Console Warranties

I decided to write this opinion piece in light of a trend that I am finding to be quite annoying in video games. As games have gotten better graphically, been able to store more data, and do all kinds of new crazy stuff the rate of broken consoles has skyrocketed. My dad bought an Atari 2600 in the early 1980's it still works fine to this day. I never had a problem with my Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, or Playstation 2. However my family, as a whole,has gone through 2 Xbox's and my brother's Xbox 360 has needed repair twice in as many years. The first problem was the "Red Ring of Death" which was fixed under Microsoft's warranty. However this new problem is something diferent and isn't covered so he as to pay $100 to get it fixed.

I was reading through the Microsoft warranty on the Xbox 360 and it only covers faults by the manufacturer (which is common and fine they shouldn't have to fix it for free if YOU mess it up) up to one year from the purchase date. You need to provide some kind of proof of puchase to proove that the console is within one year of its original sale date. The warranty was extended to three years on the older models because of the RROD but only for the RROD. If you have any other malfunction (even if it was faulty hardware) you aren't getting it fixed for free. This is ridiculous. If the hardware is faulty or was put together wrong then it should be fixed at no cost to the consumer. Why can't the warranty be extended until the nex generation of consoles comes out? It seems unfair that if 366 days after you buy it a chip breaks and the machine won't work that you have to pay to get them to fix it. The warranty should last until the new generation comes along. Is it really that big of a deal for the company to fix what they messed up until they come out with a new product, it is only 5-6 years, after that most consoles have been replaced by a newer model. Are they saying that they don't trust their product enough to believe it will function properly for 5-6 years? My dad's Atari is nearing 30 years old and it still works.

Another thing to be wary about is that the warranty only extends to the first purchaser, if you buy a console used you need to take it up with the seller if it breaks and they don't always have policies. But that is why you should just buy it new.

In short, the game consoles seem to be much more fragile now and it isn't fair to subject unlucky consumers to $100 fees everytime the company's faulty hardware decides to act up.