Rings of Red

[Cheezdoodles]

But if the damage is done and you end with a brand that is more known for its unreliability than the quality of the platform then you have a problem. .

If consoles are anything like cars, unreliability have next to no impact on sales as long as the price is high enough

 

[Shifty Geezer]

But if the damage is done and you end with a brand that is more known for its unreliability than the quality of the platform then you have a problem.

That can be true, as demonstrated by Amstrad getting their PC business destroyed by dodgy HDDs. Still, I don't think MS are anywhere there yet. It's a long way from hearing about other people having consoles die, to thinking it'll happen to you! Even a 1:5 odds doesn't sound to bad to the layman, and if you think you can get a replacement easily enough, what with MS's 1 year warranty, the risks don't sound too high.

 

[Titanio]

Microsoft may be feeling a little heat - they've announced that they're extending 360's warranty to 3 years. They also go as far as I've seen them do to admitting there's a more than usual issue with the hardware. Oh, and something of an apology too.

http://www.gaming-age.com/news/2007/7/5-14

Microsoft Corp. today announced that it will expand its global Xbox 360 warranty coverage. Any Xbox 360 customer who experiences a general hardware failure indicated by three flashing red lights will now be covered by a three year warranty from date of purchase. All other existing Xbox 360 warranty policies remain in place.

As a result of what Microsoft views as an unacceptable number of repairs to Xbox 360 consoles, the company conducted extensive investigations into potential sources of general hardware failures. Having identified a number of factors which can cause general hardware failures indicated by three red flashing lights on the console, Microsoft has made improvements to the console and is enhancing its Xbox 360 warranty policy for existing and new customers.

Microsoft stands behind its products and is taking responsibility to repair or replace any Xbox 360 console that experiences the "three flashing red lights" error message within three years from time of purchase free of charge, including shipping costs. Microsoft will take a $1.05 billion to $1.15 billion pre-tax charge to earnings for the quarter ended June 30, 2007 for anticipated costs under its current and enhanced Xbox 360 policies.

"The majority of Xbox 360 owners are having a great experience with their console and have from day one. But, this problem has caused frustration for some of our customers and for that, we sincerely apologize," said Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division. "We value our community tremendously and look at this as an investment in our customer base. We look forward to great things to come."

For any customer who has previously paid for repair expenses related to the three flashing lights error message on the Xbox 360 console, Microsoft will retroactively reimburse them.

There's also an open-letter from Peter Moore here, in which he's a little more profuse in his apologies re. the situation:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/petermooreletter.htm

 

[Todd33]

All other existing Xbox 360 warranty policies remain in place.

So earlier adopters like myself are out of luck? Good move though for all new owners.

Eidt: NM, I think the 3yrs applies to all for RRoD only.

As of today, all Xbox 360 consoles are covered by an enhanced warranty program to address specifically the general hardware failures indicated by the three flashing red lights on the console. This applies to new and previously-sold consoles. While we will still have a general one year console warranty (two years in some countries), we are announcing today a three-year warranty that covers any console that displays a three flashing red lights error message.

 

[Fu3lFr3nzy]

I guess they finally came out with it, after hiding all these monts (or years?).

The three year warranty sounds good, im pretty confident in buying a X360 again since im pretty much guaranteed a working one until the next generation of consoles arrives

 

[PARANOiA]

So earlier adopters like myself are out of luck?

This is for all 360's out there too. About time.. the only ones this is not good news for are those that had a RROD and ditched the machine, I guess. I'm surprised and pleased - I can't remember any console manufacturer doing anything like this in the past!

I do feel like I wasted my money on my EB extended warranty now though

 

[Inane_Dork]

Well, there goes any hope of a price drop.

 

[rbushner]

Wow, that's pretty close to what I thought they should say. And they extend to 3 years for RROD, I'd have to say, that makes me very happy.

Well, there goes any hope of a price drop.

Official price drop perhaps, but if Sony drops MS will have to follow suit. If not, I don't doubt retailers will have bundles and rebates to pull the price down below MSRP.

 

[Titanio]

MS is still targetting profitability for FY08. From CNN:

"Our goal has been to have Xbox profitable in the coming fiscal year 2008," said Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices unit. "We don't think this changes that in any way."

What that means for price-drop maneauveres..I think it could go either way. It may suggest it's less possible, or it may suggest that they'd already accounted for it long ago, and they were still able to absorb this on top.

I think if Sony can pricedrop and still shrink losses significantly - which admittedly is still TBD - then MS ought to be able to price drop too after two years in, and still meet their goal.

 

[Skrying]

The increase of warranty, now just need a price drop and I will be buying a Xbox 360 come November/December along with a Wii probably.

 

[Dave Baumann]

Well, a price drop may have been planned to have already happened by now, but with the failures they may have kept the price high in order to offset some potential losses and actually intentionally constrain the sales until they determined the issues and tested a fix. Seeing as they are suggesting that they have already implemented a fix it could be a "green light" to an immenent price drop, safer in the knowledge that newer, cheaper consoles won't fail [as frequently].

 

[AzBat]

Well, a price drop may have been planned to have already happened by now, but with the failures they may have kept the price high in order to offset some potential losses and actually intentionally constrain the sales until they determined the issues and tested a fix. Seeing as they are suggesting that they have already implemented a fix it could be a "green light" to an immenent price drop, safer in the knowledge that newer, cheaper consoles won't fail [as frequently].

I agree. I think that's MS plan. Go ahead and price drop regardless of the new warranty, but when and how much is the key. With Sony now likely to drop the cost of the PS3 $100 next week, I'm thinking MS has a few choices on when best to do it. They may still go ahead and wait till after Halo 3 ships before they announce a drop. Especially if it's a $100 price drop. But if they're planning a $50 price drop, they may just go ahead and announce next week.

Tommy McClain

 

[cthellis42]

Kinda what I thought they SHOULD do, but not something I was expecting! Kudos.

 

[betan]

Well, a price drop may have been planned to have already happened by now, but with the failures they may have kept the price high in order to offset some potential losses and actually intentionally constrain the sales until they determined the issues and tested a fix. Seeing as they are suggesting that they have already implemented a fix it could be a "green light" to an immenent price drop, safer in the knowledge that newer, cheaper consoles won't fail [as frequently].

Yes, but three year warranty for all existing ones, plus reimbursements still mean quite a money.

That said, that is the most consumer-friendly act I have seen coming from Microsoft.

 

[one]

Moved
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1028086&postcount=17

 

[MoeStooge]

3 year warranty! Woohoo!

Microsoft's loss is my gain.

 

[Asher]

Nice to see that, but I'm pretty pissed still.

They received my broken 360 last Wednesday...it's now end of day Thursday and they still haven't shipped me a replacement yet. Nor have they confirmed if I'll get a new one, or yet another refurbished.

 

[Corwin_B]

My "new" 360 arrived yesterday, and it looks like it's a refurb from last year (manufacture date 2006 August), and that is suffers from the disc scratching problem. Cute.

I'm going to do some testing this evening, check the DVD drive manufacturer, and perhaps have a few choice words with tech support again. What is especially maddening in this disc scratching problem is how stupid it is, and how it exemplifies how much MS was willing to shave on costs at the expense of quality : basically, the DVD drive lacks a couple of rubber pads that would prevent the lens from touching the discs when playing. The PC version of the exact same drive has those rubber pads, so it's not a matter of the manufacturer being unable to provide them. I don't think MS saved more than a couple of cents for each drive by not including those rubber pads, but the replacement of a defective console is going to cost them a pretty penny...

 

[Asher]

They still haven't sent me a replacement Xbox...they received my broken Xbox to their depot two full weeks ago. I've not heard from them, so I've repeatedly called to try to figure out what's going on, but the guy who is handling my case is apparently on vacation and left no other way for me to contact other people at MS about it.

I called the regular 1-800-4MYXBOX but they have no idea since the case is being handled by Microsoft...

So I call the MS Xbox number again and mash buttons to try to get any agent at all (it asks you enter the 4 digit extension number of the agent you've been assigned). I found out hitting * brings you to the "next available agent", but apparently that functionality is broken as I've been on hold for 30m+ each time I've called with no one ever picking up...

 

[Todd33]

More bad press:

http://blogs.pcworld.com/digitalworld/archives/2007/07/microsofts_cont.html

However, the claim is that the 360 sometimes scratches discs even when it's the unit is just sitting there. Microsoft says they haven't received any "widespread reports" of the problem, but then they weren't too keen on fessing up to the red-ring problem

I've been reading stuff about scratched disc for over a year, I'm pretty sure my Marvell Alliance got scratched by my 360 (along with disc read failures).

In a related story MS has a disc replacement deal on their official site for $20 a game. :smile: