Xbox 360 Failure Rate Reaches 54%

[StrainedEyes]

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/101/1014486p1.html

August 17, 2009 - If your Xbox 360 hasn't broken down yet or suffered from the dreaded red ring of death, then consider yourself pretty lucky.

A new survey published in Game Informer's print edition indicates the Xbox 360 failure rate has climbed to a shocking 54.2%. The magazine surveyed nearly 5000 readers, asking them about their experience dealing with broken consoles.

Here are their findings:

Console failure rate

Xbox 360 – 54.2%
Playstation 3 – 10.6%
Wii – 6.8%

Percentage of console owners who suffered a second hardware failure after the original repair.

Xbox 360 – 41.2%
Playstation 3 – 14.7%
Wii – 11%

Percentage of people who rate their customer service experience "very helpful"

Nintendo – 56.1%
Sony – 51.1%
Microsoft – 37.7%

Percentage of respondents whose friends have had console hardware failures.

Xbox 360 – 69.9%
Playstation 3 – 12.4%
Wii – 6%

The magazine also makes a few notes about their results:

The reason the Wii has the lowest hardware failure rate could be because console is played the least of the three. 41.4% of Wii owners surveyed said they play the console less than one hour a day, meanwhile the majority of Xbox 360 (40.3%) and Playstation 3 (37%) owners say they play their console on an average of three to five hours day.

Also, only 3.8% of respondents said they'd never buy another Xbox system because of the failure rates.

It's a little crazy that these problems aren't being fixed.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

I say the problem is closer to like 90%.

I dont know anyone who hasnt had the RRoD.

Thank God MS cuts u a break and covers the RRoD. My buddies PS3 crapped out after the last update and Sony wants 150 bux for repairs.

 

[Dark_Lord]

I haven't and neither has my brother. His is an Elite (he got it a couple of months after the Elite launched) and mine is a launch Premium. I got it the first day they were available here in Greece.

 

[Raiden]

Although I like my 360 very much, if I had to do it all over again I'll probably pick a PS3 instead; RROD is like a dark cloud that hangs over every 360 owner, threatening to strike any minute, and that is way too much of a burden to bear.

 

[SuperAl]

im not surprised, my bro and my friends rrod within 3 days of eachother. 2nd time it happened to my bro. Thing that makes it even worse is that you gotta wait over a month to get it back. i thought about gettin a 360 for gears 2 but i dont wanna deal with the failure rates

 

[Superhero 101]

Well my cousin experienced it twice and the second time my cousin got RROD he called up Microsoft and gave them a yelling. It was really funny because my cousin threatened them that my cousin was so disappointed that he would buy a Ps3 so Microsoft fixed the 360 and gave him a extra controller and three months of live.

 

[StrainedEyes]

im not surprised, my bro and my friends rrod within 3 days of eachother. 2nd time it happened to my bro. Thing that makes it even worse is that you gotta wait over a month to get it back. i thought about gettin a 360 for gears 2 but i dont wanna deal with the failure rates

Mine took 2 weeks to get back to me.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

Mine took 2 weeks to get back to me.

So did mine, and that was in the middle of Christmas break.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

Although I like my 360 very much, if I had to do it all over again I'll probably pick a PS3 instead; RROD is like a dark cloud that hangs over every 360 owner, threatening to strike any minute, and that is way too much of a burden to bear.

Yea i remember having that discussion with you, i still dont know why u went with the 360. Every time you talked about it u listed nothing but negatives about the 360. I was really surprised when u decided to go with the 360.

The RRoD is, at most, an inconvenience. U are without a console for 2-4 weeks. If its that big of a problem for someone, they actually have other problems to worry about.

 

[Havok83]

54%? I thought that number dropped down to about 16% last I heard

 

[KevanG]

The lazer in mine died a few weeks ago (I think anyway, it's not reading any disks put into it), the warranty expired and I'm not sure how to fix it... any help?

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

What's it saying when you put a disc in?

Is it "Open Tray" message as if nothing was there?


Anyway I was getting the rrod just recently and pretty badly too. I did the penny trick and its been working pretty well for the last month and a half without a problem.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

54%? I thought that number dropped down to about 16% last I heard

Haha yea i never bought that. No way in hell this problem was at only 16%

 

[Raiden]

Yea i remember having that discussion with you, i still dont know why u went with the 360. Every time you talked about it u listed nothing but negatives about the 360. I was really surprised when u decided to go with the 360.

The RRoD is, at most, an inconvenience. U are without a console for 2-4 weeks. If its that big of a problem for someone, they actually have other problems to worry about.

As I said, my reason was because two of my friends told me they'd get 360, and I wanted to play Live with them. Well, after I brought my 360, both then told me that due to a myriad of reasons, they will not be buying it after all. I do blame myself for not waiting a bit longer and make sure my friends would buy theirs before I purchase mine, though. I still like my 360, but the downsides for this console included having to buy Gold membership to play online, wireless adapter is not included, and of course RROD (and later E74).

 

[Spider-Vader]

I say the problem is closer to like 90%.

I dont know anyone who hasnt had the RRoD.

Thank God MS cuts u a break and covers the RRoD. My buddies PS3 crapped out after the last update and Sony wants 150 bux for repairs.

I haven't. I've had mine since Christmas 2007.

The only problem I've had was my Disc Tray got randomly jammed, but I fixed that with a paper clip.

 

[KALEL114]

I'm not saying the fail rate is lower, but the fact that they polled 5000 of their readers is a red flag to me. I mean 5000 readers, who may or may not be telling the truth mind you, is a very, very, very small percentage of the user base. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Grommers]

I've never had a red ring knock on wood, had it for 3 years now.

 

[SuperAl]

Mine took 2 weeks to get back to me.

hmm maybe they improved the customer service. This happened a long time ago. Looks like they sped up the process. When it happend to my bro it took nearly the entire summer to get it back.

grommer that would honestly make me even more nervous cuz now your outta the 3yr warranty thing. hopefully it wont happen to urs, but that would suck if it went rrod after ur warranty expired.

 

[Fading]

...but the fact that they polled 5000 of their readers is a red flag to me.

I'd agree with 5000 being too low a number to be 100% accurate, but Game Informer is a pretty big mag, and I don't think they'd print something that would burn their rep with MS if they weren't atleast semi confident. Plus, most rumors say MS burned thru the billion they set back awhile back and show no signs of slowing down. So if they've already gone thru 1+ billion $$ on RROD, they must have had to repair a LOT of 360's.

Just finally read the article myself a few mins ago as I finally got around to reading this months GI. It said a 54% failure rate, something like a 41% of repaired units failed again, only 30% or so found the tech support useful, most took a month to get their console back, and only 3.8% said they'd never buy another 360.

I'm not sure these findings would keep most customers away. However I'm sure MS is going to be extremely cautious about their hardware on the next console.

 

[amazingfantasy15]

hmm maybe they improved the customer service. This happened a long time ago. Looks like they sped up the process. When it happend to my bro it took nearly the entire summer to get it back.

grommer that would honestly make me even more nervous cuz now your outta the 3yr warranty thing. hopefully it wont happen to urs, but that would suck if it went rrod after ur warranty expired.

I've had three RRoD and every time it took less than two weeks for me to get my 360 back. The latest time, this summer, it actually only took a week and a half.

 

[KALEL114]

I'd agree with 5000 being too low a number to be 100% accurate, but Game Informer is a pretty big mag, and I don't think they'd print something that would burn their rep with MS if they weren't atleast semi confident. Plus, most rumors say MS burned thru the billion they set back awhile back and show no signs of slowing down. So if they've already gone thru 1+ billion $$ on RROD, they must have had to repair a LOT of 360's.

Just finally read the article myself a few mins ago as I finally got around to reading this months GI. It said a 54% failure rate, something like a 41% of repaired units failed again, only 30% or so found the tech support useful, most took a month to get their console back, and only 3.8% said they'd never buy another 360.

I'm not sure these findings would keep most customers away. However I'm sure MS is going to be extremely cautious about their hardware on the next console.

Not be 100% accurate is an understatement. We are talking 5000 people out of 31 million. Plus, like I said, how does GI know the people polled were completely honest? How do they know what systems people own, besides taking their word for it? Listen, I know the number is high due to the money MS has spent, but people out there are taking this number and acting as if it is 100% accurate. Not you of course, but others in the media and other sites. I'd like to see and independent company who is trained in these things to do the research and give me a more solid number is all.

 

[Fading]

Not be 100% accurate is an understatement. We are talking 5000 people out of 31 million. Plus, like I said, how does GI know the people polled were completely honest?

I understand what you're saying as well and agree. Actual sites that consider themselves news sites shouldn't report this. It's ok in using it for forum chat or something, but like you said the info is iffy. I read on another site tho that retailers themselves put the number closer to 33% or so based on how many consoles they've had returned for being defective (of course that number wouldn't take into account anyone who went thru MS themselves).

As for the 5k ppl, I hope they interviewed them in person. Ppl easily lie constantly online as it's anonymous. This news could burn MS and I'm sure Gameinformer would want to stay in their good graces. So hopefully they didn't just random poll 5k ppl, but rather interviewed in person. Either way like you said, 5k is a small sample from a much larger number.

 

[ChrisBaleBatman]

All's I know is that I've had the RROD about 5 times.

Even had it straight out of the box, right after buying it.

Not to mention that Xbox Customer Support is pathetically horrible.

I totally buy those numbers. Easily.

So did mine, and that was in the middle of Christmas break

****, that sucks man.

Times like these that the past-gen Xbox and PS2 came very much in handy to keep around.

 

[Dark Victory]

My 360 died about a year and I was too angry to do anything about it. I'm not getting another xbox 'til this problem is fixed.

 

[Matt Mortem]

I just got the RRoD E74 error and Microsoft refused to cover it so I had to get ahold of a supervisor at customer support and rip his head off and they agreed to fix it for free. As soon as I got the RRoD I canceled my Xbox live subscription so what does Microsoft do? They go ahead and pull the money from my account for a whole new year of XBL 2 weeks ahead of when my account was supposed to expire. I had to call once more and do a bit of ass chewing to get my money back. I'm going PS3. I've had it with this chicken **** company.