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]
Reader Comments (411)
Posted: Aug 19th 2009 5:48PM superfrattyassstoner said
It's not unnecessary worry... It's totally necessary! You shouldn't have to worry about your console breaking down at all. In my opinion even Sony's number is too high and I own a PS3!
Reply
Posted: Aug 19th 2009 8:24AM (Unverified) said
its very nice
Posted: Aug 21st 2009 9:27AM (Unverified) said
They surveyed 5,000 out of 30 million? That's far from an accurate number.
Posted: Aug 19th 2009 5:42PM superfrattyassstoner said
No wonder the 360 has seemingly outsold the PS3 by so much... nearly all of the 54.2 percent buy another console. You know what a fun game is, get together with another 360 owner and see who has bought more! haha Damn Halo 3 for being soooo much fun!
Posted: Aug 19th 2009 7:03PM (Unverified) said
I have a friend who owned an audi that spent more time in the shop than he got to drive it. He loved that car the same way I love my RRoD Xbox.
Posted: Aug 20th 2009 11:50AM Kruegmeister said
Yep, are there 28 Million 360 owners ?? or are there 18 Million and 10 Million in the Garbage ??
My 360 got the Red Ring 3 Times and has been sold for Parts on ebay...
We bought a Used Arcade just because my son still plays Halo 3 with some of his Hockey Buddies. For Everything Else we play on either our Reliable PS3 or our Reliable Wii.
My 360 got the Red Ring 3 Times and has been sold for Parts on ebay...
We bought a Used Arcade just because my son still plays Halo 3 with some of his Hockey Buddies. For Everything Else we play on either our Reliable PS3 or our Reliable Wii.
Posted: Aug 20th 2009 6:51PM MarcusMaximus said
Bah. While obviously the number of 360's this happens to is relatively high, this study wasn't very well controlled(read: at all controlled) and was completely unscientific. First of all, it was an ONLINE poll of readers of game informer, providing some bias already in the sample selection. Even worse though is that they did no control or verification to make sure people actually even owned the console they claimed to have that broke, meaning rabid fanboys could just vote their least favorite console to hell. These honestly would have been more believable numbers had they just walked up to someone on the street and asked them what percentage of each console died.
Posted: Sep 12th 2009 12:07AM (Unverified) said
XBox360 had a 33% failure rate when Microsoft extended the warranty for the Red Ring of Death. Now it's 54.2%.
Maybe they should do a second extention.
Horrible.
Another American corporation crawling with ivy league know-nothings.
Maybe they should do a second extention.
Horrible.
Another American corporation crawling with ivy league know-nothings.
Posted: Sep 13th 2009 9:47AM (Unverified) said
ive had my xbox 360 sine it came out and its never had rrod or any thing that i had to buy a new 1 so now its 99.99999999999999999% =]
Posted: Sep 20th 2009 8:15AM (Unverified) said
this is bollocks.
5000, out of how many million users by now?
also they didn't check or take into account model changes. If 4000 of those 5000 had a launch model, the rate will be high of course.
that survey is not representitive at all, in any way whatsoever.
it's like saying 90% of people would never buy a PS3, because I asked 20 of my friends and neighbours.
also, you can easily tell the survey is biased. people voted the MS service to be the least helpful? if my console breaks, i call. 5 days later i have my fixed console in hand. if my controller breaks, i call. a week later i get a new controller. free.
call sony. you get to pay for the shipping to them, then it turns out your console's warranty expired after a year (360: 3 years. Wii: 2 years, here in europe anyways.), or they can't even exchange your 60 GB model with PS2 compatibility for another 60 gig model, cause they happen to have none around, or they take 6-8 weeks to send you your replacement.
nintendo is in between. service is helpful and all, but not the fastest either.
5000, out of how many million users by now?
also they didn't check or take into account model changes. If 4000 of those 5000 had a launch model, the rate will be high of course.
that survey is not representitive at all, in any way whatsoever.
it's like saying 90% of people would never buy a PS3, because I asked 20 of my friends and neighbours.
also, you can easily tell the survey is biased. people voted the MS service to be the least helpful? if my console breaks, i call. 5 days later i have my fixed console in hand. if my controller breaks, i call. a week later i get a new controller. free.
call sony. you get to pay for the shipping to them, then it turns out your console's warranty expired after a year (360: 3 years. Wii: 2 years, here in europe anyways.), or they can't even exchange your 60 GB model with PS2 compatibility for another 60 gig model, cause they happen to have none around, or they take 6-8 weeks to send you your replacement.
nintendo is in between. service is helpful and all, but not the fastest either.
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