The Xbox 360 Report Card

Gamers are halfway through the year, and probably halfway through the Xbox 360's lifespan. Does Xbox 360 make the grade? It's time for the midterm examination.

[DarkSniper]

Xbox 360 should recieve a failing grade across every category. Microsoft has made no efforts to improve the firmware of a seriously flawed dashboard. Xbox Live continues to be riddled with immature users and heavy lag. This affects gameplay tremendously and their Quality Assurance and Moderation departments are at fault.

Xbox Live Arcade games are constantly being deleted from the server. This is a complete disservice to the honest paying customers who enjoy those games. Not to mention the game content itself has been produced with low quality. Ninja Gaiden 2 is a prime example.

Overall Xbox 360 is one of the worst additions to the console market and by next year, you can expect Microsoft to surrender to the more superior platform. PLAYSTATION®3.

Xbox 360: F-

$niper

[LuHawk]

YOU = F- for being a PS3 Butt kissing Hoe

[BigKev45]

A + baby!

[BIoodmask]

seems pretty fair to me(B+). The only think that I would have rated higher is advertising. Microsoft has done a great job as far as the games are concerned. Especially when it comes to strong 3rd party relations and also on the RPG front.

It is just a shame the hardware rating drags the score down. The hardware has become more reliable bc of the falcon model. Hopefully with the die shrink on the GPU coming next the failures will be eliminated almost completely.

[DarthTigra]

Yeah i have to agree even though the advertising can be in your face(i mean halo 3 mountain dew come on now)but it really makes you wanna check out what all the hype is behind. I would also lower the hardware rating 16 percent or 33 percent its to high imo to warrant a c+

[chaosatom]

But xbox sales are slowing down.

What's is that mean?

---They are still lots of xboxs that have good chances of being RROD. bulk of them, so people are not buying them. look at europe. There are not completely off the market because microsoft is trying to shove them up people's throat.

[Jack Meahoffer]

The three major issues with the 360 in my opinion are:

1. RROD
2. Non-standard HDD
3. $50 a year for XBL

RROD is being addressed with new models but still tarnished the 360 rep very badly. It'll never go away this generation. MS will have to work extra hard to prove reliability next generation. But they will. They have to or its game over for them.

Non-standard HDD is really unexcusable. Should never have happened especially when they started HDD's in consoles last generation. Can be addressed somewhat with the elimination of the HDD-less arcade model and vast reduction in price of add on HDD's.

$50 a year for XBL sucks and I'd rather not pay it but at least to this point its worth it to me in comparison to PSN. Downloads are much faster. Very rare issues with multiplayer games in comparison to the broken launches on PSN of TF2, R6V2, COD4 and GTA IV. Having to sign up with two levels of logins (Konami ID and GAME ID) then a actual in game name to play MSGO is ridiculous and confusing. IMO its a clear failure of the third party system Sony setup. Movie rental service is also nice.

When universal in game voice chat FINALLY comes to PSN you can scratch that one off. Movie service is coming also but once again no one knows when. Home when it FINALLY comes COULD be huge also. In a few months the PS3 will be 2 years old. The wait is unexcusable. They were the juggernaut last generation they shouldn't have to play catch up... Online gaming shouldn't have caught them by supprise. Once PSN is able to address its feature holes and third party server issues its going to put MASSIVE pressure on XBL to vastly reduce the price or eliminate it entirely.

Thats my 2 cents. This grade is fair in my opinion maybe it should be slightly lower... I'm not going to downplay RROD and the 360's other issues but for me they're well worth dealing with to have access to every game I want to play. I'd rather deal with the issues and be able to experience both sides than be a one console owning brand worshiper like most of the people on N4G.

I'm sure the brand worshipers will mass disagree with me but if you think your so right reply and explain yourself in clear terms.

Interested to see what the PS3 and Wii gets on their report cards...

EDIT: Thats right hit the disagree button and don't reply because you got nothing to refute what I've said but blind emotion for the console you losers worship.

[Lifendz]

You must really like Halo and Gears.

[THAMMER1]

Allot of people do like Halo and Gears. The people with gripes seem to be antiXBOX360 or inexperienced gamers.

[Lifendz]

No. I'm actually on record saying that sans RROD the 360 would probably have been my console of choice.

Inexperienced gamers? What does that have to do with anything? I mentioned XBL costing a game a year and RROD. Are you saying if I were an experienced gamer this would be no problem for me?

[Willio]

Even though the steps to play MGS online is quite infact stupid, i dont think SOny had much say into it since its probalbly going to be one of the contenders for game of the year and it took only 5minutes. If sony had pissed off konami, MS would have taken MGS and did the same thing.

If a competitor is ahead by two years in development, the latter company is catching up to market share. Just because they were the juggernaut in the past doesnt means its success is guaranteed. Look at Bill Gates for example who declined to look into the internet as the next investment and instead focused on vista. And now they are trying to buy Yahoo.

[JoelR]

It's mostly fair but you would think that there would be more first party titles to warrant a A
I do agree with third party A+
As for XLive B+ is stretching it... B max (but definitely better than a C.
Hardware c+???? maybe C- or F
so a B- is probably more appropriate but overall a fair overview.

[Jack Meahoffer]

Wish more hardcore Sony fans on this site were able to look at this rating like you have.

I agree B- would have probably been a better grade.

Bubbles

[JoelR]

as a dev - I never burn down bridges that I may need to cross someday ^_-

I do prefer the more advanced architecture of the PS3 and what I can do with it but since Jobs in our industry are not exactly the most secure in the world. You never know where you might be working in a years time. Better to be familiar with all the major architectures and methods and fairly appraise them rather than be blinded by loyalty to a company that is only loyal to their investors. (this can be said about Nin, Micro, and Sony or any other publicly traded organization)

[Bill Gates]

I give it an R for RROD..........AAAAAHHAHHAHAHA

and a B for BABOONS....AHAHHAHAHA

[MIAMIFROST]

Lowering the average to a C if anything.
What good is great marketing and games if the hardware sucks?

[juuken]

I agree with the grade where software is concerned, but hardware is a bit unreliable. That should get a C or a D.

[LJWooly]

The console, from a design perspective, should only really get an F, it;s just a flat out unreliable console, which is not good. But, as far as software is concerned, I agree with everything the author said, which just about brings the console up to a pass. If I didn't have fun playing it, it would fail, but I do, and that's what matters in the end.

Although, the score they gave it for Xbox Live was pushing it a tiny bit.

You're safe for now, Microsoft... they better get their game together, if they want to be worthy contenders next gen.

[The Lazy One]

"while the holiday-outage carnage has abated, we’d like Microsoft to invest in even better reliability"

that's exactly what they did. That's the reason there wasn't a spring update.

I really think it's dumb that M$ isn't doing any general console advertising. PS3's old commercial was a kick ass commercial, and the wii commercials are everywhere.

It probably has something to do with the 360's original AWESOME AS HELL commercials being BANNED.

[monet man]

i would give xbox 360 an f because they suck and their products suck.

[-Maverick-]

I give it a L for Last Place and 10 for only 10 months ahead of the Original Xbox's sales.

[Jack Meahoffer]

I also give you a L for Loser and 10 for the number years you've been alive.

You see what I did there?

BTW Sony called... They said you left your panties over at their place last night. Might want to get on that with your fruity Tom Cruise avatar. muhahahahaha

[GiantEnemyCrab]

How can you give it last place since that spot is currently held by the PS3rd fishhead?

@Jack: Don't bother owning this fool he aint worth the time.

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

I would say this article is spot on. The unreliable and noisy hardware is a huge issue, but the Falcon has stepped in and it appears the console is very reliable now. I rarely hear about RROD on recent Falcon consoles. That is of course from personal experience.

[TheKungFool]

I knew the article was gibberish once they gave the hardware a c+ grade.

- The industry's worst ever failrate
- Angry 360 owners waiting weeks for their system at some points
- They had to make up a slang term for it (RRoD)
- Many non-RRoD issues including freezing, disc tray sticking etc.
- Decided not to include HD movie function standard & lost HD format war
- Offering Arcade & Core bundles that eliminate 360 key advantages

Jeebus, if the 360 hardware scores a "C+" i wish these idiots were grading my high school exams.

[Guitarded]

Since there are no concrete numbers on hardware failure rates for any console ever I will claim ps2 as the industries worst ever failure rate. How's that for you fool.

[IaMs12]

Yes there are still lots of bad consoles of the 360 out there but THINK people look at the Manufactured date.... make sure it is pretty current... then it will be fine... but still does it matter between a B or B- its still very close, i think you guys are just gutting it out now.... its a gaming console i cant believe its gotten this far... i wish N64 and Goldeneye were still a big hit and PS1 was the only system out as well i miss those days, not these days...