Fun fact: the Xbox 360 hardware issues did not affect customers' overall view of the console. Robbie Bach, head of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Group, told a group of reporters, "The amazing part of that whole situation is that when we look at brand preference, customer satisfaction, willingness to recommend, none of that data has moved through that whole process" (via VentureBeat).

In case you think you misread that, Bach continues. "It speaks to the fact that they love their games and Xbox Live. Does it frustrate them? Yes. On the other hand, they know we're taking care of them," he said. Bach, who was not part of yesterday's executive reshuffle, covered quite a few topics (and managed to dodge most of them): the next Xbox console, Japan failures, a hinted Wii remote, "Wii 360" and the loss of Bizarre Creations.

With Microsoft remaining officially mum on the reasons behind the wave of Xbox 360-killing red rings of death, owners and experts have speculated on causes ranging from cheap heat sinks to bad soldering to power surges. Now, Gartner Research Vice President and Chief Analyst Bryan Lewis thinks he's honed in on the real reason behind the system failures: cheap, Microsoft-designed graphics processors.

Speaking at the Design Automation Conference, Lewis said Microsoft tried to save a few million dollars by designing the Xbox 360's GPU in-house, rather than farming the design out to an experienced, approved application-specific integrated circuit vendor. Lewis chalked the high failure rate to Microsoft's inexperience designing such chips. "How many ASICs per year does Microsoft design? Not many.," Lewis said. "The ASIC vendor could have been able to design a graphics processor that dissipates much less power."

The irony is that Microsoft is widely believed to have gone to experienced ASIC-designer ATI for a redesigned Xbox 360 graphics chip in the middle of 2007. So, in addition to spending over a billion dollars on a warranty extension, Microsoft probably still ended up having to spend the few million dollars they were trying to avoid in the first place. Smooth move, ex-lax.

[Thanks copa.]

We've heard about various reports of the technical problems with Grand Theft Auto IV. We're conducting a network-wide poll with our friends at X3F and PS3 Fanboy to see how the Joystiq community has been afflicted with the issues. After voting, please let us know your specific problems in the comments below.

Are you having problems with Grand Theft Auto IV?
	Yes, and I use the Xbox 360
	Yes, and I use the 60GB PS3
	Yes, and I use the non-60GB PS3 (please specify in comments)
	No problem (Xbox 360)
	No problem (60GB PS3)
	No problem (non-60GB PS3; please specify in comments)
	Don't own the game, I just felt compelled to click something

Last week, Joystiq (with some help from PS3 Fanboy and Xbox 360 Fanboy) asked you which version of Grand Theft Auto IV you were planning to purchase. We got a great response from everyone, with over 38,400 votes coming in! Check out the results after the break, as well as a breakdown of the reasons (as noted in the comments section).

The brouhaha over Microsoft's ever-present Red Ring of Death is sooooo 2007. The "Red Light of Death" is the new Xbox 360-breaking craze for the oh-eight ... if a Consumerist post is the front end of a trend, that is.

Unlike the distinctive three red lights of the RRoD, the "E74" error is characterized by a blinking red light in the lower-right corner of the ring and graphical problems on the television. The problem has been known for a while but is currently not covered by Microsoft's extended three-year Xbox 360 warranty, which only applies to traditional Red Ring problems -- E74 sufferers have to shell out the money to ship their system in for repairs.

Most companies in the gaming industry never really atone for their egregious errors -- if so, Nintendo would have sent us a check for the $180 in hard-earned allowance money that we blew on the retina-singeing Virtual Boy by now. However, our poor investment in Nintendo's unwieldy system can't compare to the tragedy endured by Nathaniel, whose personalized 360 was wiped clean during a RROD repair. Luckily, Bungie jumped to the rescue with an equally collectible Halo care package -- and a recent delivery from Microsoft served as the caboose to Nate's apologetic gravy train.

Included in said delivery was a handful of games and, most notably, a new 360 signed by the Xbox team, Bungie (including replacement artwork by Rooster Teeth Comics' Luke McKay) and, with the flourish of a solid gold pen, Bill Gates. Whether you call it an act of kindness or a lesson in public relations, we think it's a neat gesture from the folks at Microsoft -- a gesture young Nathaniel will only enjoy for the next four months, of course, at which point the button above Gates' John Hancock will blink a menacing scarlet, leaving Nate with a highly collectible paperweight.

Microsoft's efforts to divert attention from the Xbox 360's reportedly high failure rates were were certainly not helped today by an infamous Red Ring of Death that showed up at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. An intrepid BBC reporter noted the common hardware failure on display at Microsoft's XNA area in the Moscone Center's North Hall.

Perhaps this is why the whole XNA area was protected by a shroud as recently as yesterday. Then again, perhaps not. Regardless, the BBC is certainly correct in noting that "at the very least it's embarrassing for the company that its own stock of demo machines are still susceptible to the problem." Check out the full video of the "event" below.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in.]

We all know that the Xbox 360 suffers from a fairly high failure rate, as we've all known someone (or been someone) who has experienced first hand the devastating effect of the dreaded Red Ring. However, many of us haven't seen the widespread effect this failure rate is having on the gaming market -- in a recent convo with Reuters, Microsoft's Jeff "Jeff Bell" Bell reported that retailers are having a hard time keeping the system in stock, and that MS is "running short of product here in the United States."

Microsoft issued their own official announcement on the matter in their response to the January NPD report (the same response that those GameDaily gumshoes discovered was chock full o' statistical gerrymandering), saying that "due to this high demand, Xbox 360 is experiencing temporary shortages." We can't help but wonder how much of the shortage is caused by actual post-holiday demand for the system, and how much is caused by the high numbers of Red Ring replacements being shipped out.

Then again, we haven't bought any 360s in a while; the shortage might not be as bad as MS is making it out to be. Has anyone had a hard time getting their hands on Microsoft's console/radiator lately?

Working with a sufficient sample size of over 1,000 claims, SquareTrade, a warranty seller, has projected the Xbox 360 failure rate at 16.4% -- and likely climbing. Comparatively, the company reports failure rates hovering around 3% for PlayStation 3 and Wii, based on less accurate sample sizes numbering in the hundreds. SquareTrade found that the ghoulish "Red Ring of Death" accounted for 60% of hardware failures it's documented and supposes that figure could keep growing. "It is reasonable to believe these failure rates will increase over time, since the Xbox 360 failure issues tend to increase with prolonged use where overheating appears the main culprit," SquareTrade CEO Steve Abernethy told 1UP.

Admittedly, SquareTrade does not track specific versions of the console, but it's fair to assume, as Abernethy does, that "most, if not all" recorded hardware failures have occurred with the original Xbox 360 motherboard. Microsoft openly acknowledged these defects (and has apparently improved the design of the console versions currently on the market) when it made a costly, but necessary extension of its Xbox 360 warranty last summer. True, the Xbox 360 failure rate may continue to grow in the short term, as more original units start to glow red, but it could conceivably shrink in the coming years as the revised hardware install base overtakes the original population.

1UP also notes that SqaureTrade's reported Xbox 360 failure rate may suffer from a lack of randomness within its sample pool. That is, frequent console users are more likely than casual users to seek out the services of a warranty provider, and are also more likely to experience hardware failure due to overheating from constant usage; thus, SquareTrade's samples are likely skewed by a disproportionate number of this user type. This doesn't discredit SquareTrade's findings, but it serves as a reminder that an absolute measure of Xbox 360's failure rate is difficult to determine.

We're sure that many of our readers have experienced, or known someone who has experienced, the death of an Xbox 360. If not, you have now -- every member of the Joystiq staff has suffered the bitter taste of the Red Ring of Death or a ruined disc drive. In the midst of this veritable plague of hardware failures, you may find yourself asking questions of your spiritual leaders and community pillars -- questions like: "Why did my 360 stop working? Was the system rushed to release? How do they go about fixing them?"

All of these questions and more are apparently answered in a recent article by Jake Metcalf from 8Bit Joystick (no relation), who interviewed a nameless "inside source" at Microsoft who was involved in the testing and manufacturing of the console. According to the John Doe, the system was rushed to beat Sony to the market, had purposefully cheap heat sinks (which causes most of the RROD problems), and, most disturbingly, there's a chance that Microsoft may run out of systems with which to replace those that suffer hardware failures.

Jake has proven that he's well connected in the past, calling the Bungie-Microsoft split a week before it was announced thanks to another anonymous Microsoft tipster -- but some of the claims made in this particular article are inflammatory enough to merit higher-than-usual levels of skepticism.

Those who've been visited by the Xbox 360's infamous Red Ring of Death will be heartened to hear Bill Gates feels your pain. In a video interview with the BBC, the Microsoft chairman responded to a viewer question about console reliability. After apologizing for the problems and patting himself on the back for Microsoft's free replacement and warranty program, Gates points to what he calls "incredible reliability on the new work that we've done. Our commitment is it will be the most reliable video game box out there."

It's a nice sentiment, but if we're measuring lifetime failure rates, the 360 has a long way to go to get that "most reliable" mantle. Regardless, we can all probably agree with Gates' sentiment that "we've got to make sure the hardware never stands in the way of [enjoying games]." Amen to that.

[Via GameDaily]

Watch - BBC Interview with Bill Gates

We enter 2008 with the current lifetime Xbox 360 failure rate at Joystiq standing at almost 100% -- we currently have one last man's console standing. Yup, that's right, and for those of you paying attention we hit 90% last month. A few of us experienced issues back in 2006, but almost every person on staff (including those who've left for other opportunities) -- with the exception of The One -- have experienced a Red Ring of Death, disc drive failure, or other non-user-error console bricking incident. There's no denying at this point that as much as we love the games, the Xbox 360 is the most defective console ever manufactured.

Check after the break for the staff's experiences with their bricked consoles. Like former Microsoft executive Peter Moore explained earlier this year, when failure is practically guaranteed at some point, all we can do is focus on the repair service.

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!

A new lawsuit has been filed by a San Diego resident against Microsoft and Bungie concerning Halo 3. According to Information Week, the suit alleges the game "consistently causes the Xbox 360 to crash, freeze, or lock up while the game is being played."

The plaintiff, Randy Nunez, also asserts the problem is widespread and that Microsoft and Bungie "have failed to recall Halo 3 or otherwise remedy its failure to function on the Xbox 360." He is seeking class action status and unspecified damages.

We're not lawyers, but we don't think the problem is inherently Halo 3 so much as hardware issues that Microsoft has tried to address (to the tune of over $1 billion). Of course, he could be talking about scratched Legendary Edition discs, which Microsoft also took action to fix. It's hard to tell how these fancy schmancy legal proceedings will play out; perhaps the whole mess can be resolved over a friendly game of capture the flag.

[Via GameDaily]

We all know stealing is not only easy and fun, but it's also very cool. But did you know that sometimes, stealing can go too far? Take, for instance, this tale of an unassuming store clerk who opened up a returned 360 to find that the console had been gutted, the controllers were missing, and the HDMI cables had been replaced with printer cords.

Sure, we know what you're thinking, because we're thinking it too: That's very funny and not at all immoral. But where we have to draw the line is what was stuffed into the 360 to make it seem weighty enough: An old medical textbook. Gosh, otherwise-pretty-successful thief, don't you have any consideration? Stealing is fine, but shoving a giant hunk of flammable material into a console known for capturing the sun's heat and using it to play DVDs and eventually, inevitably die? That's just dangerous.

[Via CVG]