CNBC examines Xbox 360 failures, MS reports 310,000 units sold last week

167 Comments by Alexander Sliwinski Nov 29th 2007 5:55PM

CNBC has been having a field day with the Red Ring of ... um, they call it "Doom." Anyway, they have an article and a couple segments on the Red Ring of Death today. The catalyst for the stories is the recent class-action lawsuit filed against Microsoft and Bungie over allegedly faulty Halo 3 discs. CNBC confusingly tries to link the disc and RRoD issues together, but fails miserably. We're pretty sure games don't directly cause hardware failures, they just happen to be in the drive at the time.

In an attempt to show that despite the RRoD issue and the lawsuit, everything else is all good, Microsoft told CNBC they sold over 310,000 Xbox 360 consoles during the week of Nov. 18th. The best part? Not only does the reporter herself say at one point she's gotten the RRoD, but while they're at one person's house he gets it too. As this blogger joined the Red Ring of Death club last night, that brings the current Joystiq Xbox 360 failure rate to around 90%. Happy Holidays!

Tags: cnbc, microsoft, rrod

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

primetime4: Nov 29th 2007; 6:00PM

Tis the season for console flame wars! Nintendo hoarding Wii stock up next.

TrenchyC: Nov 29th 2007; 6:17PM

I'm just shocked there was no mention of rock band in the post.

Victor: Nov 29th 2007; 6:01PM

cnbc are funnier than jim carrey.
wait.
what?

Jake: Nov 29th 2007; 6:01PM

310k in one week. Is that good or something?

Marty: Nov 29th 2007; 6:03PM

It's about $90 million in sales.

gonk: Nov 29th 2007; 6:07PM

you could compare it to the ds's sales released yesterday (was it like ~200k in europe in the 1 week or something?) only the ds is cheaper and mobile, so it's not quite apples and apples

but that last sentence was great. what were the sdf crybabies saying yesterday about a m$ bias here? lol

JL: Nov 29th 2007; 6:01PM

ugh..

Undead Priest: Nov 29th 2007; 6:02PM

Through miracle of The Gaming Gods, my launch 360 still works.

Zeus the God: Nov 29th 2007; 6:08PM

Same here. Had some disc drive issues (unplayable disc) as of late, but after disassembling my Xbox and drive, I realized that the laser tray just gets a bit stuck. Fix? Took a spring out of a clicker pen, and put it on the shaft. Prevents the laser tray from getting stuck.

gonk: Nov 29th 2007; 6:10PM

my (almost launch) 360 still works. had to get it after my launch one rrod'd a month after i got it

kinshadow: Nov 29th 2007; 6:15PM

My launch 360 is also still ticking. Of course, I practice voodoo and sacrifice leprechauns (in a Red Ring of Blood). So, maybe it's just me.

LilCo187: Nov 29th 2007; 6:51PM

"I realized that the laser tray just gets a bit stuck. Fix? Took a spring out of a clicker pen, and put it on the shaft. Prevents the laser tray from getting stuck."

K, so, let me get this straight. You paid $400 for this console, right?

Ramifications: Nov 30th 2007; 1:45AM

I still don't get it.

I have never got a RROD. And neither have the 5 friends of mine that have xbox360s. I mean, if the failure rate is as high as joystiq pretends it to be...shouldn't 4 out of 5 of us have had RROD by now. Keep in mind, we've all had them over a year and a half now, and a couple for 2 years.

Imadogg: Nov 30th 2007; 7:09AM

Some people are lucky.

3rd 360 right here (or was it 4th? damn).

na2ru1: Nov 30th 2007; 10:05AM

Are the current xboxs ment to have quieter DVD drives?

I have Halo themed Xbox(coz i loved the colour) and it sounds rather loud to me(as loud as my cd burner), Unless launch xboxs were even louder?

lothar: Nov 30th 2007; 10:18AM

My unit is still running great, I think its a 2nd gen. When I bought it the guy at the shop asked me if I was going to mod it, he said if I was he had older units which were better to mod (at that time). In any case I paid extra for the extended warranty, so I dont mind if it breaks I will take to the shop and get a replacement new unit with the updated heat sinks.

I guess the fact that mine is sitting in my basement and its always cold down there and its never stood on its side might be helping temp related issues.

TheCassidy: Nov 29th 2007; 6:07PM

Say what you will, but my launch day 360 died (RROD)last Sunday, I had the coffin on Monday, was shipped back on Tuesday and I received a functioning replacement today.

That's less than a week and THAT is good customer service.

I know I'm not alone, yet no media source reports on that.

joeyg: Nov 29th 2007; 6:10PM

you live in texas? perhaps next to the repair center?

it took me 8 business days to get my coffin. I shipped it out the next day (yesterday).

the people on the xbox live forums are very reassuring though...they tell me that I'll be sending back my replacement soon enough and not to get too attached.

TXCrowe: Nov 29th 2007; 6:16PM

The point isn't how fast they "fix" it....its that they shouldn't break to begin with, ESPECIALLY in the numbers that break.
Anyone who buys ANY high dollar product with a 33% FAIL rate is an idiot.
Would you buy a TV with a KNOWN 33% Fail Rate?
Would you buy a Car with a KNOWN 33% FAIL rate?
I'm betting you said NO to both questions....yet people will run out and get a 360. People are Fraking Stupid.

psfan: Nov 29th 2007; 6:16PM

no matter how fast they shiped it back. or if they beamed a tech into your house to fix it at the speed of light. you pay 400+ for a piece of electronic; it isnt supposed to die. my ps1 from 10+ years ago now still works as new. my ps2 is going on 6 years flawlessly. your xbox shouldnt be more then 2 years old. so yea the media isnt going to give MS kudos for fixing a PROBLEM that should never happen. granted sometimes electronics just die but their is a major problem with 360's kicking the virtual bucket.

TheCassidy: Nov 29th 2007; 6:20PM

I live close to the Canadian repair centre...center. :)

CON - I no longer have the physical unit that I stood in the freezing ass cold for, manufactured in 2005. I'll miss ya buddy.

PRO - I have a 2006 model with a better drive and although it is a refurb, it was packed and smelled like new.

Of course I'm going to be watching it very carefully to see if I get the RROD again.

It sucks that this is happening to pretty much every 360 owner in the first place - I wish I could have the faith in it that I know 20 years from now it'll still work, but I know better than that.

TheCassidy: Nov 29th 2007; 6:20PM

Why not? I'm no fanboy by any stretch of the imagination, but at least they finally stepped up to the plate and fixed their billion dollar fuck up. They should at least be cut some slack for that.

Devils Advocate: Nov 29th 2007; 6:59PM

TXCrowe~

Hey, where is your source on that 33% failure rate? I have 5 360's in my home, including a launch console, and they're still running fine.

I just would like to see your source...or did you just pull that number out of your ass?

...that's what I thought.

FrankTheCrank: Nov 29th 2007; 7:38PM

Big ups to txcrowe...the failure rate is a fact, whether you have a system that you bought at launch or not. Its a disaster. Its been documented. Its a fact. So get over it.

Its a kick ass system, with awesome games, good portal and great controller. I'm dying to buy one. But being trapped in that RROD hell is enough for me to wait it out till Jasper hits.

3cubed minus 3squared plus1: Nov 29th 2007; 7:43PM

Well my 360 RROD'ed on me last week. I got my box Tuesday.
I haven't sent it in yet (kind of busy right now).
But since I live in Texas I hope it comes back fast.

aka Prof Chaos: Nov 29th 2007; 7:59PM

Well Frank, I can actually say I agree with you for once :) I love my 360, but I'll be the first to admit that the engineering is garbage and the RROD is more than just a small mistake. I'm on number three, and I say a small prayer before I boot it up each time.

arrivingmedal: Nov 29th 2007; 11:32PM

I'm in week five of not having my system, sounds like your lucky.Support sucks and never provides any info other than I'm updating your file. Same story everytime I call, "call back in 5 to 7 days".

ill trooper: Nov 30th 2007; 6:04AM

They do report it: The 360's that die are replaced under a 3-year warranty against a 'RRoD.' It's mentioned in nearly every report you see about it. You got yours back in a week? Honestly, your story seems to be the exception. That's new... maybe the replacements are turning around faster because the amount of failures is lessening, that would be a good sign.

My first and second replacements each took about 3-4 weeks, that's counting the 'coffins' arriving in there. One week would have been nice, but I still can't get excited about 'failure only inconveniences you for one week,' when failure shouldn't be happening at this magnitude.

And Devil's Advocate:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gaming/xbox-360-failure-rate-30-says-retailers-271487.php

...that's what I thought.

Brucie B: Nov 29th 2007; 6:07PM

Show Me the RED!!!

Jim Halpert DM: Nov 29th 2007; 6:10PM

I must be really lucky. I've had no problems with my 360, and I've had it since launch day.

elmersglue: Nov 29th 2007; 10:53PM

It's not luck man, the fact of the matter is that the people who get the RROD are the ones that comment and complain about it, everyone else that hasn't had a problem doesn't bother commenting, which makes it seem like a much bigger problem than it actually is. I've had mine for a long ass time and i'm not a very lucky person in general. If its based on luck, mine should've died a long time ago.

jtinnesco: Nov 29th 2007; 6:12PM

how come no one ever gets pissed when their xbox fails but if any other console fails at anything there's an uproar?

psfan: Nov 29th 2007; 6:32PM

tell me about it dude. if this would have happend to any other console the 360 fanboys would have never let it go. but i guess all the bandwagoners are in LOVE with their 360's. i myself cannot stand the 360. i have given it a couple chances. but i always fall right back in playstation's lap. in my eyes sony can do no wrong. NO console has hit a homerun at launch. with shortages and small library to price cuts and bundles. ARENT WE ALL JUST GAMERS. wiistation 360 sit back take a couple hits and relax. DO what we all love to do.......PLAY

SoulBlade: Nov 29th 2007; 6:35PM

I believe the Wii hit a homerun at launch (that hung in the air for about a year now) no?

CaptNink: Nov 29th 2007; 6:37PM

"i myself cannot stand the 360. "

An you call yourself a gamer? Weird...

psfan: Nov 29th 2007; 6:40PM

NOPE. it still has shortages. thats what i was getting at. 360 had shortages small library. if it wasnt for wii sports most people.....i mean old people and younger people would never opted to buy the little money printer. i know it has outsold everythign it has broken every record in the book. it can cook and clean. but their wasnt enough. so launch wasnt a success. impulse buying would have doubled the launch sales had they supplied enough.

gonk: Nov 29th 2007; 6:42PM

wow psfan, what a name

ps2 had a few widespread problems iirc, but their failure rate was more like 8% i think. but it had good games, so people kept playing on it. same with the 360

Dirk Dorkelson: Nov 29th 2007; 7:47PM

"how come no one ever gets pissed when their xbox fails...?"

Um, have you been boycotting the Internet for the past two years or something?

Melchezidek: Nov 29th 2007; 6:13PM

Sorry folks, still on my launch day console. Played MAss Effect for 4 hours straight last night, still no RRoD, and if Mass Effect isn't taxing enough of the 360, nothing will break my nice laucnh day box. In fact, I have NEVER had any game system fail EVER in my life, from the 2600 to now.

CrimsonOkie: Dec 1st 2007; 10:54AM

I hope your knocking on wood right now.

colin: Nov 29th 2007; 9:17PM

I said that after Bioshock, then put in Marvel Ultimate Alliance ... bickety BAM!!! dead.

TheQuagster: Jan 2nd 2008; 2:55AM

you must be very lucky because everything i bought from sony broke. EVERYTHING. headphones, wires, playstations (2 of them that i paid about 350 total) and, dvd players.

the_game_master: Nov 29th 2007; 6:17PM

I still got my year old Xbox 360 core system, I can play Halo 3, VF5, Vegas, Forza on it with no problem.

Kyattsuai: Nov 29th 2007; 6:20PM

I was thinking of getting a 360 this Black Friday, so I could play Rock Band, but with all the recent news I think I'd have a better chance of nothing breaking if I jumped in front of a bus.

colin: Nov 29th 2007; 9:27PM

go for it! (the 360 i mean) ... i was a little timid at first too, but i got through a whole year without rrod. then the light came on, i went to xbox.com, punched in my serial number, and voila. if you buy one this weekend, you will have a warranty until 12/1/2010.

i know its not "normal" to have a large percentage of consumers send their consoles in for repairs. but this last year has been great. no other console can compete right now. at least if you want to play lots of excellent games on your console.

plus manufacturing has only gotten better

PickyPants: Nov 29th 2007; 6:21PM

So your argument is:

It's never happened to me so it must not be a problem.

Awesome. Basic argument tactics FTW!

I love my 360, but it was RRODed 5 months ago. To their credit, MS returned it 2 weeks later.

rTwelve: Nov 29th 2007; 11:40PM

My launch 360 RROD'd a few weeks after I mouthed off on Joystiq that it hadn't yet.

Live and learn, people. And then get Luvs.

Dio: Nov 29th 2007; 6:25PM

"We're pretty sure games don't directly cause hardware failures, they just happen to be in the drive at the time."

This says otherwise: http://news.softpedia.com/news/900-Xbox-360s-Bricked-By-Forza-Motorsport-2-58533.shtml