More details on Xbox 360 failures

Following a statement earlier in the month from SquareTrade, an electronics warranty company, that claimed 16.4 per cent of Xbox 360s in its sample group of 1040 machines failed, the company has now released more information on the study.

The report, which tracked a test group of consoles for warranties purchased between April 1 and July 31 last year, details the 171 claims made and notes that only one of the 27 Elite SKUs and eight of the 57 Core SKUs were claimed on.

The rest of the failures were down to the 956 Premium models examined, and showed that 102 of all claims were due to general hardware failures resulting in the 'Red Ring of Death', representing around 60 per cent of all failures, and just under 10 per cent of all warranties

Other failures included disc read errors, video card failures, hard drive freezes, power issues and disc tray malfunctions.

However, SquareTrade did note that the sample group used was unlikely to have included any of the consoles sold more recently that were intended to counter many of the failures of the original models.

Microsoft told GamesIndustry.biz in response to the initial report two weeks ago that: "The majority of Xbox 360 owners have had a great experience with their consoles.

"We do not disclose internal hardware repair data and we do not comment on speculation."

Microsoft has committed an estimated USD 1 billion to extending consumer warranties and fixing any Red Ring of Death issues that occur.