Following in the wake of Game Informer’s armchair survey earlier in the year – which found that 54.2% of American Xbox 360s had broken down – CNET have done a similar study for the British market. With similar results.
1,128 gamers were polled (note: it was a self-selected survey, not a blind study), with 562 owning an Xbox 360, 473 having a PS3 and 591 a Wii. Obviously, some respondents owned more than one console.
The results found that a crushing 60% of 360s had died, while only 16% of PS3s and 6% of Wiis had suffered the same fate. Even worse was the rate of repeat failre: of those who have reported a busted console, 32% say it’s happened more than once, with 19% saying it’s broken three times or more.
Count me in the latter camp; I’ve had two red-ringed consoles, and recently got back from my honeymoon to find my third 360′s power brick had simply ceased to function, despite the console not being turned on.
Being a self-selected survey, it’s likely the actual numbers across the board would be lower, but still; a little less than awful is still awful.
CNET UK’s games console reliability survey: 60 per cent of Xbox 360s have broken [CNET]
Steven Hayes
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 11:36 PMHad my xbox for 13 months, No problemo’s at all. And I play A LOT.
But my cousin has had 3 red rings in 6months.
Plus ive had numerous RL and Virtua friends who have suffered this fate at elast once within there first 6months.
We are Australians btw. And frankly I’d love to read or find out our console death-tistics
plmko
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 11:47 PMBut of course “the watchdog” on BBC feels that 180 complaints of supposedly bricked PS3 is more of a pandemic.
Taylor
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 11:50 PMSelf selected surveys are the most unreliable surveys there are. People choose to do them when they have something to complain about.
Chances are these results extremely inflated and not representative.
(and this is coming from a majority PS3 player)
Gordon Mackenzie
Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 12:14 AMWhen i brought my Xbox 360 i got the red ring straight out of the box, exchanged it for another one at the store, that one’s broken 3 times in aprox two years. Great consol, just wish there were less lemons.
Shuvo Minhaj
Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 12:39 AMTo be honest, i am really sick of RROD and crap people who say my xbox broken down 3 times or more. That may true but maybe they are PS3 fanboys. I bought my Xbox 360 in 2006 and the graphic card was stuffed up just ONCE. Once it repaired from Microsoft, it is very fine since then for 3 years.
I am really sure that Microsoft will learn from mistakes and RODD won’t happen again for the next generation of Xbox.
MattR
Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 5:47 AMMS not doing it again? Calling BS on this one. Any sound quality program would have picked the hardware issues up during the manufacturing process and im betting it did. Im not being conspiratory, but business need had seen it put out anyway. They knew they could get away with it and they have. The stories should not stop.
Richard Jones
Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 10:43 AMMicrosoft’s shoddy engineering is the fault of Sony fanboys? Interesting.
Kerber
Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 8:46 AMI can’t understand why people keep going back to it. If my fridge, car, toaster, TV, broke on me 3-4 times. That company doesn’t know how to make that product. So I’d stop supporting them. But wait if the failure rate of a fridge, car, toaster, TV is 60% then the product gets a recall, and the consumer gets a refund.
Jo
Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 10:21 AMTrue, the problem is while you can easily go buy a different brand fridge you can’t play Halo on a Wii.
Mr Waffle
Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 10:22 AMBecause when people spend thousands of dollars on a certain type of bread that only works with this brand toaster, you kind of want to not throw away your investment.
AussieSniper
Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 2:33 PMAlso MS has been improving the 360 over the years. The 360 that red ringed on me around X-Mas 2006, (after only 6 months of play) had different components than the one I’ve been playing just fine since mid 2008.
Daniel
Friday, November 20, 2009 at 11:33 PMLike mr waffle said, It’s not as simple as getting a new console – seeing you’ll have to start fresh with games for it.
I have about 15 games for my xbox 360, so there is no way i am going to re-invest mid generation.
Watch the sales figures for the next xbox and playstation – That’s when gamers are going to make the switch, not now!
Captain Cuddles
Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 10:29 AMYou don’t have to be a PS3 fanboy to complain. If you spend alot of money on a product that fails time after time, you have the right to be upset. I like both my PS3 and 360, but I’m on my third 360 now and it seems to be worse than the others. It sounds like a rusty chainsaw is sitting on my coffee table everytime I turn it on.
glennc
Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 2:46 PMwhen can we expect the next report… next month. who’s turn is it now to do a report on RROD just in case there is one person in the world who hasn’t heard about it.
AndyN
Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 11:05 PMLOL, and the console kiddies say that PC gaming is so expensive HAHAHAHA