Gates: Xbox will be "most reliable" game system

I love my 360 and it sits on a glass shelf entertainment stand next to my TV. I am currently on my fourth Xbox360. I have had three co-workers and two other friends of mine that have had their 360's RROD as well. I personally do not hold a grudge against Microsoft. I hope that they have finally resolved the issue. I enjoy the games and experiences that I have had with XBOX LIVE. I will continue to enjoy LIVE and all it has to offer. Live and learn Microsoft. Make your next console solid and continue improving your current endeavor.

Most reliable? LOL...Nope.

More reliable? Well, it certainly couldn't be less reliable!

Somehow I think that Joystiq's comment system is designed to artificially inflate the number of comments on system wars posts, but I digress.

What strikes me here is that some of you can't get over the fact that MS has tried to respond as best it can as a major company with multiple interests and demands from its corporate infrastructure to respond to a seemingly semi-faulty product. I completely agree that there are standards that the consumer should always demand and expect the company to adhere to (especially or a $400 expense plus change), but I wonder if some people around here have too high of standards.

A company on the scale of MS would not turn around and, based on anecdotal evidence (and yes, gaming sites and blogs quoting he-said, she-said IS ANECDOTAL EVIDENCEOMGWTFBBQ), take any actions which it believes would go above and beyond their comfort level in terms of the costs associated with taking specific steps to ameliorate the situation. It's nothing personal, strictly business. THEN AGAIN, former Chairman and CEO of the largest consumer software company in the world has directly answered and has been forthright about the problems with its product along with the proposed solutions...does that not count for anything?

This is probably going to fall on deaf ears, as it seems to be "me me me" around here, and yeah, I would be kind of annoyed if I had to send my 360 away for 6-8 weeks too. But I think some of you all should have some perspective on how complicated the whole process is, rather than bitching about "my friend's 360 died 435 times!" All of us have different standards of quality and what we expect of the products we buy (which is indirectly related to the current music industry/file-sharing legal battle), but I would caution some of you to take some things in perspective before you log into Joystiq or wherever and type cutesy things like "M$" or whatever. And yes, I wholly recognize that some of you have had really bad experiences and that it fucking sucks. I sympathize.

Also, Knight, I appreciate you sticking to substance and demanding actual verifiable proof of this estimated 33% figure everyone tosses about. I won't wait with baited breath for that one. I'm starting to think that the whole gaming community is comparable to annoying political groups who make up stuff out of thin air, talk about it a lot to everyone, and it suddenly becomes fact and creates some kind of urban myth of gross distortion, e.g. "Vote against SCHIP? YOU HATE CHILDREN!!11." Not to inject politics into it or anything. :)

Ugh. This was easily one of the hardest joystiq comment threads I've ever had to wade through.

That said, I commend Gates and MS for honestly recognizing that their hardware does have a problem (80% of all the 360 owners I know have had a RRoD) and trying to do whatever they can to correct these problems.

While it does suck owning hardware with the Sword of Damocles hanging over it, my 360 still gets more playtime than all of my other consoles combined (as well as being my media-hub). As a gamer, that's far more important than living in constant fear of my console red-ringing.

I thought I had a special 360. It lasted for about a year and half, but last night I got the three red flashing lights. Hopefully, the repair/replacement system works well.

I thought I had a special 360. It lasted for about a year and half, but last night I got the three red flashing lights. Hopefully, the repair/replacement system works well.

I thought I had a special 360. It lasted for about a year and half, but last night I got the three red flashing lights. Hopefully, the repair/replacement system works well. Honestly, without that program I probably would have raged.

My bad... the page was not loading... please excuse the multiple posts.

Yea and vista will be hacker proof.

HAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAH!!1!!!!!1 Tell me that now that ive red ringed and cant play all 60 of my arcade games to your DRM Fukk u and Peter "
KNOB GOBBLER" Moore. Customer support can also stick in their own arses.

I have had horribly bad luck with the consoles as well.

Console One: Purchased Fight Night Round 3 and a friend had headed over to play it with me and on the first punch it went out. It died right after the original warranty ran out before the extensions so I ended up paying $130 to get it repaired.I did get that money refunded though near 4 months later.

Console Two: This one I set up in a open area just to be double sure that it was not my setup. I used the console for a total of around 6 hours playtime. It was off and sat around until Gears of War came out. I put Gears into it and BAM, it dies as well.

Console Three: The third console, OUT OF THE BOX was making horrible grinding sounds, which was most likely a bad fan. I called support and was refused assistance. They told me they cannot help me for "noises". I tried to escalate it and get different reps, but they all refused assistance. I was told "when" it fails to call them back.

Console Four: The third console finally failed at the end of November this year. It started constantly locking up and red ringing. Called and got a replacement set up. They ASSURED me I would receive the special repair team and get a new motherboard and such and be set up with the elite support team so this problem would not occur again. I shipped the console back to them on December 19th or 20th, and they took care if it very quickly. I got my replacement console on the 26th, the day after Christmas. I set it up and was worried at first due to the xbox live issues but that was not a problem with the console. FOUR days later the thing started red ringing. I plugged in a Official USB charging cable and BAM it went down. It locked up on the XBM multiple times, as well as on Katamari Damacy, Eternal Sonata, and Halo 3.

I have set up a replacement for the fourth console and the box is sitting on my table at home as we speak. I was assured AGAIN that this should not have happened, that they will send it to the "Elite" team and I will get a new board and cooling. The guy told me it will be essentially an elite without the black case, larger hard drive, or HDMI cable. They compensated me a Webcam for my trouble. The third replacement they gave me a 1 month live membership.

Total shipping time on all the consoles has been almost 4, which I was never reimbursed with live time for. The first few returns went PAINFULLY slow.

So for those who have consoles working well, thats great. :)
But there are still serious issues, otherwise I would not be able to receive a console from their ELITE repair team and have it die days later. I only have one friend who has not had his console die on him, and he owns an Elite.

my x 360 froze xmas day i rang helpline next day i have it over 1 year collected next day by ups and returned 13 days later no charge. you cannot really complain about a service like that i know i will be sticking with xbox.