How widespread are Xbox 360 problems?

In the days following last week's debut of Microsoft's Xbox 360, videogame fan sites and the mainstream press seemed to be in a race to outdo each other with reports of problems with the new console.

Quite a few postings, such as those appearing on game sites like Xbox-Scene, relate the experiences of some angry Xbox 360 owners whose new machines have already overheated or crashed.

But the good news for consumers is -- at least so far -- the glitches appear to be isolated. Though it's still too early to quantify those problems or say for certain how widespread they are, most of the die-hard gamers who were able to get an Xbox 360 aren't complaining about their much-coveted new consoles, according to gaming experts and research analysts.

"I have 12 friends in my area who... purchased Xbox 360 units on launch day," said Michael Pica, a staff member at Xbox-Scene. "I had a number of them over to my house on Sunday for some Xbox 360 LAN [Local Area Network] gaming. We talked about the reports of faulty Xbox 360s and all of them claimed to have experienced no problems at all."

No matter how many problems have actually cropped up with the new console, any glitches are big news after months of build-up to the 22 November launch. Microsoft has billed the new Xbox as the best videogame experience ever and marked the hefty $399 US price tag on the 'premium' Xbox 360 model that most gamers have bought -- all building expectations of a flawless experience. (The console will be released in the UK and Europe on 2 December, at £210 for the 'core' version and £280 for the premium.)

Microsoft admits that some of the consoles have had performance failures of one kind or another, but said complaints so far have not been overwhelming.

"The vast majority of folks" are not having problems with their Xbox 360s, said Molly O'Donnell, a spokeswoman for Microsoft's Xbox group. "We have received some isolated reports of consoles not working, and we're doing everything we can to take care of them."

O'Donnell told CNET.co.uk's sister site News.com that consumers who experience problems with their consoles should first visit the Xbox troubleshooting page. If the suggestions on the Web site don't solve the problem, she said, gamers can call 1-800-4MY-XBOX and receive an overnight box in which to return their console. If customers move quickly, she said, they should have their Xboxes repaired or replaced and returned within a week.

Still, some analysts say the glitches can't be that much of a shock in a product on its first run out of the factory.

"Clearly, Microsoft has been constrained in the number of products it has been able to get into the channel," said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at The NPD Group, "and so perhaps they've been pretty aggressive in terms of getting supply out, and it's quite common during an initial run of products to run into some quality control issues."

Similarly, reports of malfunctions with the newly released consoles have not surprised David Cole, an analyst at DFC Intelligence.

"It doesn't sound like it's that big a problem," Cole said. "One thing you always say about these new machines is that the first units have issues. The manufacturing process, when you're just getting started, there's all these little bugs."

When Sony's PlayStation 2 first hit stores, he said, it had bugs, largely with DVD playback.

Rubin said that despite the widespread nature of stories about issues with the Xbox, there's no way to know how frequent the problems actually are.

"It's difficult because not only are there so few units out in the marketplace right now," he said, "but also because most of the reporting has been anecdotal."