Totally. My birthday is Sunday and my mom is bugging me for what I want. I seriously don't want anything but a 360 is the only thing I could see myself be willing to accept as a gift since I wouldn't want to pay for it myself at this point in time.

However, I just can't bring myself to mention that when I know I'm waiting for the 65nm chips to hopefully help with the heating and warping issues. So, in essence, it's not even worth free to me to have to worry about and deal with these possible issues.

I'd do the same. I just don't want to deal with it. Never had a problem with a console before, and I'm not interested in having one that will likely give me problems--again even given that there are more games on it that I'd like to play that there are on my Wii (and honestly that will probably always be true for me).

I'll wait for the new 65nm chips in hopes they fix the problem (and are coupled with a price drop).

I would put NO faith in whatever new chip they add. Think about it: Would you NOT buy a warranty even with a new chip? Hell no--so you're in the same boat you're in now.

As long as MS honors each and every replacement its not too bad IMHO.

I'm more hoping for a price drop, as I just can't justify $400 console. The failure rate is just the staw that broke the camels back. $400, plus needing a warranty and dealing with the hassle of potential multiple returns is too much.

Drop it to $300 and I'll consider it (though I'd still probably get the warranty). Put in new cooler chips that MAY reduce the problem, and I'm probably sold.

Plus waiting has the benefit of giving Nintendo a chance to make the Wii library stop sucking and providing me with good games regularly enough that I don't need a 2nd console (well third counting the PS2 which I still have a lot to catch up on).

Or the Wii line up continuing to suck provoking me to sell it off and get a 360 for little cost out of pocket.

Um.. Dude.. You do realize if you did this you would never have one, right? Are you OK with that? Would it be all good then? This just baffles me.. How could you NOT care? I mean... I think the 360 is the cat's meow but it still pisses me off when I hear people have to send theirs in 2+ times!!

This logic totally baffles me.. TOTALLY baffles me.. Hopefully you don't participate in market studies and answer questions like "what is most important in a product?"



Man.. We get it. You have ZERO problem with your 360 breaking every other week. You paid $400 which is no big deal.. Because it's not a $40,000 Lexus right?

I think you must work for Microsoft or something..

It doesn't matter as long as I get FREE replaced xbox. If I HAD to pay for repair or replace, I would be pissed off.

I can understand not caring as long as they replace/fix it at no charge BUT every time you are out a console for about a month. That is what is unacceptable to me. I don't mind it as much since I have a Wii to occupy my time, but if the 360 was it, it would be totally unacceptable.

I mean, it takes over a week to get an empty box.

Read a book while you wait.

I got my 360 replaced in about 10 days no joke. Thats perfectly fine to me. Sure its a little inconvenient but some day they might get their act together. If not, I can go 10 days without a console. I hounded them while sitting at my desk working for the first 3 or 4 days but thats not bad.

MS isnt happy about the money they waste replacing these. They dont rub their hands together with glee each time a unit breaks--it could mean quite a lot of loss actually. I honestly feel better sticking it to them, than if i bought the warranty and never used it. At least they dont get my $50

Yes, reliability is low on my list of requirements for a console--
1. game library--games i want to play
2. graphics capabilities
3. good online features
4. good multiplayer features
5. strong network of friends/people playing
...

maybe 'reliability' coming in 6 but maybe lower.

See--i never LOSE my $400 investment, so what do I care?

I would actually be torn if there were a better (or close) alternative out there. I would stress and think--Dammit I should of gotten brand X! I could be having FUN on THAT console...

But as it is, the 360 is the only console to own right now (for me) so im not worried about other stuff I could be playing or if I could of spent that $400 on something better.

Even if these cooler running chips (which are nothing more than a rumor) ever do come out, what guarantee do you have that the Xbox360 you buy will have the new chip? I seriously doubt that MS will change the look of the machine or the box, so they will look the same as the 'old' ones. When you buy your 360, how would you know if it has the new chip or not? You could be buying old stock the store has leftover. MS could very well quietly start using the new chip without anyone knowing about it too.

Then I'll still not buy one.

I'd like to have a 360, but I'm not dying to get one. There's probably only 4 or 5 games I'd really consider picking up right now, and most of them are still $60 which is $30-40 more than I'd pay for most of them. So it's just not a huge deal for me right now.

And again, a price drop of at least $100 is the main thing I'm waiting for, along with some of the hit games to hit the $20-30 range. Then I'll consider jumping in regardless of this issue.

However, MS is getting a ton of flack over this, I'd think if they put out a more reliable machine (assuming the new chips make a difference) they would want to publicize it at least to some degree.

You sure do talk a lot about it though...

I wonder how much of the general public actually knows about the 360's problems? Sure us 'hardcore' gamers that read video game forums and websites are very aware of the problems, but the majority of the gaming public does not read forums. The general gaming public could be clueless about what the "red lights of death" is.

Consequence of a boring desk job and a life long interest in video games.

It's just something that annoys the shit off of me.

1. Raise the bar for console launch prices $100 from the previous gen and $200 more than I've ever paid for a console.
2. Make the most unreliable console in history.

The hardcore crowd also buys a large chunk of games, and is more likely to complain and give MS flack.

And as others said, they are getting financial "flack" by losing money having to replace so many consoles. Especially damaging since they were losing money on each console sold for the first year or so already.

Is MS really losing money by having to fix these consoles? It costs us $50 for the warranty. Does it cost MS more than $50 to fix a console? And they are not really 'replacing' broken 360s. They fix the broken ones and send them to someone else as a refurbished unit.

If they were really losing money on fixing all the broken 360s, it would seem they would place a higher importance on solving whatever the problem is...

I'm waiting until they release books on Xbox Live so I can read them in HD glory.

I'd have to imagine they are. They have to pay for:

1. Ship the box to you.
2. Parts to repair that console (and sometimes cost of a new one as I've read of people getting new units)
3. Cost to ship the heavy ass console back to you.

That's probably often over $50, and when you factor in people sending them back multiple times on $50 warranties they are clearly losing money on that person.

Now, who knows if they sell enough $50 warranties to people who don't play enough to have it break (or who get lucky) to cover this.

Conversely, they may be losing money but its less than they would lose by changing parts/altering the production process to solve the issue.

We'll know because someone here will post the manufacture date or the serial number starting range or something else advising which ones have the new chip.

You are aware that there's this thing, and its called the internet, and on this thing called the internet people share information

Well I saw some funny image shinanigans while playing a game tonight. I'll have to see what's up over the next few days.

Hey guys,

Are those 360 cooling fan attachments worth a buy? Have they been known to keep the 360's cooler and therefore less prone to overheating/red rings??

Quite the opposite -- most of them make the overheating problem worse by interfering with the airflow from the 360's internal fan.

Yeah, I noticed it when I added the cooler. It seems like the more heat coming out of exhaust than without the cooler. Strange...

Those coolers are just the placebo effect. People still get the 3 red lights of death even using the coolers. Just take the money you would have spent buying a cooler and get the extended warranty instead.