More and more I’m seeing stories covered on the internet and mainstream media pick up on it later. The staggering amount of Xbox 360 consoles that have gone bad isn’t really news at all any more; it’s a state of Xbox 360 life. Add Matt Ritchel at The New York Times to the list of those late to the party.

Microsoft, which has 57 percent of the market, has declined to say what is causing some of its Xbox 360 to stop working, or how many machines have been affected. It has set aside $1.1 billion for repairs, a figure that suggests to industry analysts that the problem could affect a third of the 11.6 million 360s already in the hands of consumers.

The story is somewhat redeemed by a small amount of discussion around Halo 3 which is the best-selling preorder of all time and asking if hardcore gamers care about the three red rings of death problems?

Sure, we care, but is it going to translate to less sales from us? No. Hardcore gamers buy and play all the systems they can afford. We buy systems like the Atari Jaguar, 3DO, Sega 32X and NEO-GEO where some games cost over $200 each. We wait in line for signature games like Halo 3, Grand Theft Auto and Madden Football to launch. Which means yes we’ll be there at midnight tonight for the launch of Madden 2008. We’ll even weather the elements to bag a new system.

Although I haven’t ever camped overnight for a game system, the hardest of the hardcore gamers most certainly will.

HD-DVD blackouts
Speaking of problems with the Xbox 360, I’m getting some new ones since buying an HD-DVD player: blackouts during movie playback. At one point the TV blacked out completely while watching the DVD of 4400. Though it’s only been a week of owning an HD-DVD drive, I’m completely unimpressed by the DVD upscaling from the add-on HD-DVD drive compared to PS3 upscaling of DVDs.

I was at Microsoft yesterday for a beta playtesting session and got into a conversation about Blu Ray and HD-DVD with another tester (we weren’t testing anything to do with HD-DVD, BTW; we weren’t breaking the NDA), and he asked about which was better. Apparently his cousin had a PS3 and he was impressed too with movie playback on the PS3. Give this nod to Sony. Now all they need are some more games.

Games are the magic elixir for hardcore gamers. A great game, a 10 on the scale may not completely wash clean the memory of hardware problems, but it helps the healing process. Do we want to see our systems go down? No way. But at least in our household where we have three Xbox 360 (two regular Xbox 360, one Xbox 360 Elite), if one goes down, there are others to take the fallen’s place until a replacement arrives.

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