SquareTrade's Report on Xbox 360 Failure Rates.

After taking a good sample of SquareTrade warranties, we can report a 16.4% failure rate for the Microsoft Xbox 360.

These numbers represent 171 claims made on a sample group of 1040 Xbox 360 warranties purchased between April 1 and July 31, 2007, shortly after we began offering warranties on gaming consoles.  All claims were normal-use mechanical or electrical failures from non-commercial units.  No accidental damage issues were included.

PLEASE NOTE: this report only tracks this test group for a period of 6 to 10 months after warranty purchase (ending January 31, 2007).  Once this same test group is tracked for 24 or 36 months, the fail rate is certain to go up.  Our data shows that failures spike in the third month after warranty purchase but remain fairly steady after that, with only incremental drop-off until the eighth month.  This pattern is fairly consistent with all electronics failures. 

Also, after Microsoft's well-publicized warranty extension, it is possible some of our warranty owners are not reporting failures to us, but going directly to Microsoft.  If so, our 360 fail rate is skewing lower than is entirely accurate.

The sample group includes all three Xbox SKUs available at the time; 

•    27 Elites, the 120GB flagship model.
•    57 Core models, the basic package.
•    956 Premiums, the standard 20GB model.

Splitting out the Premium model results in a slightly higher fail rate: 17%.  The low volume of Core and Elite warranties/claims (one claim on an Elite, eight on Cores) in the sample group does not make them acceptable statistical candidates on their own. 

Out of the 171 claims, 102 were "Red Ring of Death" (RROD) general hardware failures.  This represents roughly 60% of all claims, and 9.8% of all warranties in the sample group.  It's believed that overheating is the main cause. 

Of the other 69 claims;

•    18% were disc read errors.
•    13% were video card failures.
•    13% were hard drive freezes.
•    10% were power issues.
•    7%  were disc tray malfunctions.

These would NOT be covered by the extended Microsoft warranty, and are therefore more reliable numbers. Overheating (without a Red Ring error), controller connectivity, and undetermined errors made up the balance of claims issues. 

In July 2007, Microsoft announced hardware changes to fix the Xbox's overheating problem.  It is unlikely any modified Xbox 360s were a part of our sample group.

Also in July, Microsoft extended their warranty to three years for RROD issues ONLY, with a $1 billion fund set aside to cover repair/replacement costs for "any Xbox 360 console that experiences the “three flashing red lights” error message."  We have referred our warranty owners with RROD issues to Microsoft since that time (and offered pro-rated refunds) while continuing to service all other 360 failures within our 5-day turnaround window.  Microsoft's turnaround is reportedly anywhere from one to three weeks.

SQUARETRADE
Analytics Team

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Comments

[Ivan_PSP]

Xbox 360 sucks is just a system made terrible bad system. save your money and don't buy it it has nothing but bad feedback get a PS3 never had any issue no failure.

[RusSquared]

We can't say we've seen the same failure rates so far with the PS3, it's true. But it's also true that we'll never give up our Halo, our Bioshock, our Orange Box, our Mass Effect, our Call of Duty 4 multiplayer... or our twin XBLA mini-addictions, Geometry Wars Retro-Evolved and N+.

Former Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi (the guy who gave Shigeru Miyamoto his first shot at designing a game) had a very good point when he declared that it's the games that sell consoles.

[Mike D.]

"Halo, our Bioshock, our Orange Box, our Mass Effect, our Call of Duty 4 multiplayer"

Problem I see here is why do i need an XBox for these? I can play them just fine if not better on my PC and I dont have worry about releasing the magic smoke. Microsoft has dropped the ball over and over and over yet we still support them. Ive read posts and blogs where people have returned their XBox systems as many as 5-9 times for repair due to one failure or another yet they will still tell you Microsoft rules! Tell me...if your BRAND NEW Audi took had a major mechanical issue every 3-6 months, and it took the mechanics 2-3 weeks each time to fix the issue...would still keep taking it back for repairs? or would you get your money back and buy another vehicle thats proven to be more reliable?

[Darya]

This is old. As in, if you google "Xbox 360 failure rates, the latest thing to come up is from last summer. :) I've personally owned two 360s, the first we had for a year, then we bought a high definition tv, so we bought an Arcade for the HDMI output and transferred the hard drive. Both 360s are alive and well, and we've never had a problem with either. Only one friend of ours had to send his back and it was a launch Xbox.

My anecdata, let me show you it!

[william howe]

This claim of failure on the x-box 360 is Bullshit. Maybe I need to tone it down a bit,but this claim that it fails is totally inaccurrate. The problem created by the user/consumer industry is they operate the machine for ten hours of play, then the machine is never shut down. This machine and the games that are operated on it, will burn out if not provided the cool down time to re-group and provide the hard drive to relax. Thank you William Gates and the great team you have, that has provided this technology.

Your friend in gaming,

Willaim Howe

[scales of justice]

You are full of crap! My son's console just went out, and mine went out 4 days later...
What can I do to get them fixed free of charge?

[haha]

We designed the power supply for the xbox/360 and they went with a cheaper supplier/design. MS ships money(loses money) with every power supply that ships w/ the xbox and deserves the failures! But, selling software gets that money back.

[Julio G.]

i ordered an x-box 360, i've had it for 4+ months, i've kept track of the times it has froze, 3 to date. its working good, FOR THE MOMENT, but those ignorants sold me an old version of the 360, the older one, i compared it with my friend's and we bought it around the same time? what do i do??? if its the oldest version of it, is it more likely to 'break'??

[tennis]

I'm happy that I own a PS3 Sony console :)

[Chris]

Just because your 360 has not broke, does not mean the system is perfect. You are just in the percent in which it does not break. MS has failed to supply a reason for the RRoD and had extensive warrenty extensions t ocover up for the defective launch systems. Yet I do agree that kids play their system way too much, and usually cause it to fail due to overheating. Go outside (when it gets warmer) and have fun their. You could use a break from the constant gunfire and head exploding action that is every game today.

[john]

well i have a xbox 360 and i had 2 return it 3 times allready because of the ring of death 1 time i sent it out 2 get repair and i recevied it back and i soon as i turn it on guess what 3 rings of death now the one i have that they fixed for the 3rd time sounds like its scratching my disk i still havnt gaving up on them i love xbox but this system is a piece of crap they should refund everybody or give them a newer model system nope all the give you is a damn free online card whoooo weeee

[JAiro]

the problem is lack of air fow in ppls homes. the

[JAiro]

the problem is not enough air flow..I created sumthing simple, i simply put my xbox flat on tope of four bolts..metal bolts keep cool and dont transmit through plastic.try to purchase a intercoller not the one with the metal backing it makes the box hot...bcuz inside the xbox is already hot so when hot metal and the backing of the inter coller combine(wich is metal,) it becomes to hot for the xboxs mother bords and fries all the transmitters.
So with it laying flat with air circulating through all for walls of the xbox ,, it lowers the chance of the red rings and many other failulers including the famous ring around the disk.. it works believe..i bought my 360 in 06 play it countless hours and havnt had any probles..jus a simple souloutin try it...and think about it MICROSOFT..

[tcavey]

have had a 120,gb,xbox play it all day it sit's atop a laptop cooler, which i recomened to all like all eletrical equip,must be kept cool. try it you will see a difference even in the performance of the xbox.in ghaphics, overall speed frame rates.bottom line get yourself a cooler.Tc.

[KPedro]

I am not sure where the failure rate of 16% came from, I've had 3 xbox's fail but they were all under warranty so they went directly back to Microsoft. I think the actual failure rate has to be much higher than what is stated. The last 2 xbox's failures have been with pc coolers and in a dehumidified environment. There is definitely a design problem and Microsoft should offer a free fix. They have to know what the problem is by now.

Oh, my xbox was shipped to Microsoft last week to get repaired so no gaming for me until I get it back.

[Jennifer]

Hi,we had purchase the xbox 360 for our son like a year ago, he rarely used it, but this year he wanted for christmas the Lego star wars video game the game was brand new,we put the game in the console and it was not reading it keep on opening and closing it made a horrible noise, and when we took out the game it was scrached,now the store won't take it back,we got him another game sonic and it did the same thing.Have this happend to anybody else? can this console be service and how can we replace this games the store refuses to take them back.....

[Chris]

My grandma bought me a xbox 360 and it work for a year and know im getting the red circle of death and if i don't get a refund im going to sell my xbox 360 for parts at a garage sale or im going to throw it in my garbage if i don't get my warrenty

[Kevin]

The FACT is that when you buy something like this for hundreds of dollars you shouldn't have to place it on bolts, point a fan at it, treat it like its a fragile as a newborn baby and only play it for a short time before you turn it off. I really don't care how great the games are because I refuse to buy something that I have no confidence in.

Obviously, some people's console won't break right away. That's not a valid arguement here. Neither is airflow... we shouldn't have to live in an air tunnel to keep a video game console from breaking.

I wanted to buy one of these, I have just been waiting for a reliable system to buy. Nothing yet. When the warantee is over and you will have to buy a new console if it breaks, maybe some of you loyal xbox fans will start to get mad too. Until then I guess you can just send it in and wait for the repairs.

[MomofDan]

My son wanted the latest in gaming and we bought him a Xbox 360. Well, his happiness turned into our nightmare.
I am not surprised by this as my son's Xbox 360 was returned only a month after purchase, and then another THREE MORE TIMES. FINALLY we have a system that works. I am NOT happy with the XBOX360 system as their 'tech support' is reading off of cue cards from Guam, and were NO HELP whatsoever. Once I got someone with an american accent they were 'minimally helpful'. We got a free memory card and some free xbox live months for our 'inconvenience'. The XBOX people had the thing more than my son did. I should have bought a Sony Playstation 3. Our original playstation STILL works YEARS after purchase. I turned them into the Better Business Bureau. Apparently, THAT got their attention, and they seemed to move a bit faster, and seemed more concerned. Still I am not happy with it. We have to BUY a extended warranty on the machine after it runs out in April, which I believe to be unacceptable. Then to buy all these 'parts' (cooling fans, etc..)These things are junk!

[Mertz MHz]

I have had to send my launh-date/2005-build XBox360 back 4 times, 3 of them for RROD. The last time around, I made MS upgrade me to overnight FedEx, and they did a console swap for a 2006-build, which still took them over a week. I did get a VIP phone number with one guy (not from India) who I dealt with the whole time. It was easier than the past 3 times, but still a horrible process. Now that I have the console back, the licensing for all my downloaded content has to be switched over (again...) which will take 30 days. So, now that I have my console back, I can't play my saved games because they can't access the resource files. I have been a loyal 360 gamer since the first XBox, and have been on Live just as long. I am serioulsy considering no longer buying any more 360 stuff and buying a PS3. It's too bad, because if the fXXXing thing worked like it's supposed too...

[Justin Lee]

wow....i hate when u leave it alone for about 3 hours, the system still shows red rings. its bullshit and Microsoft shouldve taken care of this once and for all during the first recall in 2005. nice job. way to take care of ur shit.

[ECDNWO]

how the fuck did thay know to put the red rings on the xbox360 o maybe cuz thay knew it was going to over heat spend the $$$$ and get it rite fuck faces i hate to go to ps3 love 360 but what do i have to do to keep play it get a 2 job to keep buying 360s get it rite bill if you want to stay on top

[MomofDan]

I had bought Rock Band for my son for Christmas, and he couldn't even play it as his XBOX360 died a couple days before Christmas, so he had to wait until about the third week in January to play his Christmas present. Wasn't that nice? What Microsoft needs to do is give everyone that has ever had problems with these damn machines a UPGRADE to their elite systems for all the bullshit we had to go through. They also need to get ENGLISH speaking and even spanish speaking help for their customers. Not people from other countries to read off cue cards and keep repeating stuff over and over and not answer your original questions. I kept getting, "Please call back in one hour" to talk to their 'supervisor'. No answers...just the run around. The worst customer service I have ever seen. I hope this is not the case for other microsoft products that fail.

[Daniel]

I'm sick of xbox 360s dying everywhere. I mean I love the games to death, and in an industry that makes more money than hollywood you'd think they would have done something sooner to fix the problem. Still the extended warranty is a cool idea and I'm glad they're standing behind it.

[dmak]

I bought my son a 360 ayear ago and the drawer keeps coming open and wont stay shut. also makes real loud noises. So he cant play with it. So inbetween the system and the games I've bought I probley have $2500 worth of trash.Or more. Any suggestions?