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can plat play hddvd?

no

90 day warranty on something that has a 33% failure rate no thanks

Not really a good deal.

Price drops are happening soon. The premium (not platinum as Ben said) is going to be 349. And since Microsoft extended their warranty to 3 years.... Think of it this way, you're paying 70 extra bucks for a 3 year warranty.

Does the 3-year warranty extension that MS recently announced not apply to these systems? Presumably, the product page at Geeks.com would mention if it did. I was going to wait until next week for the $50 price drop on the Platinum system but this is way cheaper, maybe even cheap enough to justify the gamble.

#3 - 33% failure rate? Are you sure about that? Seems a little high to me.

please provide a link on that 33% statistic #3, I heard it was only around 15%, so some data would be nice! I agree buying this would be a bad idea, get a deal on the retail version, the warranty on that has been extended well over a year!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_technical_problems
"Despite Microsoft's reticence, some retailers have reported abnormally high failure rates, with one retailer reporting a failure rate between 25–33% and another a failure rate between 30–33%."

http://kotaku.com/gaming/bacon/high-failure-rates-finger-pointing-and-zombies-196797.php
"An insider at Electronic Arts told GameDaily that the Xbox 360 failure rates were around 30-50 percent and not the 3-5 percent Microsoft suggested."

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,134144-c,gameconsoles/article.html
"The real number [of Xbox 360 failure rates] is between 30 to 33 percent," said one former EB Games employee. An anonymous Best Buy employee said the failure rate for the console was "between a quarter to a third" of all units sold.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gaming/bacon-failure-rate-30-says-retailers-271487.php
"Retailers, on the other hand, have just reported a failure rate of somewhere over 30%."

A couple of those links were baconized, but searching on Google for "xbox failure rate" gives you all those links and many more.

no one knows for sure what the failure rate is...eb games says around 35% of the ones they sell end up being defective...and personally ive had eight total and six have broken...I have a friend whose been through three.

microsoft is supposed to lose 1 billion to fix them all.

#3, the orginal warranty on all xboxs was 90 days but now it has been extended to three years. so I think this would fall into that category.

If Apple made a gaming console, it would immediately be the best. Don't argue with me, haters... you know it's true.

nevermind, 3 is right, these are refurbished. Pass.

There is no official statistic. Microsoft has not released those numbers. Until a month ago, Microsoft claimed that their failure rate was in line with industry standards, or around 3-5% (5% would be considered high). Last month, they took a $1 billion charge for XBOX 360 repairs, and stated that the return rate was actually "a number higher than our liking."

Unofficially, EB Games (one of their major retailers) estimated the return rate at 33% (http://consumerist.com/consumer/defects/bacon-failure-rate-as-high-as-33-274847.php)

Anecdotally, almost everyone I know who has a 360 has had to return it. Some have had to return it multiple times. The one person who has never had to return it turns it on maybe once a month (but not at all for the past three months.)

The true number is definitely higher than Microsoft's original assertion of 3%, but less than 100% (which some MS critics who claim a fatal design flaw postulate -- that it's only a matter of time before any given box fails.) How do you count that guy who has had 22 returns? How do you account for the fact that there is more than one person in that category?

Bottom line is that the 360 is currently having reliability problems. Microsoft initially denied, and now acknowledges it. The specific return rate is irrelevant, especially in light of Microsoft's new 3 year warranty. The worst case is that you effectively rented use of the 360 for 3 years (and if you keep having to return it, their warranty may keep resetting.)

Sooner or later, Microsoft will identify the problem and fix it in the new units. You can either buy one now or wait. I would buy a unit with no question about its warranty, though.

#11, what about the iGame? Apple released it last year, and it's gone nowhere.

Hah, made you google.

I would buy one with no problem. Another thing that is not taken into account on the return rate is the number of us who did send it out for repair who basically "rented" one from a retailer, only to return it when ours came back. My first one dies about 16 months from purchase. Two friends that are on their systems nightly have returned one BETWEEN them. There is a serious problem with the older units, but between the warranty extension, the price drop and the new heat sinks that MS installed, I would have no problem buying a NEW one, but I wouldnt touch a refurb unless the 3 year warranty was written.

i'm sure an apple console would rock. it would play pong like no other machine. . .ever.

...and I guess Apple hasnt had issues with their products. They are not perfect, just that Apple fanboys are brainwashed

I heard that after halo 3 is released they are going to cut the price of the xbox 360. I think I wil wait.

Refurbished XBOX = Red Ring Death

these refurbs are probably some of those 33% that were returned for warranty service and fixed, no?