Game Informer: Xbox 360 at 54.2 percent failure rate

Game Informer: Xbox 360 at 54.2 percent failure rate
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by Griffin McElroy { Aug 17th 2009 at 4:01PM } Xbox
The latest issue of Game Informer contains a surprising statistic for anyone who's ever loved and lost their Microsoft-branded home console – according to their survey, in which over 5,000 console owners participated, the Xbox 360's current failure rate due to the Red Ring of Death, E74 or other hardware failure is 54.2 percent. They also calculated the relative death toll for PS3s due to the Yellow Light of Death (10.3 percent) and Wiis, due to ... well, we're not actually sure what color the Wii's light turns to upon its demise (6.8 percent).

Unfortunately, for having the highest failure rate, survey participants also pinned Microsoft for having the least helpful customer service representatives. Not that it matters – later in the survey, only 3.8 percent of participants said they'd never buy another Xbox 360 due to its high failure rate.

Speaking of which, we're not sure what future techno-utopia this poll was conducted in, but a 54.2 percent Xbox 360 failure rate sounds awfully low. Had the survey's participants been comprised entirely of Joystiq staffers, it would have been a bone-chilling 100 percent.

[Via Consumerist]

Tags: e74, failure, failure-rate, game-informer, hardware, rrod, survey
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Phinn, the original Xbox had a lower failure rate than the PS2. They can do hardware just fine... There's just a myriad of issues that they didn't compensate for. They chose a design, and stuck to it. Then added the actual hardware, and that hardware gets FAR too hot to last. If they would have designed it so they could use bigger, better heat sinks there would be no problem. The reason the components in the 360 get hotter than those in the PS3 (mainly the GPU) is simply because it's more powerful... Well, the GPU is at least- the CPU's in over all performance are about even. I've had 2 Xbox's, and my first one suffered from a bad disc drive. I've since destroyed it, but when I was working on it, I noticed that there were burn marks in the metal on the bottom side of the disc drive from the GPU heat sink. The problem with the drive was lubrication on the spindle- tried about everything but nothing worked consistently... Should have tried graphite powder, as I believe that's what they use from the factory, but that's beside the point. The Xbox's downfall is heat and the inability to remove that heat from the case efficiently, and I'm 100% certain that a majority of the 360's issues are directly related to that heat. The air temperature from the exhaust fans on launch consoles have been as high 100*C.
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I had an Elite and got the E-74... got the system repaired and after just one week, I got the RRoD. I sent the system again to MS, and got the console repaired, but the image thru HDMI didn't look as good as before... it had some video problems with the HDMI port (minor, but noticeable)...

So, I sold it ($350) and I'm just waiting for the Elite to drop price to $300. I have bought tons of 360 games, and they are here, unplayed, and there are some Live Arcade games that I want to play.

Don't get me wrong... is an excellent system, but the hardware quality is not only bad, but crap.

Even the accesories are bad quality, like the Play and Charge kit... the battery died after just two months.
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I've never had a RROD...


Had 2 elites crap out because their DVD drives exploded but no RROD.
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Typical Microsoft. Buy a PS3. No one I know has ever had a problem with their PS3. Although I know some people have it's still way less than crappy microsoft. Only problem with PS3 is that if your console does break you need a backup of your HDD or you lose everything.
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Why does everyone sound so surprised? The Xbox 360 has always had high failure rate. I'm on my fourth Xbox 360. As far as customer service is concerned, most definately! I'd sent my 360 Premium in for repairs and I got it back, and a shortly after, the drive started to stick. I called them back and told them the problem, and they just blew me off and told me I'd have to pay $70 to replace it because my 360 was out of warrently. But it was a result of faulty repairs. So I had to buy I new console. I bought I Elite figuring that would solve the problem, but I still got Red Ringed.

I can't understand, the life of me, how a console with so many problems, is doing so well. I guess American's just like things that break. Look at the Ford. Its reputation is Fix Or Repair Daily and they're huge!

My PlayStation 3 has never had any problems. I've owned the same 60GB PS3 for years. It has outlasted my 360 by far. Thus, I think people need to rethink things. The Xbox 360 is a time bomb. The clock is ticking before that chip burns out, and we took an Xbox 360 apart with the problem, and it warps the whole area on that motherboard. I just don't get how people can be that stupid. When this 360 crashes, that'll be the end of it. Even the newer arcade models are still gettin fried.
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I think the number is high, but not by such a margin that it escapes the realms of plausibility. The Xbox 360 is a great system with hardware that, on paper, is incredibly sound for what it is. The problem, however, is that Microsoft decided to let corporate bean counters have a little too much say when it came to manufacturing components. For example, Microsoft made the decision to bypass ASIC vendors (those that work almost exclusively with GPUs) and approach TMSC with their own implementation of Xenos once the design left ATI's hands before the system launched. Their implementation was obviously flawed (hence so many early RRODs), but the situation (from a manufacturing standpoint) wasn't rectified until early-mid 2008 when they hired an ASIC vendor (one the specifically tried to avoid) to fix their fuck up. They spent over a billion dollars trying to fix a problem they created by trying to save a few million in manufacturing costs.

Another simple example would be the Xbox 360's cheap back plates (the so-called X clamps). If a GPU in an old or new Xbox 360 becomes hotter than intended (either from a design flaw or the cooling system's inability to cope with a less than ideal environment), it can actually unseat itself from the mainboard which in turns causes an irreparable hardware fault. Back plates can prevent this problem, but those found in a stock 360 are made from relatively flimsy stamped metal that can become warped (thus allowing an overheating GPU to unseat itself). To someone somewhere in the company's corporate ladder, it made more sense to shave $.50 off of each system by using these cheap backplates than to safeguard their product from a catastrophic hardware failure that would cost them at least $100.00 to repair.

So is 54.2% high? I say yes, but given how the company's done nothing but pinch pennies (and those are just in the above examples) in key areas where they shouldn't have even considered such actions as justifiable, I maintain that it's not all that hard to believe.
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Gamers are the only consumers that would put up with that statistic. If it was any other product in the world this would be unacceptable. Would you get a TV that had the same failure rate?

Fanboys are loyal and blind when it comes to this failure rate. I have a PS3, Wii, and 360 in my household but rarely have time to play either although my son plays a lot. Its a shame that the 360 is the only one that I am worried about as far hitting the power button and the damn thing not coming on.

Anyway I'm glad to say that I have only owned one and if (when) that one dies I will not get another.
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Wiis die all the time because Nintendo did a crappy job securing the NAND. One corrupt save will screw over your entire system, then Nintendo wants $80 to fix it! I've made my last mistake by purchasing a home console from Nintendo. Not only did it screw up due to a corrupt save, but there are only about four good games to play on the system!

Now watch me get voted down because I don't touch myself when I see Mario.
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How is it trolling when the article itself points out the fact that the 360 is a pile of garbage? Am I doing nothing but restating a simple fact? 54% failure? I have toasters that last longer, TV's from the 70's, Atari games and Pong that still work. It's an abomination. And anyone downvoting me or disagreeing are just 5 year olds holding their fingers in their ear yelling "lalalalalalala." Well, enjoy yourselves I simply prefer fact over fiction.
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I'm on first xbox360 I got back in Nov of 06. I bought the Fry's 2 year instant replacement and 2 months before it was set to expire I tried to kill it to get a replacement with the 60GB hdd and the HDMI. (evil I know, judge me later)
I covered it with blankets, I put straws in the fans to make them not spin, played halo 3 and then covered it in blankets. I put it in a cabinet with no ventilation. I poured water down it and then turned it on, I tried to fry the usb ports by stripping a cord and plugging it into the wall. The thing wouldn't die. I still have it today, still running great, still using component. The damn thing is amazing.

Ironically I have a 60GB PS3 that's already been replaced by Sony after I had it for a month.

Go figure.
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And yet people still continue to buy multiple xbox 360's. 3.8% of people said they'd never buy another? Absolute BS.

Of the 8 people I work with that have 360's, 6 of them have bought at least 2. One of them is on his 5th.

This phenomenon is doing two things:

1. Bloating 360 sales
2. Enabling microsoft to continue to intentionally manufacture sh*tty hardware. And I'm not just talking about the xbox 360 but future generations of consoles as well.

All thanks to blatant dumbass consumerism.
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Wait until your optical drive goes. The repair is over $100 and it was clear by how hard the guy on the phone was pressing me to do it (starting to throw stuff in even!) that they make money on it.

Sony PS3 repairs are $150, and I'm sure they make money on them too. It's funny since I'm rereading a book I have about Sony's corporate history and part of their corporate charter is that service shouldn't be a profit center, it is there to make the customer more happy with their product. Having dealt with Sony service twice now, I can say that edict was forgotten a long time ago.
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It speaks to the prevalence of software in this industry. Have the games, and people will put up with anything, as is the case with 360. In any other industry, the one device with a 50% failure rate that also charges $50 a year to enable it's full functionality would have been annihilated by the competition that didn't

But the games make all of that irrelevant.
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I'll tell you why - the software is great, XBLive is great. It's got the most robust lineup and defined gaming systems as a social platform this gen (meaning the accessability and ease of use of Live).

I am in no way excusing the hardware issues - it was horrible that they pushed that product out to the market (although there is no denying that it worked). Let's not forget the venerable PS2 with its' 'Disc Read Error' was just a prevalent yet that sold like hotcakes, did it not?

I love my PS3 for the exclusives and Uncharted 2 is the game I'm looking forward to most this year, but for multiplatform and multiplayer it's an automatic 360 purchase for me. I got back into my PS3 when I was out on a medical for a week and really can't believe how bare bones the PSN is comparatively - it is functional, don't get me wrong, but it simply isn't Live.

Understand now?
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I'm shocked it's that low. Especially if you count the dead DVD drives (which are not covered by warranty!) Maybe people who just junk theirs and buy a core/arcade don't count as repairs?

The 10% seems high for PS3s overall, although I wouldn't be surprised to hear the first-gens (60GB/40GB) had a 30% failure rate. The optical drives seem to die early deaths.
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My best friend's ps3 got the yellow light while i was playing killzone 2 he called customer service at sony, the rep told him that he needed the reciept from the store where he bought it, he told them he was'nt able to do that because it was a gift from his dad, and his dad lived in another state, the rep replied "no reciept no free repair", i thought microsoft's customer service was bad but sony's is worst, by the way i own a xbx360 and a wii, thinking about buying a ps3.
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