As much as we’d love to report our experience with the New Xbox Experience (NXE), our 360 RRoDeathed when starting up after trying it out for the first time. So off to the Microsoft repair shop it went. This is our third – the previous two also RRoDied.

While the semi-official failure rate is only 16%. Any impromptu poll on Xbox Live reveals nearly everyone in the room citing at least one failure. My stance has always been: As long as they replace them on Microsoft’s dime, I’m willing to put up with the replacement process since the games are so great.

However, this time, I was told the system will only be covered under warranty for 90 days after receiving the repaired system. Excuse me?!

My confidence in the new replacement lasting over one year is 0%. They are simply not engineered to last. The 360 never moves from its cool airy spot. I clean its air vents periodically. It plays games sometimes and then fails. There’s nothing 360 owners can do to prevent it from happening.. it’s seemingly designed to (mal) function this way. The PS3 continues working after 2 years, and trusty PS2 phat still runs like a champ after 6 years so it seems clearly a 360 problem and not its environment.

Microsoft addressed the issue with a new revision of the hardware designed to run cooler and solve the disastrous failure rate. Great for the new buyers, but what about the rest of us who’s 360s will surely fail after the 90 day warranty expires?

Will you pay to have it ‘fixed?’ Will you take it like a gay man and pony up for a new system? Or will you switch to the PS3?

This is the question millions of 360 owners will soon have to answer for themselves over the next two years as Microsoft refuses to fix their dead 360s under warranty. What will you do?

Here’s some additional reading on the issue.