Today, Microsoft announced that it is once again revamping its warranty scheme for the Xbox 360. After mounting anecdotal evidence of the system’s failure rate due to the dreaded “red ring of death” (three flashing red lights on the console’s front panel), the publisher is changing its warranty to cover systems affected by the red ring for three years from the date of purchase. Any console that suffers the aforementioned failure in any territory the 360 is sold can be returned to Microsoft for repair for free, because the warranty also includes shipping charges.
“As a result of what Microsoft views as an unacceptable number of repairs to Xbox 360 consoles, the company conducted extensive investigations into potential sources of general hardware failures,” the company said in a statement. The three-year extension is for all 360s, and will be retroactively applied to every console bought since the 360 launched. That means anyone who bought a console in November 2005 will be covered until November 2008.
[UPDATE] Peter Moore, Corporate Vice President of the Entertainment and Devices Division of Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Business, said he is personally sorry about anyone who’s suffered a 360 failure. “We haven’t done right by our customers, and for that I apologize,” he told GameSpot. “We listened, and we’re going to make it right.” In an in-depth interview with GameSpot, Moore outlined the new warranty, and emphasized it would be “global” in nature.
Moore also shot down point-blank unconfirmed reports that Forza Motorsport 2 was “bricking” consoles. “It’s not a software issue, guys,” he assured GameSpot. “It’s a variety of hardware issues which we’re taking steps to rectify.” Though he declined to name any issue specifically, Moore said that Microsoft has improved the 360 hardware to help ensure that future batches of 360 hardware will not suffer similar issues.
Customers who have already paid for repairs that would be covered by the new policy will be reimbursed automatically, according to Microsoft. As a result of this new warranty extension, the publisher said it will report a $1.05 billion to $1.15 billion charge to its earnings for the quarter ended June 30, 2007.
Source: GameSpot