Support NeoGAF

[Fimbulvetr]

I dont know why are still people that thinks that 50% is low... you can see that every corner, every neighbor, buddy, friend, etc... you can see even that some of them are on their 3-4th console, C'mon!

Do I even need to explain? :/

 

[rvy]

I seriously doubt it's that high. It's probably just a vocal Internet minority that skewers the percentage, and 5000 members isn't a good selection for an evaluation.

You doubt it's that high? I doubt it's that low!

 

[Zaptruder]

50% doesn't sound impossible

And lets leave it at that.


What's really of concern though is that as consumers, we're justifying Microsoft's strategy.

Get it out early, make it cheap(er than it should be), but fuck the quality control.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

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

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

Sony CS is only a bit lower than Nintendo's... Interesting. I hope at least some of that was me busting ass at work, yeah... Wow, MS CS is lower than I expected.

 

[Slavik81]

This thread is turning out to be what I expected.

I expected more people to question the sampling method... A self-selected group of readers is certainly not going to yeild accurate numbers.

That's why it's called "Statistics".

If you torture the numbers enough, eventually they'll tell you whatever you want to hear...

 

[Dire]

Sony CS is only a bit lower than Nintendo's... Interesting. Wow, MS CS is lower than I expected.

I think those statistics actually show how unreliable the entire survey is. Microsoft CS is nothing to write home about, but at the same time - getting a replacement console setup is seriously stream lined at this point in time. Something that I know is not the case with Sony.

 

[tonkatsu_ramen]

50% sounds about right. I have 2 xboxs and one died on me last year so the failure rate seems accurate.

 

[Version 3.0]

Non-random sampling = invalid poll. But anyone who doubts that the failure rate is extremely high is kidding himself.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

If you torture the numbers enough, eventually they'll tell you whatever you want to hear...

"Two plus two is how much, my main man?"

 

[Dragon]

If you torture the numbers enough, eventually they'll tell you whatever you want to hear...

See I thought they were confirming the general opinion that the 360 hardware was a mess when it first launched. I guess I'm mistaken.

50% sounds about right. I have 2 xboxs and one died on me last year so the failure rate seems accurate.

Anecdotal evidence FTL.

 

[ElFly]

I don't doubt the failure rate is high, but these results are probably due to some self selection bias.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

50% sounds about right. I have 2 xboxs and one died on me last year so the failure rate seems accurate.

So half of you has had a 360 die on it?

You do know that they meant 50% of 360 owners right?:lol

I agree with Leondexter. The number is probably closer to 30%, but even that is unreasonably high.

 

[Maximus.]

this statistic is whack. I have had 3 xboxs die, my other systems are fine.

 

[Plasma]

Wouldn't surprise me, three of my 360's have broke, on my 4th at the moment.

 

[EvilMario]

You guys defending the 360 are pretty great. You think gaming nerds are the only ones experiencingthe issues? I wonder what the Dead Out of Box rate is.

Let it be said though, aside from my Ethernet port going on the 360, it's been great. On the other hand, the launch Wii had corrupted flash memory.. or 'other issues', and had to be replaced.

 

[Micromegas]

54% seems VERY low to me. Gotta be somewhere closer to 80-85%.

 

[Drkirby]

Eh, at least Microsoft fixes most of them for free now. I mean, couldn't you say the iPods failer rate is quite high too? How many people do you know who had there iPods break? Only apple doesn't repair it after a year for you :/

 

[Micromegas]

I mean, couldn't you say the iPods failer rate is quite high too?

Actually, no.

 

[Maximus.]

Eh, at least Microsoft fixes most of them for free now. I mean, couldn't you say the iPods failer rate is quite high too? How many people do you know who had there iPods break? Only apple doesn't repair it after a year for you :/

ive only heard of a few ipod deaths over the years, so maybe the ones in my area are awesome or people u know just got bad luck. Also ipods werent designed to die, whereas if i remember correctly microsoft knew the xbox had major flaws. Regardless they both are good products but product deaths suck...

 

[TAJ]

Nobody said the console had a 100% failure rate.

I did. If it's a launch unit, failure is literally inevitable if you use it consistently. How many times you turn it on and off is the key factor in how soon it meets its predestined end. HDMI units aren't all safe either. My first HDMI 360 just died after less than two years on a table with tons of room around it on all sides..

ive only heard of a few ipod deaths over the years, so maybe the ones in my area are awesome or people u know just got bad luck. Also ipods werent designed to die, whereas if i remember correctly microsoft knew the xbox had major flaws. Regardless they both are good products but product deaths suck...

My first iPod (4th gen 40GB) died after less than a year. Cause of death: head crash.

 

[Lothars]

So half of you has had a 360 die on it?

You do know that they meant 50% of 360 owners right?:lol

I agree with Leondexter. The number is probably closer to 30%, but even that is unreasonably high.

I wouldn't be surprised if the number is closer to 50% especially with how many people in general have had more than 1 360 fail on them.

 

[Nessus]

Honestly not trolling (I barely play my Wii or my PS3, both are covered in dust; I'm sadly one of those "spends more time reading GAF than actually playing games" types), but I think at least 90% of the people I know personally who own 360s have had it die on them. A smaller percentage are on their third or fourth. It seems like a systemic design flaw.

I'm torn, though, because I desperately need to get Shadow Complex.

I'll probably pick up an Elite in the next month or so after researching the serial numbers/design iterations.

It'd also be nice to finally be able to play the used copies of Gears Of War, Dead Rising, and Oblivion I picked up for cheap a year and a half ago..

 

[T-1000_Model3]

Not a very legit way to take a poll considering people could stuff the votes with shit loads of bias b.s. And as usual Gaf juniors come flocking in with all sorts of negativity on the 360. Try using your real accounts you twats.:lol

 

[Firestorm]

"says Game Informer survey of readers. (lock if old)"
Well that's a random sampling if I've ever seen one!

 

[Sonos]

I barely play my Wii or my PS3, both are covered in dust

You know...to all the countless people who say "My XXX console is covered in dust."

Fucking dust for christ's sake.

 

[hockeypuck]

The problem isn't the demographic Game Informer sampled or how many people they sampled, rather its how they sampled. In a well done survey, you make sure to limit your variables which Game Informer hasn't really done. So instead of a good survey where you the margin of error is low and the confidence interval is high, the Game Informer survey would likely be the opposite (though I doubt they bothered to calculate out such things, unless someone from Game Informer is a statisician who got lost on his way to work).

For example, a good survey would say something like: 54.2% (with a confidence interval of 95% and a margin of error of +-5). But this survey is more likely to have something absurd like a confidence interval of 40% and a margin of error of +-30. So for all we know the reality of the situation could be that the Wii has the greatest console failures! Obviously common sense tells us that's not true but this survey of Game Informer's can not actually tell us even that confidently.

This. Fucking this. George Gallup is probably rolling in his grave.

 

[Bananakin]

I seem to remember a gaffer going through two threads, the 360 failure thread and some other 360 thread (maybe the Xbox Live Arcade Sales thread?) and cross-referencing the people listed in both to get an unbiased sample of people. Anyone have a link to that thread? As I recall he got a decent sample size and came up with a number around 30%. Of course, doing that only corrects for reporting bias, and wouldn't account for the fact that people here would probably be using their system more than the average joe. Still, it was interesting.

 

[J-Roderton]

I gotta say my roomie, my friend and i have had problems with our xboxs. Red rings and disc trays messing up.

 

[Lothars]

Not a very legit way to take a poll considering people could stuff the votes with shit loads of bias b.s. And as usual Gaf juniors come flocking in with all sorts of negativity on the 360. Try using your real accounts you twats.:lol

Well it deserves the negativity with the failure rate so high even if it is 30% but I love my 360 and it's a great system but there's nothing wrong with anyone pointing out the failure rate.

 

[Segata Sanshiro]

50% doesn't sound impossible

And lets leave it at that.


What's really of concern though is that as consumers, we're justifying Microsoft's strategy.

Get it out early, make it cheap(er than it should be), but fuck the quality control.

Gamers gotta game, and the problem is that no matter where you choose to game on home consoles this gen, you're justifying someone's shitty strategy.

Be it Microsoft with their abysmal, embarrassing quality control, Nintendo with their "let's sell you last gen's tech at new gen prices", or Sony with their stupidly high pricing from trojan-horsing something to benefit another part of their company, all three of them did their best this gen to stick it to the consumers for their benefit.

Which hey, is business these days.

 

[miked808]

I'm on my 5th one and my son is on his 3rd.

 

[2 Minutes Turkish]

People still aren't reading the OP.

5000 were surveyed.

OF those that responded 54% said they had an Xbox die on them.

Doesn't mean Xbox 360 failure rate is 54%

It's still obviously unacceptably high though, whatever that figure may be. For all the anecdotal evidence/lies there are about 4th, 5th and 6th consoles, there's more evidence/lies about people with launch units and pre-08 units still going.

Hell, I have a Zephyr Mk2 Halo 3 Console that's tough as nails. I ran it through 2 12 hour sessions for the Timeshift 24 Hour achievement, and it had no issues. Never given trouble.

I have an 08 Falcon, No probs.

My launch unit only died AFTER I sold it after almost 2 years to a friend who then put it in a poorly ventilated cramped space.

The biggest issue with the 360 is, that in MOST cases, it dies at the slightest HINT of anything less than perfect conditions.

From everyone I know with one (about 10 friends/relatives) the few that had a console die all had it in a small space with no ventilation.

The others have had no issues.

 

[polyh3dron]

My launch console was in an open space with lots of ventilation and crapped out in 2007. I am now on my 4th.

 

[2 Minutes Turkish]

My launch console was in an open space with lots of ventilation and crapped out in 2007. I am now on my 4th.

Hence why I said MOST.

Plenty of PS2s died in perfect conditions too, but I'd wager a lot of those PS2s were mistreated.

No one (especially on GAF) is going to admit to treating their 360 or PS2 like shit. It's easier to jump on the bandwagon.

 

[Prezhulio]

just from MY experience being in college, all the people i lived with and probably 3 out of 4 people i knew on campus who had a 360 for a year or more were at least on there second 360. one roommate i lived with from 2005-2009 was on his 6th when we graduated. he had 2 and half weeks to go before his 3 years were up, never seen someone so happy their electronics broke :lol

 

[charlequin]

You doubt it's that high? I doubt it's that low!

That's really the problem with this article. I'm not claiming that the reliability of first-model 360s is anything but utterly terrible -- in fact, I expect the failure rate on those systems to climb close to 100% within 5-6 years of their launch -- but this survey, by virtue of having a self-selecting sample group, is not going to give us a correct number. It could have a lot of people anxious to claim that their 360 failed to discredit the system; it could have a lot of people anxious to claim that their 360 still works in order to prove that the system is more reliable; there are a variety of factors that could affect the responses to this survey that mean it will have a high margin of error and even the direction in which it is off cannot be reliably predicted.

54% seems VERY low to me. Gotta be somewhere closer to 80-85%.

80-85% seems pretty unlikely for 360s as a whole due to the ever-growing quantity of Jasper (and previously, Falcon) systems that do not suffer the RRoD at a remotely comparable rate to the borked units from year 1.

I mean, couldn't you say the iPods failer rate is quite high too?

iPod failure rate is estimated at 15%. Definitely not remotely comparable to the 360.

 

[Shurs]

People still aren't reading the OP.

5000 were surveyed.

OF those that responded 54% said they had an Xbox die on them.

Doesn't mean Xbox 360 failure rate is 54%

Wouldn't the failure rate be higher than 54%, assuming that some of the 54% have had multiple 360's?

 

[Dragmire]

In the seven months that I owned a jasper 360, I never got a RRoD. But I had two faulty controllers and endless internet problems connecting it through Windows. A lot of things pissed me off about the system (having to create a separate profile after connecting it online, the dashboard, paying for P2P gaming)

 

[thefro]

Completely misleading title, 54% of those surveyed concerning their experience with broken consoles. It's 54% of those that responded.

Yep... and it's the subsection of hardcore gamers subscribing to a magazine who probably use the console very heavily.

 

[xGen]

Please lock this thread. It's hurting MS' reputation.

If MS didn't cover RROD for 3 years, they have no reputation now.

 

[KongRudi]

Came over this at Daily Picdump

 

[sharath_kumar]

Question for guys who are on their 3rd or greater: Did you get your consoles replaced for free?

Seems crazy if you have to keep buying new consoles knowing well its going to break.

 

[Beer Monkey]

Question for guys who are on their 3rd or greater: Did you get your consoles replaced for free?

Seems crazy if you have to keep buying new consoles knowing well its going to break.

I had three die so I am on my fourth. Never paid anything. I just used the situation as a chance to catch up on PS3/DS for a couple of weeks.

Do I think it is sad? Yeah. Was it a huge deal to me? No, but I'm a multiplatform gamer. Not everyone is.

 

[Jewbacca]

This thread sucks. The sample size is fine, the source is bullshit. Sorry the internet is a scewed source of bullshit.

If I were to stick a real number I would say 15% on the high end these days. Launch could have easily been in the 30's.

 

[CharminUltra]

54% is WAY too high. 53% sounds about right.

 

[HowellJenkins]

Okay guys heres a better failure rate statistic:

After looking at Game Informers numbers they appear to be highly inaccurate. THE JRF did a private study concerning failure of the Xbox 360 console. Unsurprisingly, the results returned were exceedingly high with over 73% of Xbox 360 consoles failing. The study was conducted in an open environment, with the Xbox 360 being played by real people. Further research on the Xbox 360 console's reason for failure rate yielded surprising reasons. Dr. Yashamati, from Yale remarked "Generally we see consoles failing due to poor manufacturing and design, however this time consoles were failing for much other reasons." Psychologist Dr. Sophie figured "People just care for their Xbox 360 too much. It has become a member of the family. In homes when it becomes chilly people would wrap around their favorite blanket on their Xbox 360 to keep it warm. However the Xbox 360 is not like a pet, but rather an alien and people do not understand how it works. And in this case it worked by having its own power supply which seemed to generate its own heat." Jenkins Research Facility were astounded by the care and devotion players of the Xbox 360 treated their console with. Health care analyst Mr. Vernard said "It is remarkable, the Xbox 360 is, when compared to the other 2 consoles, treated much better. The PlayStation 3, while generally in a safe and secure place happens to not feel as much love or contact possibly due to the threatening and scary design. It is similar to a Doberman, it's kind of hard to wrap your arms around it and give it a good cuddle as you would with the Xbox 360. The Wii on the other hand seems very cute to owners, but after they get used to it, they sort of leave it there and let it collect dust. So in a sense it's failing on it's own. On the inside the Wii is dying, it is starved for the attention it craves yet, it isn't being used so it isn't failing." Ultimately, the fault of the high failure still is on Microsoft's hands, but instead of questioning their design process with the Xbox 360, the question is: Why would you make such a lovable creature?

Jenkins Research Facility
www.JRF.com

 

[Metalic Sand]

Even though its GI. I still believe it. :lol

 

[Megadragon15]

Whatever the real percentage of failed Xbox 360s are, only Microsoft has any real idea. And they are definitely not talking.

 

[JRW]

I seriously doubt it's that high. It's probably just a vocal Internet minority that skewers the percentage, and 5000 members isn't a good selection for an evaluation.

I seriously wouldn't doubt if it was higher than that.. I own two 360's and one has been repaired twice due to RROD and the other repaired once for RROD and again for dvdrom drive failure.

My PS3 and Wii (both bought on launch days) have been running without a hitch.

 

[mintylurb]

Whatever the real percentage of failed Xbox 360s are, only Microsoft has any real idea. And they are definitely not talking.

Oh, they did talk..sort of..