year old anyway.

Hate the RRoD, still adore my 360.

I can't vouch for the numbers but I can say that I have 7 good friends with 360's and so far three of us had to turn them in. Given the numbers thrown out here and personal experience, I'm not sure 30% would be a big stretch.

Of these three returns one was quick and easy, the other was a 3 month nightmare and mine is still pending after 2 weeks. I can't wait to see how dirty my replacement is. Regardless of how good the service is, it really is a pain in the ass.

THERE...ARE....FOUR..LIGHTS!!!

Typical Microsoft quality. I don't know why people keep buying their crap. As for the jaguar reference...notice the amount of people that end up buying BMW's in the end?

THERE.... ARE.... THREE..... LIGHTS......
Or four, just let me out of work.

I've never had an Xbox 360 go bad on me.

I've also never owned an Xbox 360. ;)

...and yes, given these supposed "facts"; I'm still going to buy one.

wow, props on that reference, and props to those who know the episode its from :p

Use of the non-word ridonkulous gets you banned from the board.

I guess Microsoft made the right gamble though... introducing the Xbox360 early really hurt Sony this round... I'm sure Microsoft doesn't even care about all the repairs as long as they're putting more units out there than Sony.

Sure, 7 day turn around is nice customer service.

You know what would be better? Not having to do it in the first place.

I purchase a lot of gear, but I can't remember the last time I've had to box something up and return it.

Wait, yes I can. It was a receiver I bought ten years ago.

Microsoft, I know hardware isn't your core business, but Internet rumor or not I'm not plunking down my money until I feel more confident about the quality.

Anyone thats worked in a retail store that sells any sort of technology knows that a lot of stuff comes back as "broken" just because the customer doesn't want it, esp if there are restocking fees involved.

This doesn't explain the huge difference in numbers but it could be part of it.

Keep the F-ing thing upright and it "might" not overheat... the main problem is it's too small a case with 3 white-hot G5s in there... look at how the G5 towers were designed, for insane amounts of airflow, and there was a reason for that. Most people leave these flat, jammed under a DVD player or some other junk, leave them on 24/7... and wonder why they die. The consumer needs to be a little responsible for proper maintenance even if admittedly it is a suspect design.

Over-heating is not the only issue. A lot of the issues are with the DVD drive, so even if you put your Xbox360 in the freezer it's still going to malfunction.

PS3's and Wii's are probaly going to have just as a high failure rate (or even more) when they've stood out longer. It's only been like 1/2 a year so far. So just wait, and then you'll see.

My buddy just had to return his X Elite. It worked for approximately one week. Then Fried.

I wonder if the unit Gates has runs hot?

Yes, there should a ban on ridonkulous or any other stupid iteration of that word.

What I was reporting a few months ago was right, 30% to possibly 50% failure rate, I was getting flame seconds after posting, strange. Some gamers had to return the refurbished console 4 times... and still counting...

I have to say bs on this one. Do you really think Microsoft is that unwise to release a product with a 30% failure rate. I know its not very indicative of the general population, but I bought my 360 second hand about a year ago from a friend who I knew abused it (call me a good samaritan), and it hasn't died on me yet even though the average temperature here is in the mid 80's-90s. Same goes for about 7 of my friends, one of whom keeps it stuffed under his cabinet horizontally (bottom vents are covered by carpet).

never had a problem with my 360 and I crank that puppy out, my younger brother has had 2 fail on him though. I dont think its 30% but I do think its much higher than 5%.

Shaka, when the walls fell...

I had to register just so I could post a comment complimenting you on your Picard reference!

Hahaha startrek quote...sounds like me shouting at Concast customer service about my cable modem:

"theh ahhh foooow laaaaaaghts daaahm yooow"

the linked article seems to mention numerous written complains and other ancitodal data.

MS will never cop to the % of falty units because it's bad busniess if the number isn't 0%.

Think of it this way boeing has a 99.9+% sucesss rate on the space shuttle engine.
%30 is pretty damn high though even I doubt that. It's just so high it's unbelievable

The number is at least 30%. Look at it this way, they wouldn't have spent the $ to now include a new cooling apparatus in the newly repaired boxes.

I'm on my 3rd. Open ventilation, etc... I get mine at Costco, though. Once they red-ring, I just return it for a new one - why box something up and send it in? What is this, 1990? Anyway, now that Costco has changed their electronics return policy, my current 360 is grandfathered in with the unlimited return time. Once this one craps out on me, it goes to Costco's 2 year warranty.

@Sushiwriter: Actually i know for a fact Best Buy won't sell a referb. They send it back to MS and get credit for the return at the end of each month. IF it is in the 1 year manufactures warranty. If it is past that then the store takes the hit which they are budgeted for.

I've yet to meet anyone who hasn't had any sort of trouble with their 360 within a years time. Indeed, without buying the extended warranty you can pretty much expect it to die a month or two after the manufacture warranty. Thats the way it happened with me, because I got a launch system and since my brother bought it on Amazon it didn't have an extended warranty. That would be perfectly fine if the 360 along with games and accessories wasn't such a huge investment. That being said, I'm still going to buy another 360, but not until the Core system drops in price and this time I'm going to get a two year extended warranty.

Of course I doubt it'll last that long without being a pain in the arse, but even though the 360 seems to have obvious trouble for anyone who has ever owned one, the 360 does have the games. The very expensive 60 dollar games, 120 dollars just for two games! Whoot! Anyway, point is that the failure rate of the 360 is ridiculous.

I'm now onto my 5th Xbox 360 and while all of my replacements have been free it leaves me with a bad impression of the MS 360 Hardware division. To be fair, I love playing games on my Xbox 360, but if I have to get it repaired once every 5 months and suffer 1-2 weeks downtime each time...I just can't see myself purchasing future MS products with much regularity. On the other hand I've owned my PS3 since launch day and played it to death with no sort of freezing, crashing or other issues. Is this maybe because Sony didnt rush thier system out of production to be first to market? Why has this single hardware issue with the Xbox 360 not been corrected since it was first discovered? Who knows, surely MS cannot be profiting from the negative spin this puts on thier system or the impact it has on thier hardware sales margins (Not that console hardware ever really makes money, Nintendo DS aside). Naturally I really hope MS fixes this problem as I would like to continue to support thier product, I really like my Xbox 360 but the maintainance is too high for a piece of equipment that has a sole purpose of entertaining me.

I don't believe it. I've had the same 360 since launch and it's loud but I leave it on for days at a time, play marathons of games with intense graphics and never had a single problem. I've also thrown it in my checked baggage when flying numerous times without more than some clothes as protection and it sits in my frequently tread living room where it gets kicked all the time to the point where I actually have to pop some of the parts back into place. The only thing I do is make sure the power source isn't completely covered, so obviously you can tell my 360 has taken quite the abuse over the years, yet it's still running just fine to this day.

@bbfreak: Now you've met me and I didn't buy any extended warranty or had to have it repaired. And I've had the same console since launch.