270°

The 5 Most Devastating Crashes In Gaming History

GP: "Sometimes mistakes happen and things don't always work out as planned. But when it comes to technological wonders that cost millions of dollars to produce, you expect at least a little bit of testing to be done to make sure the product works as intended. But as we all know, that doesn't always happen. In fact, things can fail so badly the company responsible can lose out on millions of dollars fixing it.

You would think with so much on the line companies would try harder to keep their products from having such insanely devastating flaws, but it happens way more than you think. In fact, here are five such instances that had to have left a sour taste in each company's mouths."

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gamepodunk.com
Blankman854699d ago

How microsoft turned a profit this gen with the 360 is a miracle(read xbox live gold) with the rrod fiasco.

srcBFMVBMTH4698d ago (Edited 4698d ago )

Pretty sure the RROD was one of the biggest fails if not thee biggest in gaming history. I mean who the hell releases a console with a failure rate of over 50% that continues on for FOUR YEARS after release! SERIOUSLY?!?!?!

http://consumerist.com/2009...

http://gizmodo.com/5339915/...

Kin23g4698d ago

I don't know about the survey, but I've had 3 Xbox 360 dying on me in the past 6 years and none of them failed because of the RROD.
On the other hand my PS3's been holding for 4 years now.

Surprisingly, I still prefer Xbox over PS3.

IHateYouFanboys4698d ago (Edited 4698d ago )

firstly, your quoted failure rate is 100% made up. there has only ever been 2 official failure rates given.

1. microsoft said the failure rate was within the acceptable limit - the acceptable limit for consoles/appliances is 3-4% iirc.

2. microsoft said the failure rate was above the acceptable limit and introduced the 3 year warranty. that means that the failure rate hit >3%, meaning even 3.000000000001% was possible.

secondly, 100% of the original Playstations (the first one) built within the first 18 months were faulty due to using a cheap plastic laser eye rail. sony lost numerous class action lawsuits regarding this.

thirdly, a huge percentage of PS2s manufactured in the first few years were faulty too, getting the infamous disk read error. again, sony lost multiple class action lawsuits over this manufacturing fault.

microsoft however have not lost a single lawsuit over RROD, let alone multiple class action ones like sony did. whichever way you look at it, sony made 2 monumental manufacturing mistakes that are each bigger than the RROD.

i personally had all 4 errors - my launch PSs rail warped making it unplayable, my launch PS2 would take 10+ goes to read disks before i replaced it with a slim, my launch 360 got the RROD, and my launch PS3 got the YLOD.

incoming blind disagrees in 3, 2, 1....

srcBFMVBMTH4698d ago (Edited 4698d ago )

@IHateYouFanboys

"1. microsoft said the failure rate was within the acceptable limit - the acceptable limit for consoles/appliances is 3-4% iirc."

2. microsoft said the failure rate was above the acceptable limit and introduced the 3 year warranty. that means that the failure rate hit >3%, meaning even 3.000000000001% was possible."

= Microsoft said this, Microsoft said that.
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

"a huge percentage of PS2s manufactured in the first few years were faulty too, getting the infamous disk read error.

100% of the original Playstations (the first one) built within the first 18 months were faulty due to using a cheap plastic laser eye rail.

100% ? I highly doubt that buddy.

"whichever way you look at it, sony made 2 monumental manufacturing mistakes that are each bigger than the RROD."

If you honestly believe any of those are even remotely close to having MORE THAN 50% of consoles completely dying out. Then you sir, are an idiot :)

"microsoft however have not lost a single lawsuit over RROD, let alone multiple class action ones like sony did."

That still doesn't excuse the fact that it actually happened. Over 50% of 360's exploded.

Nice try at damage control kid. :)

Reverent4698d ago

God, "IHateYouFanboys" is such a Microsoft troll.

NotSoSilentBob4697d ago

Just report IHATEYOUFANBOY for spam and downbubble him for trolling. Every comment he makes is Anti PS3/Sony. We get it you hate Sony you don't need to make up facts and continue to troll.

Double_O_Revan4697d ago

I'm on my 5th 360. Stopped playing it. Moved to Playstation

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 4697d ago
mcstorm4698d ago

I really wish people would stop with this RROD rubbish. I had a 360 form the 1st day and 2.5 years after I had it I got the RROD and MS replaced it for me and the xbox that they game me after is still running today as I gave it to my brother and I now have 2 360s and none of them have any issues.

I got a PS3 on release day and I got the Yold 2years after I bought the console Sony wanted me to pay for it to get it fixed so I bought 2 PS3 slims after that and I have not had a problem since.

So to me both the PS3 and 360 had problems with there 1st batch of consoles and the way I look at it so what stop making a big deal of it you have a choice when your PS3 or 360 breaks. Go and buy a new one or don't just like everything else in life you buy.

Irishguy954698d ago (Edited 4698d ago )

I myself have had 3 360s and this one has been sent off for repairs twice. Never RROD either. But...all replacements and repairs were free. I even got a Jasper model with HDmi as a replacement.

Ps3 Single player, cost
360 multiplayer, interface ease of use

PC - combination of all of the above/troll

TitanUp4699d ago (Edited 4699d ago )

xbox 360 got red ring of the death 2 times so i gave up with that.

ps3 2 of those failed and killzone 3 came out and i was very disappointed with that.

ps3 got hacked and that is when i decided to switch to pc gaming exclusively and i don't regret it.

http://us.playstation.com/p...

http://raptr.com/Farsendor/...

last game i played on a console was killzone 3

Bladesfist4699d ago

wow, that is exactly what I did this gen. xbox 360 died so I got a ps3, played uncharted 2 and then bought a gaming PC. Fell in love with pc gaming.

TitanUp4699d ago

i was already a pc gamer but i didn't buy a lot of games.most of my pc gaming time was spent playing battlefield bad company 2 and wow.

steam is what really made me happy with pc gaming :)

Jockamo4699d ago

Steam makes PC gaming the ruler of them all. So many cheap great games!!!

OhMyGandhi4699d ago (Edited 4699d ago )

my launch 360 Red ringed, and I got a new one, and it's working flawlessly.

my ps3 YLOD on me, and my rented copy of "Shadows of the Damned" is still in it.

Blockbuster made me purchase the game for how late it became.

I suppose it's not a bad thing, I actually am loving that game, so it could be worse, it could be worse.

consensus? you better believe that I'm waiting a while after ps4/720 come out so they can iron out the issues.

Jesus, hardware wise, this generation has been a damned disaster in terms of dispersing heat. I don't get it.

My last generation of consoles work perfectly, as well as the generation before that, and the generation before that...

Summons754699d ago (Edited 4699d ago )

No YLOD???? 8 Playstation 3's in the first year. I gave up and tried again when the slim came out. Everyone I knew too also had a terrible problem with YLOD. They had minor RROD problems, I luckily never had one but ylod was waaaay worse than rrod even though rrod. Take note too that I prefer most of my gaming on PS.

The PShack was terrible too, luckily I don't play online all that often so I didn't fully get effected.

also I already know I'm gonna get a bunch of sony fanboys coming in and saying that my yyold problem was not true and blah blah blah but save it, it happened and Sony did absolutely nothing about it and denied it even to this day.

josephps34699d ago

8 YLOD for one person? Why do I find that hard to believe? Even just statistically speaking that's impossible.

Anyways, I as well got the YLOD but I was lucky enough that it was fixable ($70) and now so far so good.

This generation has been plagued by a lot of hardware failures more than any other generation it seems whether Xbox or PS3. I hope the next generation turns out better.

iamnsuperman4699d ago

I got a YLOD after 4 and a half years. I agree. 8 seems statistically unlikely. I remember watchdog (bbc programme) tried to spin the ylod into a bigger problem but were heavily criticised for it due to the vague nature of the findings.

nik666uk4699d ago

Even if that was true what idiot would buy 8 PS3s in a year? Nice try!!

Summons754699d ago

It's called an in store replacement plan. What idiot buys an expensive item without getting one of those? Replacement plans get you a brand new system with out paying any extra money (except for a new plan) better than Sony wanting me to pay 100 bucks to send it out for two months just to get a different console back.

chrisarsenalsavart4699d ago ShowReplies(1)
OhMyGandhi4699d ago

you couldn't be that fed up, you had 8 ps3s.

BlaqMagiq244698d ago (Edited 4698d ago )

*cough* bullshit *cough*

LostDjinn4698d ago (Edited 4698d ago )

I think he's doing more then coughing BS.

I've been through several replacement 360s (Paid for the second and had them replaced for free since. It's out of warranty now though), a single PS3 (after years of use) and a single Wii (drunken damage).

Long story short, they all break. It's just that the 360 was really good at breaking. It's just serves a cautionary lesson for next Gen.

Edit: Then again aren't MS pushing the next box on PC (or is that just 360 software)? I may not even need to buy MS hardware. That'd be great.

srcBFMVBMTH4698d ago (Edited 4698d ago )

You're story about your so called "8 failed PS3's" is as unbelievable as............. Microsoft creating any new IP's.

If it really did break that much then you probably handled your PS3's like how a monkey handles his feces.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e...

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 4698d ago
yesmynameissumo4699d ago

7 360s that either E-74, RROD, sent a PAL console from support when I needed NTSC...yeah, I think the 360 and its support is horseshit.

Next gen I'm wasting a dime on anything MS until after a year on the market. Maybe 2. I'm not going to allow them to give me a headache.

HammadTheBeast4698d ago

Microsoft stole my copy of GTA 4 when I sent it in.... (¶__¶)

Reverent4698d ago

Omg that happened to my friend lol.. He sent his Xbox360 after an RROD (Btw, this was within the first few weeks the 360 was released). Microsoft literally just sent him the same broken 360 back claiming he "tampered" with it. However, he had some game in it that was mysteriously missing when he got the 360 back.

He probably shouldn't have left the game in there... but still. Pretty messed up on Microsofts part.

nik666uk4699d ago

The most annoying one was the 360 being rushed out with a high percentage failure rate(which Microsoft knew all about) just to get their console out 1st!! I've never owned a 360 but it still annoys me how they blatantly ripped parents who were buying them for their kids off!! And those same kids come on here and defend them!!!

Jockamo4699d ago

They replaced them for free.

Dread4698d ago

dont say that
sony fanatics dont want anyone to know this. remember MS bad and always wrong, Sony good and always right.

rinse and repeat, and you will do fine in N4G

Hicken4698d ago

Not at first, they didn't. When that first batch of 360s started dying outside of warranty- which was originally just a one-year warranty- people had to buy new systems out of pocket. The three year warranty was announced early July 2007.

The 360 launched November 2005. The one-year warranty for that would have ended November 2006(assuming it WAS a one-year warranty, and not something less, which I can't find any info on). Any systems bought from launch until July 2006 would not have been covered by the warranty, thus people would have had to pay for a new one out of pocket.

July 2007's 3-year warranty was retroactive, meaning it covered every system bought from the day of purchase for three years. That now included replacement systems people bought out-of-pocket; assuming an original one-year warranty, some people were now on their second system. According to various studies- though no information was EVER released by Microsoft- that meant 1/4 to 1/2 of users were on replacement systems.

Assuming a minimum of 6 million and a maximum of 10 million units sold during that first year, and assuming that everyone who experienced a system failure bought a replacement, 25% failure rate would mean another 1.5 million systems(at 6 million the first year) up to 5 million systems(at 10 million). The real number was, obviously, likely somewhere inbetween.

Keep in mind, the extended warranty ONLY covered the RROD(general hardware failure); Square Trade's study- which tested a little over 1000 Xboxes for no more than 10 months, and saw a failure rate of 16.4%, yet predicted these estimates to be "significantly lower" due to the short testing period, and people not reporting- found that 40% of the system failures were NOT covered by the extended warranty: disc read errors, video card failures, hard drive freezes and the like. That's 2/3 as many systems failing from factors that would not be replaced by Microsoft.

People whose systems suffered from these issues would also have had to buy new systems, and assuming everyone who experienced such an issue out of warranty also bought a new system, a few million more would have been added on to the number of systems not replaced for free.

If we take the median possible number of systems from the first year alone that failed (3.5 million) and assume about half as many for the 8 months from November 2006 until the 3-year warranty was announced in July, we get 5.25 million systems that were replaced without a warranty.

But since this is based on an assumption that every system failed outside of warranty, and that every one that did was replaced out of pocket, that number's probably a bit high. It's probably more in the 3-4 million range.

Still, that's about a minimum of 3 million systems that WERE NOT replaced for free. And that's not including systems DURING the 3-year warranty era that broke down and WERE NOT covered. That number, being about 2/3 as many as the covered systems, would mean about another 2 million or so. And the 3-year warranty ended before the Slim came out, so that would increase the number of systems sold that would need to be replaced out of pocket.

All told, a rough estimate of about 5 million systems wouldn't be overkill for re-buys NOT covered by Microsoft.

LostDjinn4698d ago

@ Hicken: That's BS!
The 360 originally came with a 90 day warranty. They didn't extend the warranty till 2 years after release. I know because I had to buy a second one when my first crapped out after a matter of months.

BrutallyBlunt4698d ago

Amazing! The guy above writes an essay about the RROD issues and neglects to talk about any of the other 4 issues from the article. The same person who criticizes the media for being biased against Sony. The same person who continually supports Sony above all others and holds them on a much higher pedastal, questions why people question his responses. The same person who continues this polarization between Sony and Microsoft. The same person who has fallen in the trap of since the Playstation 3 competes most directly with the XBOX360 it is to be treated as the enemny.

I've never seen anyone take what is supposed to be a hobby to entertain us, be taken so far out of context and so serious before.

StreetsofRage4698d ago

HOLY SMOKES HICKEN!!!! What is wrong with you???

Another sony fanboy that takes this gaming waaaaaaaay to seriously. You kids got issues.

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240°

‘I think Xbox hardware is dead’, says Microsoft gaming veteran

One of the founding members of the Xbox team has questioned Microsoft’s multiplatform gaming strategy, and said they believe the Xbox hardware business is effectively “dead"

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videogameschronicle.com
1d 14h ago Replies(3)
Goodguy011d 12h ago

Think that rumor that they'll still make a new console but at a profit at $1000 will be true though. The series consoles will remain their cheap alternative throughout next gen I would say. Keep in mind that game pass and pretty much going 3rd party is their main focus. They want to bring xbox everywhere.

1d 12h ago
GamerRN15h ago

If they don't maintain some kind of console presence, I think they will lose gamepass subscribers and just become a 3rd party publisher who eventually sells everything off

Cacabunga15h ago

Xbox games are releasing on all platforms. Who needs this hardware? PS or PC is all you need

Flewid63813h ago

I've never owned an Xbox in my life and I have GamePass.

thorstein12h ago

The only Xbox I owned was the 360. I have gamepass for my PC.

GamerRN7h ago

Majority of Gamepass users are currently on console...

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 7h ago
crazyCoconuts14h ago

Even if they could get it down to $800 for a box that can run with comparable performance to a PS6 (at, say $200 cheaper) the population of people willing to buy such a thing would be so limited.
It would be the worst of both worlds.

1d 10h ago
Futureshark1d 1h ago

A slow, painful and public death too.

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190°

While Layoffs Hit the Industry, Nintendo Retains 98% of Staff Including 78 With Disabilities

TNS: Based on its most recent ESG data, Nintendo boasts a remarkably low staff turnover rate of just 1.9%, with virtually no reported layoffs.

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thenerdstash.com
Jin_Sakai2d ago

Because Nintendo makes great games.

Yesyes1d 11h ago

It’s unreal that people are downvoting this when they consistently have the best scoring games on metacritic.

2d ago
rlow12d ago

Well it doesn’t surprise me. As much money as they make and how they value their employees. It’s a great company in that regard.

2d ago Replies(1)
drivxr2d ago

Well, when your games remain full price many years after release.

And you make profit off of outdated hardware.

I would be shocked if they couldn't afford to retain their staff.

lodossrage2d ago (Edited 2d ago )

I didn't want to say anything but drivxr is right.

Nintendo always sells at a profit because they purposely use tech that's always 5 or more years behind. And it's also true their games hardly ever get price decreases.

Don't get me wrong, it's great they kept most of their workforce, but making a point to have your tech specs behind everyone else affords that luxury.

Darkegg1d 23h ago

I don’t think it’s their purpose to use old tech. It’s their purpose to make value of software and know their value. Nobody makes games like them that’s for sure. I just don’t appreciate their customer unfriendly policy.

It’s not impossible to take their status. Companies need to have a selection of 8-bit and 16-bit. Now imagine a split screen for 8 player game for SNES Mario kart and selling at $9.99. The problem is that it doesn’t make profit. So many companies won’t invest in “old” technology. Everyone guns for triple AAA modern technology software but honestly we can enjoy modernized 16-bit creative ideas that allows 8-player mayhem. It’s a pipe dream, possible but impossible.

Shane Kim1d 23h ago (Edited 1d 23h ago )

If they ended up kicking people out after all of that stated above, it would be truly shameful.

DivineHand1251d 19h ago

Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Tesla and Meta are all trillion dollar companies yet they are laying people off in large numbers.

I believe the reason Nintendo layoffs off less workers may be a result of their culture. It seems Japanese companies believe in giving their workers long term or life long employment opportunities and will exhaust all options before laying off workers. This is something we don't see much of in the west unfortunately.

Rdeal1d 13h ago

might be something to do with the fact all those companies hire more than 20x the employees than Nintendo

LoveSpuds1d 19h ago (Edited 1d 19h ago )

What the hell are you talking about? It has nothing to do with how profitable they are. Its completely cultural, MS and Sony make stacks of cash and still lay folks off. Nintendo chose not to lay off staff for the same reason their execs took pay cuts to increase staff pay instead; because they value their staff and view them as colleagues, and respect them as such.

If Sony weren't so US centric I fancy they'd fare better too, they should get shot of US and European leadership and go back to when Japanese execs were running the show if you ask me!

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300°

Looming Xbox layoffs threaten Microsoft's reputation

Even as the company sets out to overhaul the very definition of Xbox, cuts at its studios risk creating a negative image reminiscent of EA's worst era

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gamesindustry.biz
Jingsing3d ago (Edited 3d ago )

I appreciate the article but this guy must be living in a delayed universe, The reputation was ruined 10+ years ago and hasn't recovered since. As such people have voted with their wallets and stopped buying Xbox products in large amounts.

YourMommySpoils2d ago

Their reputation was lost way before that. From the moment Microsoft said they entering the console business, we all knew it would be a downgrade.

Bathyj1d 21h ago (Edited 1d 21h ago )

That's not true at all the OG Xbox had drive and they had hunger and they wanted to accomplish something. It was a great console.

they didn't quite reach their goals and they gave up prematurely because they couldn't win. It was halfway through the Xbox 360 when kinect released and that was when they lost their way and we're a rudderless ship ever since

Agent751d 18h ago

In all fairness, Xbox had some great games with online play, Xbox 360 even better. Xbox consoles started to die with the Xbox One. Ditch consoles for the PC and PS.

YourMommySpoils1d 10h ago

@Bathyj hard to compute ay. Xbox was never better than a PC and that's all they ever were. A demo box. Doesn't get more true than that.

3d ago Replies(1)
isarai3d ago

What reputation is this threatening exactly? 😂

Lightning773d ago

Rumors of Turn 10 being either shut down or hit with massive lay offs is on the horizon.

The issue is MS will do something right only to do something very, very wrong. And they do this what seems calculative at this point. Doesn't matter what they do the Investors and leadership want more and more money an endless bottomless pit of purr insatiable greed. A company that acts like it's broke or hurting is what really, really infuriates me. They've surpassed apple again well over 3 trillion who acts like they're a million dollar company is fk stupid. Pivots and changes for no reason and can't do things for more than a year with out a pivot or changing their metrics.

Christopher2d ago

That would be really bad since Phil just hyped up next year as a big Forza year at Summer Game Fest.

1Victor2d ago

@christopher: “ That would be really bad since Phil just hyped up next year as a big Forza year at Summer Game Fest”
The key word big can be ether good or bad 🤷🏿only time can tell

DarXyde2d ago

First Forza being generated entirely via AI?

If any company would do it, it'd be them.

Nacho_Z2d ago

Isn't the point that it's irrelevant how profitable MS is, the suits have decided it's time that the Xbox division started making them money. Hence the layoffs, the pivots.

hennessey861d 21h ago

That wouldn't surprise me, as motorsport has been heading down hill since the great number 4. Where as playground have consistently put out better games. I think the two studios will be merged under playground games banner.

2d ago Replies(2)
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