Xbox 360 Failure Rate is 54.2 Percent, Game Informer Finds

consumerist.com writes:

"The Xbox 360 breaks five times as often as often as its closest failure-prone competitor, the PlayStation 3, a print edition-only Game Informer survey found.

The poorly manufactured, red ring of death-prone console has a 54.2 percent failure rate, compared to 10.6 percent for the PS3 and the Wii's 6.8 percent.

The magazine surveyed nearly 5,000 readers to get the data. And while the 360's rate is alarmingly higher than the others, it's still bafflingly low because it blows the mind to imagine that 45.8 percent of the consoles have not broken. Also, Microsoft's numbers are inflated because 360s are used the most of the three consoles. Results said 40.3 percent of 360 owners use the console three to five hours a day, compared to 37 percent of PS3 owners. Meanwhile, the plurality of Wii owners (41.4 percent) play their consoles less than an hour a day.

Microsoft also seized the gold medal for unhelpful customer service, taking nearly a month to repair or replace a console, while Nintendo and Sony stuck closer to a week. Only 37.7 percent of Microsoft customers found the company's customer service was "very helpful," compared to 51.1 percent fo Sony and 56.1 percent for Nintendo.

The most shocking number from the survey - and frightening from a consumer perspective - is only 3.8 percent of Xbox 360 owners said they'd never buy another Xbox because of hardware failure."

[Genesis5]

Damage control on the way.

Edit:

@ Nitro below. Yeah I'm having a hard time with those numbers too. Who ran the survey for GI? Nintendo.

@ Ultimolu. It's one of the reasons I have gone with PC and PS3 gaming this gen.

[ultimolu]

...I reckon so.

*prepares for doctor's appointment and runs off*

This is WHY I don't own a 360!

[Parapraxis]

Genesis5 , this isn't the first survey or study that has had numbers like this.

[Horny]

my friends RROD'd 3 times, hes now buying a new arcade. I never had a problem with mine so far, but I do occasionally hear weird noises.

[Nitrowolf2]

@dee
my buddy rrod 3 times as well. I laugh at him and tell him why do you continue to send it in. He doesn't give me a very good answer after that.

[Silellak]

The reason people keep replacing their 360 rather than giving up in disgust and just buying a PS3 is simple. The thing is, by the time you own a 360 long it enough for it to break down, you probably have at least a few games. You get it repaired, you get a few more games, and maybe it breaks down a second time.

At this point, you're pissed. You're ready to switch consoles. Except...you already own a decent library of 360 titles. Do you really want to make all of those games worthless by replacing a 360 with a PS3? You might get a PS3 in ADDITION to a 360, sure, but switching companies is a much less tempting option when you've already built up collection of games for a particular platform.

Not to mention you've already built up a collection of online friends to play with, who may or may not have PS3s.

[Horny]

He had a model with no HDMI input which were the earlier ones. I waited until later to get a 360, I was just going to play exclusives but then my PS3 broke, now I do all my gaming on the 360. I think ill get my ps3 fixed this month, its been since January since I played it.
Both systems have their faults.

[StanLee]

Man, do I feel lucky. Almost 2 years and not one problem with my XBox 360. *knocks on wood*. Yet my friend had his for 4 months and has had it repaired or replaced twice.

[sunil]

I am confused...

Isint the acceptable failure rate in electronics (close to) 3%?

With PS3 and 10.6% and Wii at 6.8%, arent both the systems over the limit?

Interesting how Sony and Nintendo dont get blamed for bad quality hardware !

PS: How can anyone purchase the 360 knowing there is a 50%+ change of it failing?

[Cupid_Viper_3]

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/...

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/...

Plus money for LIVE, You guys should at least put a petition that says that once your console break more than once, LIVE is automatically Free for a year.

Unacceptable.

[callahan09]

Well, I have no qualms believing these numbers. Every single one of my personal friends has had their 360 replaced at least once. But I know it isn't every single Xbox 360 that breaks. My first one broke 2 times and got replaced 2 times. Neither one of my breaks were RROD, though, both times it was a red & black checkerboard pattern on the TV and I couldn't do anything. In September 2007, it did it a third time, and MS refused to fix it without charging me because they said they were only covering RROD errors with the extended warranty at that point. So rather than pay money just to fix a system that I figured would break again, I bought a new one. The new one has not broken. Maybe I should say "yet". But nearly two years is pretty good considering I had 3 breaks within the first year of my original (I got my original in September 2006).

[Chubear]

lol but to be honest, this article is not accurate at all seeing as they surveyed their readers and not actual hard line prove like consumer data companies do.

Watch dog groups across EU & NA now have the 360 failure rate at btw 18-30% depending on what is termed as a hardware failure for certain regions.

Generally, the accepted failure rate for electronic WW is roughly 5% which Nintendo and Sony are both well below.

[InfectedDK]

"I love extremely high failure rates and the PS3 is doomed... Gran Turismo 5 sucks and Sony is leaving the console market"

[JokesOnYou]

Its 54% of their readers who have had a RROD before, right?

How does that make the current failure rate 54%? I like to see reports with data that shows the LTD failure rate vs failure rate after the falcon and jasper models, to see what percentage decrease there was. Lets be honest there are alot of fanboys on both sides subscribe to mags, I don't know too many avg gamers who buy mags these days. Also wouldn't it be obvious that most subscribers of a gaming mag like GameInformer are avid gamers who brought a launch 360, which of course were the most failure prone?

This survey puts ps3 failure rate at a little over 10% which is higher than I've ever seen reported, but again its from 5000 readers of GameInformer mag so who knows how accurate it is, both sound inflated.

On a positive note, I don't think its too "shocking" that only very few people would never buy a 360 again because of hardware failure, they brought ps2's after its problems, and despite what n4g tells you a 3 yr warranty goes a long way, "proof is in the pudding"= when you don't have to pay and there's great games to be played and great services to be had from a "consumer perspective" its still well worth the money= continues to sell and even those who've had a failure still would buy another one.

JOY

[Poopface the 2nd]

I did have one 360 break after I sold it to my friend, but my newer one seems better. 50% seems high, as does the 10% and 7%. If it was a survey on a gaming site(think of N4G survey), I doubt people would be honest.

I know 360 breaks alot more than the other systems, but all these numbers seem high.

Heres something funny I saw on tv about videogames yesterday

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[v1c1ous]

to justify NOT owning one.

microsoft F'ed up big time. the RROD will haunt them forever. they lucked out in being so rabid in obtaining enough content for their console that fans "semi-forgive" them.

it's sad in another way because, i honestly think the RROD issue is what's keeping the 360 from its full potential.

imagine if the RROD issue wasn't as rampant as it was. if it wasn't such a staple of sony fanboys ammo against 360 ("lol hurr durr that's why i dont buy one, even though its free to replace unlike PS3s"). maybe wii would have actually had a contender :/

[mint royale]

please, no one use these numbers for silly little arguments. i think all 3 are inflated numbers and a 'survey' by a website does not tell me much. Are they reputable? Who did they ask? Did they get an accurate spread of gamers and non gamers who own the consoles to get more accurate results etc etc. Judging from how high these numbers are I would say no.

[Parapraxis]

mint royale ....the survey isn't from a website.
"The magazine surveyed nearly 5,000 readers to get the data."
are you just illiterate?

EDIT: Sure, GameInformer has a website..no sh!t sherlock, however THIS particular survey was done through the magazine, which would require people to send in their surveys they filled out.

And anybody who understands customer service or product satisfaction surveys already knows that the people more likely to fill out a survey and mail it back in are people who have HAD problems.

People who are content with their service/products are much less likely to fill out and mail back the form.

This is a KNOWN fact, and an EASY explanation of why the numbers seem inflated, as you say. People who fill out the survey are motivated by their frustration.

http://www.retailcustomerex...
http://www.envirosell.com/i...

[pixelsword]

If I remember correctly, the guy who wrote the book about the 360's failing in the first place placed the failure rate close to 70%

http://74.125.95.132/search...

and when EA ran a beta test for their servers had a failure rate of 30-50% after Microsoft claimed a 5-6% failure rate

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/f...

so it *could* be true.

But it also could be true that people are buffering up the numbers... except that the people taking the poll could also be inflating numbers on the PS3 side too... and you have to take into account that the PS3's recorded failure rate have historically been lower than this poll's number, but you never know.

[mint royale]

Gameinformer isn't a website? Oh you learn something new everyday!

[II Necroplasm II]

Good thing I only play my 360 like an hour a day these days.

I bought a new Falcon 360 like in January I believe and sold my older one, but still I'm also trying to keep it healthy, not playing it too much and using it for a coaster instead.

[UnwanteDreamz]

I see alot of "gamers" here talking about 360 just being so dam*ed good that failure does not matter. You say there is no excuse for not owning one?

How about the fact that everyone I know personally who bought a 360 has had it replaced. I am sure there are more than a few with their first 360 still running but I don't like the odds.

Then we got those saying that it's free to replace so why not get one. I bought a gaming system to play video games on. Why would I spend my hard earned money on something I am just going to have to send back?

All I can say to you "gamers" is, thanks alot. Maybe the rest of the industry will take note to the fact that you are ingnorant consumers who will accept being bent over the couch without so much as a thank you afterwards. Maybe now we can all expect similar shotty hardware in the future. Hell MS did it and they are "beating" the PS3.

The fact that the failure rate is so high and they still sell is not a testament to how great the 360 is. Ever here this one?

A fool and his money are soon parted.

[Christopher]

If you're reviewing your typical readers, who are also typical fanboys mixed in with normal gamers, then these numbers are definitely bloated for the 360 and PS3. This is the first I've heard of such a high failure rate for the PS3, honestly. And, I'm sure the failure rate for the 360 is down to at least 25% with the Jasper chipset.

[Nineball2112]

Look, I have no doubt that the Xbox 360 has a significantly higher failure rate than either the PS3 or the Wii.

However, I think I'll take these results with a grain of salt for ALL three consoles.

Unless there is a survey done by a reputable firm who is in the business of polling / surverys, then I'll tend to be a bit skeptical about the numbers.

Does anyone really doubt that people would lie about their experiences because of all of this "console war" stuff? And that goes for ALL sides...