Defining A Generation - Red Ring of Death

Looking back at the 360/PS3 generation, there are a great many things that stand out as definitive. There were PR drives and overhyped campaigns; there were all-time great games and titles that should never have been released. But when it comes down to it, really, there’s one issue that really, truly defined the whole console generation:

The Red Ring of Death.

[mandf]

Games defined last gen.

Mass Effects
LittleBigPlanets
God of war 3
Dead Spaces
Uncharteds
The Last of Us
Halos
Resistances
Mario Galaxies
Fallout 3
Demon Souls
Dark Souls
Gears of Wars
Heavy Rain
Dragon Dogma
Metal Geal 4
Bioshocks
Journey
Flower
Braid
Call of Duties
Battlefields
Zeldas
Pixeljunk Monsters

and countless other games is how I will remember this gen. Not Nintendo, Sony or Ms and the mistakes they made.

The journalist who wrote this is the problem with gaming today. I don't like MS but this article is garbage. I just played a generation of games and this is what I'll remember. Games. Like the site I guess they played zero games.

[Foehammer]

100% agree, but it appeals to the trolls that rush to approve it on this site

One could easily argue that having ones personal information stolen, and your online play halted during the PSN hack is a defining moment for the generation and the trust ppl but in Sony's security

[mandf]

No info was ever stolen from Sony. It was never proven or verified and to me is still considered fanboy war garbage. Show me a judges ruling were Sony was responsible for loss of personal info.

[Foehammer]

@mandf

http://ca.ign.com/articles/...

Companies don't pay $15,000,000 for nothing.

Are you suggesting that Sony took down their own network for almost a month for nothing?

[mandf]

not one psn user has had there card info used because of this. facebook, gmail, steam, google, activision, ea, and the pentagon have all been hacked in the last 6 months and had the exact same info stolen. my credit card wasn't stolen no harm no foul. hacking unfortunately is part of the times today. when these amateurs get real info let me know im done on that subject. i want to hear what others thought defined last gen.

[OOMagnum]

I would be done with the subject too if someone destroyed me with facts. Lol you people are to funny.

[mandf]

oomagnum read his article the ruling was not final. show us the final article. grasping at straws. wheres the rulings on all the data breaches of major corporations. it was not a major breach. this subject is stupid. gaming is about games not some media fanboy war using us as their pawns.

[Maddens Raiders]

RROD, Blu Ray, Gears, the surprising Wii, GTA tattoos on biceps, and Naughty Gods defined last generation. And KILLZONE 2 aaaaaaggghhh! lol

[URNightmare]

PSN was never hacked, when suspicious activity was detected, Sony shut down the network to prevent any info stolen. After that they rebuilt the network completely which took them only a month.

The $15mil was because the users data was COMPROMISED but no data info was ever stolen. $15mil in free games and services to PSN users btw ;)

[OOMagnum]

Sure because Sony would offer 15 million, while they are hemorhaging money because nothing happened. And yes peoples account were being charged on psn because of the attack, but I guess those were gitches /s. A simple search would show you your wrong. Grasping at straws...more like your grasping that SDF badge and before you label me a fanboy my psn is Fragking28. Your probably one of the fools who believe Zimmerman is innocent because the Justice system acquitted him.

[darthv72]

i dont particularly look at a system for its faults. i look at it for what it does right. if i were to pick out a few faults then i would say...

the PS1 (had to flip mine over to play because it kept failing due to poor design on sony's part).

the PS2 had the laser go out on it and it cost me some $$ to send it back to sony to be repaired.

The wii had the sound stop working so it cost me some $$ to send back to nintendo to fix.

The 360 got the RROD but was covered under warranty and didnt cost me anything other than time not playing.

the gamegear for the screen going dead due to bad capacitors (have yet to get that fixed).

So despite all of those examples of problems it never turned me off from playing the games that defined each one of those platforms. I am not that shallow of a gamer to hold a grudge for things that go wrong.

how quickly they get resolved says more about things than the problem itself. it sucks i had to pay to get certain things fixed but they were fixed and i was back to playing the games.

[mandf]

oomagnum first name calling is juvenile and uncalled for in a discussion . second revisionist history is foolish. let me educate you. a usb key for the hypervisor was stolen from a refurb center in texas. it was put online to a select few and taken down. geohotz took the key and put it over the whole net. having said key to the kingdom is not a hack. its the key. do you understand that? during this time anonymous group took the key and attacked psn sore and were successful in getting free games. meanwhile sony is watching this unfold. once anonymous tried to hit information servers sony took the network down. they enlisted the fbi and went after anonymous and arrested them all. no data dumps were found. now anonymous could see the information while they were in but for the short they where in its unlikely they had time to copy everything. what they had no access to is credit cards. sony rebuilt the whole entire network in less than a month. put it back up gave us free games and apologized. to make this bigger than it is or was is childish . everything i wrote is documented in a public files accessable to you. sorry for this in the way i did. the psn browser sucks for paragraphs.

[XBLSkull]

I bought the PS3 for SOCOM 4. Needless to say after I bought the system and game then PSN went down for a month, well it kinda left a bad taste in my mouth. For me this meant PS3 = fail. Period. There is no recovery from buying a system for a game then not being able to play it. It also says something that even though Xbox had the widespread RRoD issue, users would just continue to replace that console if needed because it was still a better option then buying a PS3.

You can define the generation by saying "Xbox 360." The console had the best console cycle that has ever come, so many incredible games, all in one place. You can argue the PS2 was better, but I bought 5x as many games on my 360 as I ever did on PS2. Attach rate says it all.

http://www.vgchartz.com/ana...

[OOMagnum]

Read your original statement then search wiki where it clearly states that Sony had to get 2,500 Psn users PERSONAL info removed from websites. Furthermore peoples credit cards where being charged. That happened to people who had their cards saved on their profiles and when their account got hacked they charged it. I never said they got the cc numbers , I said the account got charged. Everything I said here is fact #Dealwithit. Btw I know personally cause 2 of my clan mates in Socom Confrontation had this happen to them so educate yourself idiot. Same to all who disagreed.

[InTheLab]

Online was down for 2 1/2 weeks and the store was down for a month. After the store opened, we all got free games. At E3, all of Sony bowed their heads and apologized for a month of trouble.

There were several reports of fraud which were all determined to be from other companies. All of the data stolen was old and Sony settled for $15m for PR purposes like all companies do. Every company has some sort of litigation going on at any given time.

So two weeks of no online and a change of password is somehow worse than the RRoD which crippled your console for months at best and cost you another $350 if you were out of warranty at worst. The RRoD went on for YEARS and cost mS BILLIONS. And they never bothered to even acknowledge the issue for 3 years.

Some of you people here are ridiculous. Especially the guy that claimed he bought Socom 4 as if he owns any PS platforms. Why else would anyone that owned a PS3 tell you or imply that online was down for a month?

[Spotie]

@trollhammer: Guess we shouldn't trust anybody's security, since Target, Home Depot, and... well, anybody with online services has been hacked.

And sorry, but an attack by an outside force is nothing like intentionally selling the most defective product in electronics history.

@OOMagnum: If that's what you call a fact, I can't wait to see what you consider an opinion.

Thing is, lots of companies settle out of court for millions, even while maintaining they did nothing wrong. Sometimes, it's just simpler all around- from PR to legal fees to potential stoppage of product sales- to pay out some money and keep things moving. But you knew that, right?

@darth: Normally, I might be inclined to agree with you. But not when the problem is so widespread, and the company fielding the product vehemently denies that there IS a problem.

Oh, and there's the fact that you seem incapable of seeing ANYTHING wrong with Microsoft.

@XBLSkull: GET OUT. You pretend to own a Vita, a PS4, and now a PS3. It's all bull, and you're not fooling anyone. The only thing I can't understand is why more accounts like yours that are made solely for trolling aren't banned.

[darthv72]

@spottie, ofh there are things wrong with MS. no doubt. Same as there are things wrong with sony, and sega and nintendo...etc.

The difference between a person like me and the average gamer is i can separate the two entities (parent company from platform).

I may not agree with the policies or decision that the parent company makes but i dont let them stop me from enjoying this hobby. there is always another game to play to fill a void.

[DigitalRaptor]

@ XBLSkull

You're so full of crap.

"There is no recovery from buying a system for a game then not being able to play it."

There's no recovery from buying a console from a company that continues to deny any RROD issues for years until a lawsuit comes their way, because they only react to their consumers when the rug has been pulled from under them. There is no recovery from building a multimedia box that ALSO plays games, with a wide array of anti-consumer practices behind its very conception.
---

"It also says something that even though Xbox had the widespread RRoD issue, users would just continue to replace that console if needed because it was still a better option then buying a PS3."

It's called being too invested to move elsewhere. PS3 was still considered expensive, and 360 was vastly cheaper than it for almost an entire generation. Had both consoles launched simultaneously, rather than a year apart, the PS3 would have been the better option from day one rather than have it catch up on the 360's almost 10 million unit lead.
---

"You can define the generation by saying "Xbox 360." The console had the best console cycle that has ever come, so many incredible games, all in one place."

"You can argue the PS2 was better, but I bought 5x as many games on my 360 as I ever did on PS2. Attach rate says it all."

That link does nothing for the favour of your argument. What is shows is that Microsoft sold more units for having released a year earlier than the PS3. It's a shame that you are basing your generation's win on attach ratio and games sales, when PS4 is leading in both of these departments and always will.

Only, you'll never admit. You'll only attempt to spread your biased opinion as fact and hope others agree with you. PS3 had more award-winning and acclaimed exclusive games than the 360 did. Just because you're a dudebro online gamer doesn't mean the PS3 was a "fail" because it was unplayable online for a month, out of the 8 years it has been on the market, continuing to get exclusive games, whilst Microsoft makes a shallow effort.

[CloudRap]

xbox one could have been smaller than a ps4 but paranoia over the red ring coupled with hardware desing incompetency resulted in the big box we have now.

[zero_gamer]

Games off the beaten path that I remember last gen for:
Disgaeas
Hyperdimension Neptunias
Ateliers
3D Dot Game Heroes
The Guided Fate Paradox
Fairy Fencer (imported from Japan and loved this game)

The hardware problem was a HUGE issue. MS got sued, fixed the problem progressively through multiple hardware revisions, and (hopefully) designed a successor where RRoD, or an equivalent, shouldn't be an issue. No need to keep beating on a dead horse.

[bmf7364]

Hate it or love it, Call of Duty 4 did set a standard for the FPS genre and Call of Duty in general. Battlefield didn't truly break ground in the media/market until later with Battlefield 3.

Don't get me wrong, I fucking love Battlefield. Bad-Company 2 and BF3 will always be up there for me, and I can't wait for what DICE has in store next. (Battlefront 3)

[MRMagoo123]

Call of duty 4 will probably be a lasting memory for a huge portion of gamers, it was one of my top 10 of all time games.

[ArtificiallyYours]

Pointless article.

[BitbyDeath]

I'll remember it as Warhawk,
Warhawk, Warhawk and more Warhawk.

[GundalfDeGrej]

The games of 2007 will be how I'll remember last gen. So many amazing great franchises started that year it's crazy.

[Gore-Content]

Yes, a very prominent feature only an xbox console could provide that defined gaming during last gen.

[Illusive_Man]

YLOD was real and probably just as bad as RROD.

[G20WLY]

It was real, yes - but not even close to as bad.

[ziggurcat]

yes, it was a real thing, but it was not even close. nice try, though.

[InTheLab]

Math disagrees with you. RRoD had affect almost all early models to the tune of an estimated 30-40 million units affected.

The PS3's failure rate was well under acceptable numbers for any electronic device. It wasn't even close and if it was as you claim, there would be no PS4 as Sony couldn't afford to shell out Billions replacing units like MS.

[Revengeance]

The fact that you had to use the word "probably" shows you have no idea what the rate was for YLOD.

RROD rate was close to 30%
YLOD rate was no more than 5%.

Do some research instead of making baseless claims.

[Foehammer]

10% for PS3

23.7% for 360 prior to 2008, then less than 1%

Note that not all failures are reported to the warranty company for either console.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits...

[DigitalRaptor]

I've noticed a shocking trend in Xbox fanboys this generation.

They'll do ANYTHING to try and scrub away history and make Sony look as bad as Microsoft in ANY instant, regardless of whether it's true or not, just because their beloved company are reaping what they sow. The goddamn worst liars of any fanboy faction for any console, ever.

They say that multiplats differences are insignificant, whilst boasting about SMALLER differences last-gen.

They make light of things happening to Microsoft this gen that they mocked Sony and PS3 fans about last gen.

They provide themselves the delusion that Xbone can catch up to a stronger global PlayStation brand, that proved its strength last gen when it caught up the 360's year lead whilst juggling issues of its own, whilst Xbone cannot catch up, whilst launching simultaneously to PS4 and having its own problems that those BILLIONS OF DOLLARS that poor Sony doesn't have, can't fix.

They lie about PS4 being an "indiestation" when it has more of both AAA, MMOs, free-to-play and indie games than Xbone actually does. More diversity and choice from every category. Whilst Phil Spencer makes choices to support more indies, the Xbone eventually ends up with just as many indies as AAA games, and the corporation they cheerlead buys and INDIE dev for $2.5 billion. Hypocrisy at its sweetest.

They lie about the YLOD being anywhere close to the severity of RROD.

They even lie about what this site was like back in the early days of PS3/360/Wii.

[zero_gamer]

Really, is this all you have to offer for today? Slow day at WordPress #8,290,176 much?

[ainTgoTTime2bleed]

''Microsoft 360's RROD 1 billion recall worst in the history of electronics'' ...yikes....

[MasterCornholio]

In no way did it defined the generation however it was a colossial screw up by Microsoft. Thankfully it didn't repeat again with the Xbox One which is the most important thing now.