There is an amusing and disparate mish mash of ideas above, some pertinent, some not. One of the key points here is that the failure rate remains unknown, but is – anecdotally at least – too high. I’ve suffered one RROD and one E-74 error from a total of three consoles. For me, that makes the failure rate 67%, but clearly that is not a universal figure. The matter of which console is better is irrelevant; this topic is about expectations as a consumer.

I feel Microsoft has done what it could to redress the issues, including throwing out new chipsets (the Jasper) and returning/replacing for free. The only two gripes I have are that the warranty shouldn’t be time-limited on these specific failures (given that it seems to a design/build flaw), and that retailers have somehow washed their hands of the problem.

I live in the UK. In Greater London, in fact. None of my local shops will accept the return of any 360 after a year, unless you’ve taken out their insurance. Okay, so we’ve established the console failure is down to Microsoft – but High Street retailers can’t have it both ways. Either they can make a profit from selling consoles, and assume any responsibilities to the consumer therein, or stop selling them. I fail to see how a manufacturing fault gives them absolution. If a toy was dangerous or faulty, it would be recalled and shops would issue an immediate refund or exchange, surely? How has the High Street dodged the bullet here? I think that’s rather cheeky.

As for PCs – the first poster summed it up best. If you tinker with a machine (even when you know what you’re doing), and set its working parameters beyond its retail condition, then I think you’ve got to hold up your hands and say “okay, it’s my fault” if you fudge it. Or even if you MIGHT have fudged it. Yes, component parts shouldn’t just break, but then there is the vast minefield of compatability to consider. Your component pieces might be fine individually, but align them with the wrong bits of hardware/software, and you can hardly be surprised if your beautiful new labour of love falls over*.

*technical term

A more recent poll conducted by SquareTrade Warranties of 16,000 people has resulted in figures about 23% on 360 and 10% on ps3 (and 2% on wii)…and even these are not truly accurate…because if you actually read the details of this poll you’ll notice that these answers were received from 11,000 wiis, 2,500 360s, and 2,500 ps3s…hardly balanced and again 2,500-5,000 people is a small percentage of the actual owners out there…

Main point being the 54% figure is complete over-exaggerated crap…and sorry ps3 fans, but you’re deluding yourselves if you think your ps3 doesn’t have a pretty disgusting chance of failure too. Yes, it’s ridiculous of both companies to have as many failures as they do, but that doesn’t make either of them bad and unenjoyable products. Seems pretty silly to sit there saying “ha ha your system has a possible 2/10 chance of failing while MINE only has 1/10!”

As far as the failure rate goes, I do agree it is very poor, suggesting MS rather rushed development. I also suspect if there is even a hint that the next Xbox has any tendency toward failure it will cost them heavily in sales. That said I think people vote with their feet and sales suggest that however unhappy people are they haven’t stopped buying the console. I accept that once you have a collection of games and hardware you are reluctant to change, but I doubt that all the new sales of Xboxes are replacements.

Personally I found MS very helpful when my console broke, and I had the good fortune to trade in a broken second hand console and receive a brand new one in return. I also doubt my experience of next-gen gaming would have been that much different if my friends and I had all bought PS3’s. The most important factor was always that almost all my friends (and certainly the ones with most games to lend) have 360’s and so the choice was already made for me. I like that there are rival consoles. It drives the market to innovate. Whatever you say about MS, I really doubt that online would have progressed so fast without them.

My 360 broke, it was the E74 error which at the time was not covered by warranty but now it is and every one gets a refund!, good luck getting it though as we’ve been trying for about 3 months now with no joy. Microsoft really are a bag of shite

BUT

I still bloody love my 360 and I wouldn’t trade it for a PS3 for anything.

Personally, mine broke. Did you know that in the UK, any product that breaks more than 5% of the time is deemed unfit for manufacture or sale? Interesting fact when you consider more than half of the consoles break. I vote for a class action lawsuit.

the poll staging could be true, and I’ve have game informer but when i did subscribe to it i never read about xbox bcuz i didn’t have one.

However you can’t just brush off all of the 360 defects as people not being able to take care of their consoles I have both a ps3 and 360, I’ve had the ps3 since it released and the xbox i bought about a year ago both of them are treated well however now my xbox won’t read discs and i’ve barely played this console I’m usually on my ps3 or my PC. So bcuz my ps3 is still working I should just assume that everyone that has defects on it didn’t take care of it and its all their fault?

RRoD is just the console version of the BSoD on a PC which is usually a hardware failure (from the inside) or there was a problem with the software that u downloaded for ur hardware, so i don’t see how a person has control of that unless they physically took their 360 and just kept throwing and slamming it everywhere but spending 300 – 400 bucks on a console I’m sure not what loon would do that. All I know is that next time my 360 acts up I’m gonna put it right on ebay because surely someone will buy it, known defects and all.