Crash reports dog Xbox 360 launch

Some owners reported crashes during game play

Some Xbox 360 owners are starting to report problems with their brand new next generation gaming console.

Messages posted to gaming forums and discussion groups mention that consoles have crashed during play thanks to several different errors.

The crashes were reported as happening with a variety of games including Perfect Dark Zero, Project Gotham Racing and Need for Speed.

Microsoft acknowledged the reports but said incidents were "isolated".

Crash tests

New owners of the console posted complaints about crashes to the Engadget, Xbox Scene, Team Xbox and Microsoft's official Xbox 360 forums.

The messages posted reported that some of the consoles stopped working after a short bout of playing or crashed during a game and flashed up an error number. Some users posted video and photographs of the crash screens.

The reports suggest that the Xbox 360s are falling victim to a variety of errors rather than the crashes being caused by the same glitch. The scattered reports make it hard to gauge how widespread the problems are.

Microsoft spokeswoman Molly O'Donnell would not detail how many reports the company had received but did say the calls involved a "very, very small fraction" of all the consoles sold. The volume of calls was in line with Microsoft predictions, she said.

"With any launch of this magnitude, you're bound to see something happening," she said.

She urged users with problems to call the Xbox help line and if that did not fix the console, Microsoft would repair or replace the unit.

The Xbox 360 console only went on sale in the US on 22 November to much fanfare and the full price version of the gadget costs $399.99. It goes on sale in Europe on 2 December.