In a recent article in the New York Times (free registration required), GameStop executive Bob McKenzie noted that the Xbox 360's frequently publicized quality problems haven't damaged the console's sales at all. McKenzie, the senior vice president of merchandising, noted, "All I can say is that we have not seen anything negative from that." He went on further to say that Xbox 360 returns have actually gone down since the announcement of the warranty extension in July. "We track our returns," said McKenzie, "and returns have actually gone down since they made that announcement, and we haven't seen any effect on enthusiasm for the 360." NYT notes correctly that there is a lot of buzz around the 360 thanks to the imminent launch of Halo 3. McKenzie said that, "Halo 3 is on track probably to be the largest release that we have had in the history of the company," though he noted that GameStop also expects big sales from games like BioShock (good guess, Bob) and Assassin's Creed.Red Ring of Death or not, it looks like good games are still enough reason for the Xbox 360 to keep on trucking.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
9-12-2007 @ 4:04PM
iHomer said...
Bob Mackenzie, same name as TSN's hockey insider, also known as Bobblehead Mackenzie, you know what I mean David.
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9-12-2007 @ 4:10PM
drklrdbill said...
????
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9-12-2007 @ 4:14PM
Mauricio said...
did anyone expect the new 3yr warranty to hurt console sales? i actually thought it would boost sales a bit.
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9-12-2007 @ 4:16PM
Tr3y MoNey said...
What the? Hockey?? This is an XBOX 360 site! Good job Microsoft. I hope Halo 3 breaks ALL records and holds on to them until I'm an old fart with kids so I can say "man kids, I remember when we didn't have all this fancy nanomachine gaming technology..." and "back when I was your age I used to play H3, that's slang for Halo 3..." Or not.
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9-12-2007 @ 4:18PM
Megias said...
Sales haven't went down cuzz the 360 kiks ashh.. Yahhhhaha
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9-12-2007 @ 4:29PM
TORO said...
PS3 sucks duh!
"Wait till the developers learn how to make games to it's capability"...no thanks I want to play now.
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9-12-2007 @ 4:31PM
xenocidic said...
I really wonder why they bothered to restrict the extended 3 year portion to Red rings.
Don't they know that if someone encounters some other issue that they're just going to towel our 360 until it gets red rings, thus making it warranty eligible? lol
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9-12-2007 @ 4:35PM
Tony said...
I've read some interesting articles on search trends around the time of all of this... and even around the time of the warranty extension (including prior to it) searches for issues related to repairs and ROD issues were extremely low. Particularly in comparison to general searches, but most significantly in comparison to searches concerning a price cut.
The ROD thing is a major problem and it has affected me (as annoying as that was), but it does not seem to be in the general public conscious as much as apparent hardcore gamers want to believe. And now with the extended warranty and the thought that future systems SHOULD be fine (I hope), it's even less of a problem for them.
I wish it never happened in the first place, but from the perspective of marketing they've had this thing under control for quite a long time. That warranty thing came at just the right time, it prevented it from being a major question at E3 and the mainstream media never really latched on to it.
So in closing, it's honestly just kind of amazing how all of that worked out for them. Not that it really benefits me at all, but it is interesting.
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9-12-2007 @ 4:35PM
Mike Holzapfel said...
A) the three yr warranty gave me piece of mind to buy my Elite now, rather than wait for Falcon to arrive
B) If people didn't play Xbox for 20hrs straight, it might aleviate the RROD problem. Just a thought.
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9-12-2007 @ 5:03PM
Loban said...
It doesn't matter how crappy the hardware is, if there's no alternative for really really great games, what else you gonna do? Get a PS3? HAhahahah, yeah right.
If it weren't for the great software library and other functions of the Xbox 360 (media extender, Xbox Live, Marketplace, etc.), it wouldn't have a chance against the bad hardware PR.
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9-12-2007 @ 5:07PM
wtfmate? said...
haha, all i can say is at least we have a console that we're able to play 20 hours straight on. maybe the reason ps3's dont melt anymore is because nobody but the developers really have any reason to use the console that long.
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9-12-2007 @ 5:22PM
DeadPlasmaCell said...
@ 11
When I had my PS3 I found that I was running F@H more than I was playing actual games.. I'm supposed to be having all the fun, not my PS3!!
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9-12-2007 @ 5:58PM
Pixelantes Anonymous said...
Gamestop may be seeing less returns, but the damn 360s are blowing up just as frequently as before.
Mine blew up over the Labor Day weekend, and I just got the coffin today. There're 5 others who have had their 360s blow up during the past two weeks in the online gaming community I belong to.
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9-12-2007 @ 7:34PM
Tarl said...
sweet.
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9-12-2007 @ 7:41PM
Lee said...
No need to register (have your email spammed), try this:
http://www.bugmenot.com/view/www.nytimes.com
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9-12-2007 @ 7:45PM
Viridium said...
C'mon, Richard. Bob McKenzie and you use a picture of a 360? There's no images of a beer drinking, toque wearing, back bacon eating hosehead???
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9-12-2007 @ 8:54PM
SireB said...
Well, the scam is... once you return your broken 360 to the store, GameStop are fulfilling their one-time warrenty obligation. Unfortunately, you don't get a GS warrenty on your fix/refurb/new unit, so guess what! If the next unit goes bad, GS won't take it back!
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9-12-2007 @ 9:06PM
TexRob said...
As long as the company is willing to do what is right in regards to warranty issues, then it doesn't matter too much to me. I'd prefer no problems, but the 360 is so far superior to the PS3 in titles right now, and in their online service, that there is no other choice for me really. Wii is ok, but it's not the same animal. The Wii is a novelty to me. It's a replacement for a 360, for kids, but for me as an adult gamer, it's a mere distraction.
My 360 is in Tyler for repair right now. I wish I had it at home, but MS is doing the best they can to make things right, and that's good enough for me.
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9-12-2007 @ 9:58PM
whocares said...
my box red ringed 2 days ago - typical luck considering halo 3's out in like 10 days. Not too fussed though, I'd rather wait 20 days or whatever to get it replaced than wait 20 months for a good game.
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9-12-2007 @ 10:05PM
chris said...
@ 11
Exactly. How long are you really going to play Motorstorm on PS3? 20 minutes tops? lol
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