Red Ringed

It's about damn time!!!!!

MSFT should've done this a long time ago, but better late than never. I'll give credit to them anyway for FINALLY acknowledging that there IS an "unacceptably high" rate of failure issue with this system, and taking responsibility for it. That goes a long way to restoring my confidence in them as a company.

For all you doubting loser fanboys among us who constantly attacked those of us with failures as liars and console abusers, I could just say "suck it!" for finally being proven right ... but that would be just as classless as you've been (lol). Fact is you should now THANK US for not letting go of what we knew all along to be a REAL issue, since you too will now benefit if/when you join the RROD club.

(I honestly hope you never do, truly)

This is a good day for ALL of us Xbox 360 owners. Owners, thank yourselves for finally forcing this policy change.

@bigd7387

You're a very lucky guy, and I truly wish all of us could say the same as you.

But just keep in mind that it's not us who are giving up on this system, it's our systems that are giving up on US.

This is no longer a technical issue, it's become one of ethics, and MS is failing by not taking responsibility on this. We all know why the denials ($$$), but it's still unethical to the max.

@Commander Shepard

You can go to the official Xbox forums any time of day or night and see the same kind of complaint rate with verified Xbox owners posting (with Live gamer profiles) about their newly failed consoles. I am one of them, so just be glad you're not yet, and leave it at that.

You can't seriously believe PS fanboys alone posting about bogus failures could entirely account for this level of reported failures. Yes, there could be *some* (you have no proof, anyway), but not at rates high enough to gain this kind of national attention. No way.

Only enthusiasts like us read forums like those anyway, so I see a Sony-instigated public smear campaign being ineffective if that was truly their tactic. And there is more and more anecdotal evidence just like this in the gaming press itself to support the case that there IS a problem with this system. Even more mainstream outlets like Motley Fool have now started reporting on it.

Besides, if you really spent THAT much time verifying all those posters' forum profiles, then what that says about you is not good (I don't see why you even care, actually). I suggest you get a life ... or a girl ... whichever comes first.

You can keep doubting that there really is a problem all you want, but it doesn't make you any less WRONG. We all probably started out on your side of the opinion column. But there are too many of us who now know better ... unfortunately through experience.

Purchased new in Dec. 2006, dead by May 2007. Time in-service, just under 5 months. Lovingly treated, no misuse or abuse whatsoever. (I'm an IT professional.) Thank God it was still under warranty.

I got a refurb back this week from repair with the new heatsink installed, so I have some hope at least that this one may live a little longer than my first one.

I'll wait for it to hit the bargain bin ... and even then, only if it is usable with other games.

I doubt there'll be a run on this stick early.

@ fwacee

Are you kidding?

I can name at least a half-dozen 360 titles between Gears and H3 that I am/was looking forward to more than H3.

Check your pulse, bro.

@66 "Personally I think the failure rate falls well within the 5% range...."

Yeah, right. And personally, we all know you're pulling numbers out of your ass with statements like that.

Even MS is not discussing what the real numbers are. They're no longer even sticking to their previous public claims of "within the normal 3-5% for the industry" if you've noticed. So you, just like everyone else, have no way of knowing what the number really is.

I love you blind loyalist fanboys who think they know what's *really* going on here. Face it, you don't have a clue about either the cause OR prevention of 360 failures. And how could you??? ... you by your own admission HAVE NO EXPERIENCE with a failure yourself.

You have about as much authority on this topic as you do on the prevention and cure for Autism. Give us a break, "Doctor." (LOL)

Oh and for the record, the failure rate among my own circle of friends is now 66.6%. So balance that against your own 0% when you're doing your magical math on this that we all respect so much.

One final thought, regarding your charges of a 360 witch hunt. We 360 owners became owners because we WANT this system to succeed. It is the system that is failing us, NOT the other way around. Get a clue, son.

@18

I intentionally waited over a year before buying a 360, with the purpose of waiting until they "worked out all the bugs" in manufacturing them first. Bought mine in late December 2006, and it was dead by mid-May 2007.

I have owned gaming systems all my life, including the original Xbox, the Sega Dreamcast and Genesis, even an Atari 2600 way back in my childhood, not to mention a Falcon Northwest gaming PC. I have never had even one of these machines die on me, even when I was an early adopter, until the 360.

It would be one thing to just shrug it off and say the law of averages has finally caught up with me. But it seems I have too much company in this to chalk it up to that alone.

Whether you bought early or late, it doesn't matter with this system. So forget the conventional wisdom on early adoption here. MS screwed up, not the buyers' timing.

Lets just hope they can learn from all these failures, and finally get a handle on the problems.

Namco can blow me. They abandoned us to do the PS2 exclusive deal, but they want to come crawling back to the Xbox platform now that the 360 has built critical mass with the better gaming library of this generation. Too late, I'm a DOA loyalist now. Suck it, you f'n front-runners.

People who keep making these pseudo-moral judgements about others having 360 failures are complete dickheads. Subconsciously, you feel that you have not yet had a problem because you are better than other people, or that you are somehow morally superior to those who have had problems. Get over yourselves.

This is not about you being the "chosen people of Xbox" or that others are "less worthy" owners than you. It is not the fault of most owners that they have had problems. It's Microsoft's fault ALONE that their current generation of systems is not outliving the previous one. It's a consumer product issue, not judgement day. Get real.