My Red-Ringed Xbox 360 Elite showed back up at my house when I was in Leipzig. The majestic black console was cloaked in bubble wrap, stuffed between two pads and placed in a box along with a letter of apology from Microsoft.

The letter apologized for the inconvenience of having to ship my console off to have it repaired and said they were going to give me a free month of Xbox Live Gold membership. Sure enough, there was a plastic card taped to the bag protecting the Elite good for one free month.

Of course I'd prefer that Microsoft get to the bottom of their RROD issues, but this certainly is a step in the right direction.

Another One Bites the Dust

As of last night I have officially had nine Xbox 360s die on me, which means when I get this replacement, I will be on my eleventh Xbox 360 (counting debugs and retails).

Over the weekend we had a little neighborhood party at my house and in the midst of it I decided to show off Guitar Hero II for the Xbox 360. We played it for a bit, maybe 30 minutes and then I went to turn the 360 off and turn the music back on. When I pressed the power button on my Xbox 360 Elite it started making sounds like a blender. This lasted about 10 seconds and then it powered off. I found the news a little bizarre, but didn't think anything of it until Sunday night.

Last night I found a bit of free time on my hands and went down to the 360 to finally check out Vampire Rain (which should totally be better than Chocolate Rain). I turned the 360 on and popped the disc in. The console made a whirring noise for a second and that was it, just sat their displaying the Xbox 360 menu. I hopped over to the game blade and down to the place where it should say "Play Game". No dice. It just had an option to open the DVD tray. I tried a different game. I tried a DVD, No luck.

Then I hopped onto the Xbox 360 forums and discovered I had just become a member of the broken DVD player club. So that's eight dead because of a Red Ring and one dead because of a bad DVD player. Microsoft really needs to get their shit together. As I pointed out to Peter Moore back when they announced the new warranty for the 360, warranty or no, customers are still going to be annoyed if their new or relatively new consoles keep dying. It's an inconvenience and certainly shakes confidence.

Peter Moore, Justify Your Warranty

Peter Moore on Recall Versus Warranty

Whoops, this wasn't our justify your warranty piece at all. Instead it's me asking Peter Moore why they didn't just jump in with two feet and do a recall instead of an extended warranty. I don't think he liked the question.

Microsoft Expands 360 Warranties

After more than half a year of bad publicity and red-ringing Xbox 360s, Microsoft has again decided to expand their warranty coverage for the console. Now any customer whose console gets three flashing red lights will be covered by a three year warranty from the date of purchase. The warranty will cover both the repair and shipping costs.

Any customer who has previously paid for repairs for that error will be reimbursed. Much more importantly, Microsoft says they have tracked down the issues that have been causing the "unacceptable number of repairs" and have made improvements to the console. Why does this sound like deja vu.

Xbox 360 Warranty Now Better, Faster, Stronger

Confirmed: 360 Warranty Extended

Rumor: Xbox 360 Warranty Extended To 1 Year?

Get A Longer Wii Warranty

BREAKING: Refunds for Xbox Repairs, Plus Warranty Extension (Confirmed)