Microsoft's woes: US$ 1 billion to repair 360s

Microsoft's smile isn't as wide as it should be. But then, any company shelling out US$ 1 billion in repairs to the Xbox 360 would have very little to smile about. General hardware failures, glitches, and bad publicity handicaps the company as it tries to fight for market share in the highly competitive console market.


Analysts estimate that the company has lost more than US$ 6 billion since 2002, and it doesn't seem to end there. Microsoft extended their warranties again last Thursday, and announced that they will be shouldering shipping and repairs on consoles hit by hardware failure indicated by the "red ring of death" for a period up to three years.

Robbie Bach, President of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, announced that the company would be implementing changes to manufacturing and production processes which he expects will reduce the number of hardware lockups. However, he failed to identify the problems or comment on which ones might persist.

With just a few days away from E3, news like this could potentially dampen the spirit people have for the much-awaited Halo 3. While the news may be bleak, at least we're seeing efforts to address the problem.

via Yahoo! News

Ya agreed not the best news for X box gamers and for halo fans...At least there doing something as you said.

Hey Nyght, when you had wrote that they have extended the warranty for up to three years by 360s that have had the ring of death. does that mean that i can get a new 360 or my 360 fixed because of the extended warranty? Because my 360 was a launch one, and it was one of those few that was not broken, or at least we thought. Then, at the beginning of this year, the laser reader or whatever breaks off( i know because i can hear the rattling in the 360 and i my games wont be read on it.) Seeing as it was a launch 360, will i be able to get it fixed for free or no? I dont really understand what you are saying...

Well I believe its just a general warranty on everything. I would suspect that you would really have to call Microsoft yourself and explain your situation and work it out with them.

Sucks to be them.

I have endless free repair insurance till october 2008...

ha ha ha dont rub it in. Thanks Nyght, ill go and cal them. Really. if you had not posted this up, i wan gonna open up the 360 myself and fix it, and if i did that then i would never be able to return it...so thanks on the topic.

No problem and hopefully you get it all worked out. Let us know how it goes.

Meh, MS still have alot of dough, their still doing better than XBOX 1.

Im sure MS makes more money than they lose, at least in the long run. . .

I'm pretty sure thats obvious. What do you think gave that away? Maybe Bill Gates being the richest man in the world lol.