Many Xbox 360s fail within two years - report

Microsoft's Xbox 360 is the least reliable games console, with just under a quarter of all systems failing within the first two years, a new report by one of the largest independent warranty providers has found.

SquareTrade analysed failure rates of more than 16,000 new games consoles covered by its care plans.

It found that 23.7 per cent of Xbox 360 owners reported a system failure in the first two years of ownership.

But it said under-reporting might mean the true figure was as high as 35 per cent.

This is streets ahead of the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii failure rates, which were 10 per cent and 2.7 per cent, respectively.

"At 2.7 per cent, the Wii's failure rate is better than most consumer electronics products, not just game consoles," SquareTrade reported.

The Xbox 360 is known among the gamer community for being crash-prone. One widespread error has been dubbed the "red ring of death" due to the three flashing red lights that appear on the console.

Microsoft said it had fixed those problems but in April a new issue appeared as scores of users reported broken-down consoles displaying what is called the "E74" error.

"Excluding 'red ring of death' failures, which are covered by Microsoft's three-year warranty, 11.7 per cent of Xbox 360 owners reported a failure," SquareTrade wrote in its report.

"While the RROD problem continued to be the major issue for Xbox 360s purchased through 2008, early indications point to the problem abating in 2009."

SquareTrade said that Microsoft's decision in July 2007 to cover the red ring of death error under warranty - taking a $US1.15 billion hit to its accounts - might have resulted in an underreporting of failures by Xbox 360 owners, who might now take their claims directly to Microsoft.

"In a survey of SquareTrade customers with Xbox 360s conducted by email, SquareTrade found that over half of our customers who experienced a RROD error reported their problem directly to Microsoft without contacting SquareTrade," the report said.

"Applying the survey data to the analysis shows that the Xbox 360 failure rate could be as high as 35 per cent."

SquareTrade said its figures included malfunctions from normal usage and excluded any claims for damage caused by accidents (such as dropping a unit).

Microsoft said in a statement that it stood by its products and believed "this issue is behind us".

"While the majority of Xbox 360 owners continue to have a great experience with their console, we are aware that a very small percentage of our customers have reported issues," the company said.

"We have already made improvements to the console that will reduce the likelihood of an occurrence of this issue."

- © Fairfax NZ News