Now, this isn’t scientific data, especially since we know that Microsoft hides that data from prying eyes, but it’s more than supposition. Game Informer did a poll and found that the 360 has the highest failure rate of any of the consoles at 54% — not exactly the most unexpected news, but putting a number on it is kind of sobering. The survey (which is print-only or I’d link it) also notes that the 360 gets a bit more playtime than its competitors, which might account for a bit more failure, but the PS3 was failing at 11% and the Wii at 7%.
You guys may remember this excellent article describing the process of creating the 360 and the drive to get it to market. I’m guessing that at that time, the failure rate was probably as high as 75% past a certain level of play. But as the design was refined and the manufacturing improved, I’d put it (entirely guesstimation here) around 20% or even lower.
The question probably asked whether a console has failed on you, and if so, which one. In that case, practically anybody who seriously used their 360 before a year ago would be responding yes.
This is not surprising. Everyone I knew that bought the first generation xbox360 had to send it back due to the red ring.
I honestly don’t believe this. There’s no way to legitimize the facts here. I’m not a fanboy by any means, but there’s a lot out there. How do we know that a huge number of those surveys were not taken by people that don’t exactly look fondly upon the xbox 360. Fanboys know no bounds.
I had a lot of friends that owned the first generation 360, I think only one got the RROD and that’s because he traveled around with it a lot and left it in his car during the summer. I’m not saying that quite a few people don’t get the RROD and they definitely have the highest failure rate between all the next gen consoles. I just don’t believe that one out of every two Xbox 360’s at one point failed.
Umm, a 54 percent failure rate means that more than half of the people whose xbox was replaced, had to replace it again.
A quarter of the customers!
Did the poll show that too? It should, if the question was asked.
My girlfriend was in Gamestop this weekend and she saw 5 families coming in to get rid of their Xbox 360 because of the ring of death.
my PS3 got the yellow light of doom and sony doggied me for $160
I had 3 Xboxes that died in my arms – only one RROD, though, the other two had failing DVD drives. I also saw one dead Wii which had the fried GPU you get when you leave Wiiconnect24 permanently activated on one of the early hardware revisions. The only current-gen console that didn’t disappoint quality-wise was my PS3. I got one from launch day (which would be March 23rd, 2007 here in Germany) and it never acted up in any way.
i’ve had to send mine in twice for e74 and then RROD.
its annoying, but whatever, it works now lol
C’est terrible…
2 died on me, I still don’t get why they aren’t releasing a silent xbox… if you compare it to the ps3 its painful. I have mine in another room and drill some holes in the wall for the cables so I don’t hear it anymore.
I’ve had my Xbox for just about two years now and have never had any problems with Red Rings. Guess I’m just one of the lucky ones. /knockonwood
I believe their survey. I’ve had 4 RROD on me.
I got one of the premium ones a long time ago. Mine red ringed and was giving me disc read errors. Microsoft was great. They sent me a box and a label. I just dropped it off and got it back a week or two later.
Even if mine does it again I still wouldn’t stop using the xbox.
After a total of four 360’s between my roommate and I we both gave up. I’ve been a proud ps3 owner for two years now with no problem.
on the fifth 360 now… damn ring of death!
Bought my first 360 at xmas… played fallout 3 and gears two… havn’t turned it on since; my ps3 rules.
I must say my 360 is a newer jasper revision and I have not had a single issue with it while I was using it regularly.