By Craig Zammit
SYDNEY: A Sydney EB Games store employee has confirmed to Current.com.au that all EB Games stores across
“The last shipment of Xbox 360s that were sent to EB Games stores in Australia was definitely faulty,” an EB Games employee, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the topic, told Current.com.au today.
“The hard disk drive inside the unit was basically causing the machines to fail; meaning they all had to be recalled.”
The recall has made EB Games franchises virtual Xbox 360 free-zones, with all promotional material and dummy boxes requested to be removed, with replacement stock not expected to arrive until the end of this week.
“We’re hoping for a new shipment of consoles within the next few days, but we don’t know whether these ones will be working for sure or not – nothing can be guaranteed at the moment,” he said.
The nationwide recall comes on the back of a horror-month for Microsoft’s latest gaming console, with the multinational technology giant having to invest $US1.15 billion in improving its standard warranty after a spate of reports released claiming a staggering 30 per cent failure rate for the Xbox 360.
However, hopes are still high for a positive Christmas campaign for Xbox 360 after a solid showing at the recent E3 gaming expo in Las Vegas.
“They’ll still sell at Christmas because the public still love them,” the EB Games employee said.
“You got to be fairly honest, how many people listen to the news and read about the faults and actually have that impact their decision? We find that people tend to hear from their friends about how good the games are and come in a buy [an Xbox 360] anyway,” he said.
Microsoft was contacted by Current.com.au concerning the recall but they declined to comment.