As someone who just got his second red ring in as many years, is it really that surprising that about half of all Xboxes have shit the bed? Personally, I don’t know a single person with an Xbox 360 who hasn’t had to deal with it, so hell, maybe the 54.2% figure is generous.
Comparatively, the PS3 has a failure rate of 10.6 per cent and the Wii is at 6.8 per cent. But despite these numbers, gamers play the Xbox the most; 40.3 per cent play it 3 to 5 hours a day, with 37 per cent of PS3 owners doing the same. And unsurprisingly, a full 40.4 per cent of Wii owners turn that console on less than an hour a day.
And that’s really the big takeaway here. It’s not news that older Xbox 360s fail almost inevitably, but it’s interesting that gamers have almost accepted that fact and still play the Xbox despite it. In fact, a mere 3.8 per cent of gamers said that hardware failure will keep them from ever buying another Xbox. I guess people just really like their 1 vs. 100. [Consumerist via Kotaku]
Kif
August 19, 2009 at 7:04 AM
Nice… Gives another reason for Microsoft to suck at something and not bother to fix it.
Report PermalinkSam
August 19, 2009 at 8:05 AM
My friend and I must be REALLY lucky. We both have release 360′s, and neither of us have had the dreaded RROD. His gets used daily, mine, not as much, but it does get used for long periods when it is used. Both of us use them lying down (like in the picture). I wonder if that has something to do with it as everyone else I know that has had one die on them uses it standing on its edge.
Report PermalinkNathan
August 19, 2009 at 8:48 AM
@Sam – Im on my third Xbox 360 :-/ and I got mine (at least my original one??) on release day too. The first one I had standing upright and I read alot about this possibly being the reason why it failed.
Report PermalinkThe next one I got I had 100% of the time kept it laying flat (as pictured above) and it still failed – also made sure where I had it was adequetley ventilated etc – a couple of months back this one got the RROD.
So I’m not convinced that having it standing upright or laying flat has a bearing on the problem. I guess it is quite possible that you got lucky…..very freakin lucky id say!!! :-P
Mark Giles
August 19, 2009 at 8:44 AM
*shrug* our release xbox died a while ago, once outside of warranty. I ripped it to bits and fixed it for a while, but it eventually gave up the ghost. Strangely, it wasn’t a big deal for us to buy another one.
They’re quite awesome, the failure rate sucks (but now we have a Red edition with Jasper, i think we’ll be alright) but they are just awesome enough to warrant “well, it died, but I really still want one”.
<3 my xbox. It gets almost constant use, whether as a media center or for playing games.
Report PermalinkTrogdor
August 19, 2009 at 9:13 AM
Like a lot of people, I am also on my third 360. I still love the system, though. Just sucks that Ghostbusters is a PS3 exclusive here…
Report PermalinkCaptain Pajama Shark
August 19, 2009 at 9:35 AM
My good mate is on his 3 also.
Report PermalinkFor some reason I can hear the 3 mobile jingle in my head. “ohh, 3 it’s a magic number”.
Aside from that, is there any predominant reason the 360′s keep failing.
That friend of mine reckons it’s heat related, but he is a bit of a mook.
matt
August 19, 2009 at 10:00 AM
well, as long as it has the cheapest price tag on it, people will by any dodgy shit…
Report PermalinkMoon Daddy
August 19, 2009 at 10:03 AM
Yep, my mate is on his fourth. But really..What the hell is wrong with you all, I can understand buying a 2nd if it really brings you that much enjoyment…but a 3rd/4th… You’re seriously retarded to go back. This just proves even more how much microsoft doesn’t give a damn about its customers, because idiots like you all just shrug and keep consuming their poorly designed systems…
Report PermalinkJames-Mac
August 19, 2009 at 11:07 AM
I bought one at launch, but only recently got rid of it… not due to RROD, but because I got sick of the Laser Burn on discs.
My new one hasn’t done that yet.
Report PermalinkBellscape_Computers
August 19, 2009 at 12:56 PM
I have seen many RRoD Xbox 360′s and would not be surprised if the real failure rate was more in the 60-70% range.
Off the 9 people I know with 360′s they have all had at least 1 fail, I have presonally had 2 fail.
I have given up with repairing them as it is only a temporary fix – as can be seen with my ebay auction
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2009/08/rrod-xbox-360-the-gift-of-a-thousand-uses/
Report PermalinkDaniel
August 20, 2009 at 12:00 AM
I’m actually on my second.
My first was the launch model, which actually lasted up until early this year. But then again, i didn’t really keep it crammed in a display cabinet.
I replaced it with the falcon model (elite) and it hasn’t had a problem to date. In fact, i reckon this survey is pretty incorrect. Unless they get every xbox 360 user to participate, this result is far from certain.
Theoretically, through improved cooling and cooler chips in the 360, the failure rate would have lowered (and it probably has – by a large amount). But i suppose this survey was conducted by a group of ps3 fanboys just trying to prove the xbox 360 is a piece of junk.
Besides, i’m not counting the days till my next red ring. To be honest, like the writer of this article said, we really don’t care. And i have never really been worried about a red ring – at all.
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