\Warranty provider SquareTrade recently conducted research that indicates almost 25% of Microsoft Xbox 360 game consoles fail within two years of ownership, as the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii collect more reliable reviews.
In second place was the PS3 with a failure rate of 10% over two years, with the Wii accounting for just 2.7% failure rate in two years.
The research findings shouldn't be considered too strange, as Microsoft has had a long battle with the now infamous red ring of death (RRoD) and E74 error message. The company's RRoD problems have led to an extremely pricey repair service to exchange faulty consoles.
In fact, Microsoft now accepts any Xbox 360 console return if it's related to a RRoD -- and the warranty has been increased from two years up to three years. Microsoft also has set aside more than $1 billion to help return Xbox units, and reported cases continue to pop up.
It's possible the failure rate is more than 36 percent, SquareTrade said, with some game sites claiming the number is more than 50%.
"More than two years ago, Microsoft addressed this issue by extending the warranty to three years for consoles with three flashing red lights," Microsoft said in a press statement. "More recently, we extended this coverage to include the E74 error message as well. We continuously invest resources to improve the reliability of our products, and we believe that this issue is largely behind us."
SquareTrade's report was released several months before the important Christmas holiday shopping season, with each company hoping to cash in during a struggling economy.
