16% Failure Rate Is News To Microsoft

Over the past few days, stories have been circling around the place that the failure rate for the 360 had been “nailed” at 16%. This figure was taken from SquareTrade, who claimed to have issued warranties for the console, and was based on a sample group of 1000 360s. Today, Microsoft have hit back at these claims, saying they’ve never heard of SquareTrade:

We have not seen the report, and are unfamiliar with the agency that filed it. Based on the enthusiast community’s feedback yesterday, the methodology of this report is suspect.

Fair point, as when releasing the 16% figure, SquareTrade disclosed neither their methodology, nor the entirety of the report.
Microsoft Responds to Warranty Report [IGN]