Microsoft Thursday announced it has extended the warranty on its Xbox 360 game console for three years from the date of purchase, but only if it dies with a particular symptom.
If, when your system dies, there are three red flashing lights on what's called the "Ring of Light" on the front of the Xbox 360 console, then your system is covered under the new three year extended warranty. If not, then you're subject to the console's regular one-year warranty.
If you fall under the three-year coverage, however, Microsoft will even pay shipping. And, if your system failed prior to Microsoft extending the warranty to three years and you paid to have your console repaired ? provided that your unit exhibited the three flashing red lights of death when it went belly up -- the company will reimburse you. I hope you saved the receipts.
Company officials Thursday said that the failures didn't turn up as a trend in the first year or more after the popular console began shipping, but that in the "last couple of months" they reached an "unacceptable level." Thus the company decided it needed to do something. A broken console is just a brick that nobody buys new games for, after all, and that's where the money is ? in the games.
Ultimately, this is a case where capitalism lines up behind the customers. So in order to make money, Microsoft needs to make sure you're satisfied so that you'll keep buying games, particularly the new release of HALO (version 3) that's scheduled to ship in September.
What's interesting is how much the company has squirreled away to pay for anticipated repairs to consoles that are already out there (Microsoft claims it has already made design changes that fix the problems in new units). So how much? Somewhere just north of a billion dollars! (Of course, executives said they don't expect it to cost that much total and that the rest is a "security blanket" just in case. But they did say the number of dead machines constitutes a "meaningful number." I'd agree, given that there are only 11.6 million Xbox 360 consoles that have been sold so far.)
But what is the cause? Microsoft isn't divulging that information but says there are multiple causes, and some of the anecdotal information from gamer sites seems to bear that out ? albeit, the majority of such failures appear to be directly related to the units overheating.
Some customers have even had more than a few of the boxes fail ? I've read accounts on forums and blogs of gamers who have had five to as many as 11 fail so far. They must like the Xbox though ? they keep trying.
To find out more, check out the Xbox 360 updated warranty.
