SquareTrade Provides Further Details On Xbox 360 Failure Rate Study

Remember not too long ago when we reported on an independent study that showed the Xbox 360 failure rate at around 16 percent? Well if you weren't satisfied by that number alone, SquareTrade has released additional information regarding their study.

They came to the 16.4% by looking at a sample of 1040 warranties purchased between April 1 and July 31, 2007. Of those consoles, 171 had normal-use mechanical or electrical failures. What's interesting is that since the consoles in question were purchased new only 6-10 months ago, they can only show short-term failures for now. They will continue to study the same group of consoles for 24 to 36 months, which will no doubt show a higher percentage of failure over time.

To make matters worse, Microsoft has extended their warranty program, which means that there is the possibility that some defective consoles aren't getting reported to SquareTrade, thus making the failure rate higher.

If you're curious on the breakdown, 60% of the defective consoles were experiencing RRoD. Below is a breakdown of the other issues.

•    18% were disc read errors.

•    13% were video card failures.

•    13% were hard drive freezes.

•    10% were power issues.

•    7%  were disc tray malfunctions.

[via SqareTrade]