Kotaku
Over the past few days, stories have been circling around the place that the failure rate for the 360 had been "nailed" at 16%. This figure was taken from SquareTrade, who claimed to have issued warranties for the cosole, and was based on a sample group of 1000 360s. Today, Microsoft have hit back at these claims, saying they've never heard of SquareTrade:
We have not seen the report, and are unfamiliar with the agency that filed it. Based on the enthusiast community's feedback yesterday, the methodology of this report is suspect.Fair point, as when releasing the 16% figure, SquareTrade disclosed neither their methodology, nor the entirety of the report.
Microsoft Responds to Warranty Report [IGN]
Comments
How have they never heard of SquareTrade? That's crazy.
that's only 1 in 7, unfortunately for me the next console i buy will be a 360 - and it's my 7th!!
Very suspect indeed...the hardware failure rates are much higher!
Hmmm...They should be grateful for that.
Most people have guessed/pegged it at one in three.
16% is excellent in comparison.
Hah. Microsoft should have responded, "Yes! You're absolutely right!" Because right now, the rumored number (on Kotaku, at least) is somewhere around 30%.
If you were to talk to my friends, they wouldn't believe less than 50%, each with having at least 2 failed system. I've been lucky with my launch one (knock on wood).
@comedy: You've gone through 6 360s and yet you keep buying new ones? What 360 game is worth $1750
It has to be higher than 16%. Every 360 will have issues at least one time in its lifecycle. I know from experience. I'm on my 3rd 360. Fortunately it's my last 360. I'm switching to a PS3 next week!
I would say at least with the ones manufactured the first 18 months it's at least 35%
Two sarcastic anti-360 articles within minutes of each other. Let me guess .. this Plunkett dude is a PS3 fanboy trying to get the comments board blaze with fanboy flame wars? Surely the news articles could have been presented with more neutrality.
@ceilingFANBOY: now with 100% more fanboy: Viva Pinata, duh.
@ceilingFANBOY: now with 100% more fanboy: alas no, having re-read my post i can see that its misleading... it's my 7th console period. i haven't had any 360s
Luke how many 360's have you gone through by the way? I remember it was either you or Bash (or both of you) who had like 9 or more that failed. I'd say it's more understandable since I'm assuming you guys play games more than the avg. person.
The 360 really is the new PS2 after all.
@TwinkyC: "Every 360 will have issues at least one time in its lifecycle. I know from experience. I'm on my 3rd 360."
Did you read that before you wrote it?
Was it as funny then as it is now?
When I mentioned the RROD to one of my co workers, he said that his XBox has worked fine and the only reason he ever got a RROD was because his brother left the system running (not was playing the system) over night. He somehow thought that leaving a system on overnight killing it is acceptable, even after I told him that I have left my PS3 on overnight several times running folding@Home with no ill effects.
my ps2 has lived forever... it's a launch one and still works! hoorah
@comedy: That makes a lot more sense. It definitely sounded like you were killing them like... nevermind, I'll pass on the offensive killing jokes.
@Lackshmana: "did you read that before you wrote it?"
did You read That before you wrote it!?
Among the group of designers at my company there 7 people that own 360s. One person is on his third 360, and 2 people recently had theirs die to RROD. So that's what? Out of 4 out of 9 failure rate?
@comedy: My bad, I guess I should have said "posted it."
Thanks for the catch, I hope the meaning was still clear.
@Lackshmana: Yes, yes it was.
@Toasticus: Yeah, they thought it would be far more.
@Lackshmana: sorry, i've been getting bored and refreshing far too often. i must have posted about 20 times in the last 15 minutes... and not offered a single useful thought.
the rrod is caused by the thing melting right? well surely keeping it in the fridge would work? i bet there would be fewer failed systems if they were all stashed in cold places
Well, that sure doesn't encourage me to buy one.
Mine's still peachy. With my luck, it'll bite the dust one day after my warranty stops.
I love the 360. But there's no way in heck that it's only 16%. That might be based on the number actually reported, who knows.
I myself am on my 3rd, luckily my 2nd died right out of the box so I got a straight swap at Best Buy in the first 30 days.
What's with the bad or grim news for 360 lately? D:
Anyways MS should be happy with the 16% SquareTrade projected, because I believed it to be around 25%+
to add, my new elite seems fine and doesn't even run that hot compared to the old one(s) I've had.
@comedy: Actually I think the reverse is true. Since wrapping them in towels (so they overheat more?) seems to somehow get them working again, I think the real solution is to put it in the oven.
@ceilingFANBOY: now with 100% more fanboy: I agree. I remember when I first got my PS1 (wow, long ago), I didn't have a memory card yet, so I had running for 3 straight days just so I could beat Crash Bandicoot without having the ability to save.
@TwinkyC: Unless you've played absolutely every 360 ever for as long as is physically possible, you're pulling that information completely out of your ass.
For every person that has a failed console there is many that have never had a single issue. "Console working as intended" isn't really newsworthy, so you don't really hear about it.
You do hear the very vocal community who is on their ten millionth 360 since last Tuesday, though.
16% sounds low to me, too. Out of all the people I know with a 360, even including those who haven't had theirs very long, I'd estimate the failure rate at at least 25%.
If you were to only consider 360's manufactured before the implementation of the new chipset (like mine, which has failed once) I'd bet the number shoots up quickly.
In related news, I'm finally expecting my fifth box on Monday. That's since right after Thanksgiving in November.
So, yeah... I expected it to be higher myself.
I'm surprised it's not higher. Out of about 6 friends I know with a 360, they've all crapped out at least once.
360 is not comparable to PS2. PS2 did not nearly have as bad problems as 360. PS2 had disc read errors after working for usually a couple years, not a couple months. I had my launch PS2 for 4 years before it had the disc read error problem.
The failure rate is the only reason I've yet to buy a 360.
Also for any of you owners, please don't use your 360's vertically
If I'm not mistaken they said the same thing about the 30% failure rate last year. I can only assume MS believes their system is perfect or at best less than 2%. Let's face it, Sony may not be the best when it comes to public honesty but MS is 100x worse
If you treat the system right, it shouldn't fail. Shouldn't, but might. Is there any certified way to treat it right? Besides what the manual says.
My friend sends in his 360 a lot because he insists on giving it 15 minute breaks every hour and a half or so, because it says so in the instruction manual. My other friend has had his since launch, played for like 10 hours w/o breaks consistently, and never had to send it in.
Anyone else give their 360 little nap times?
We all know that the report that was released was obviously not right.
There is no way that the number of 360s that haved failed is anywhere close to 16% - it is much higher! :D
@ceilingFANBOY: now with 100% more fanboy:
Yeah even then leaving it on all night should not cause a problem. I leave my PS3 on almost every night to fold. No problems and it warms up my room in the winter!
so...
what happened to everyone who said that the failure rate was undeniably, without a shadow of a doubt, without question, hands down at least 35% and if you questioned said failure rate you were labeled as an idiotic 360 fanboy?
360's are the most fragile pieces of crap, I mean electronics, ever made. You can't place it vertically, you can't dare move it while a game is in it, and it must have TONS of room to breath. Even then you're not safe.
Damn. Glad I refrained my crave for Mass Effect, Bioshock and Halo 3 after all.
@bangbangblah: It's nice to see I wasn't the only one who got so excited when I got my PS1 that I stayed up all night playing it. I wonder if that is still somewhere in my basement. Granted, it is completely not needed in my bedroom because I have my PS2 as well, but I kind of want to get all of my old systems hooked up to my tv, even if it is a bit redundant. I have my 32X attached to the Sega even though the only 32X game I have is Doom and it doesn't work. I'm also thinking of buying myself a Saturn, Sega CD, N64, GameCube...wow, I can't believe I just said I might buy a GameCube, although it shouldn't be hard for me to get one on the very cheap. I'm thinking my SNES might be lost forever, so I might need to buy another one of those, and I can't seem to find my Atari, but I know that it is somewhere in my house. I might even replace my Nintendo to go back to one with the original front load rather than the top load style. I'm going to have to build something specifically for my gaming systems because a bookshelf is already becoming a hassle and I've got so much more left to do and yes I know that the majority of what I said has nothing to do with what you said.
@comedy: Calm down, Sparky.
@comedy: It's actually from the thing warping from uneven heating. Putting the system in the freezer won't change the fact that the heat on the motherboard is uneven.
@PSN ID: Kadaj24: "TONS of room to breathe..." with no other electronic device on except the TV. Not even a cell phone it seems.
@PSN ID: Kadaj24: My PS2 was about the same, 4 years then DRE. But I was able to fix it by adjusting the laser. I think that is the big differentiator though. Almost everyone I know had problems with their PS2s, but we didn't have to send them off for 3 weeks to get fixed.
@ChiltonGaines:
That's the thing; even if you take very good care of your 360 and watch how long you marathon it the system still has a good chance of breaking down. I keep a fan pointed at my system 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the system is under a sheet of glass to help disperse the heat, there are no other electronics within two feet of it in all directions, and I take breaks specifically to avoid overheating... and my first 360 still broke down. The disc drive stopped reading discs :(
But, yeah, there are a lot of things you can do to help your system out.
I thought it would be higher then 16. Closer to 30.
My Elite red ringed two weeks ago but hasn't done it again since, so I think it was merely a glitch caused by that terrible Conflict demo crashing.
I'm somewhat surprised that no one commented in the 360 shortage and NPD numbers articles that the shortage is being caused by Microsoft having to send out so many replacement XBoxes.
@iamnotdryad:
Well good lord man. You really love your systems. I salute you. My brother just got Lost Odyssey the other day, and it looks interesting, and he's having a good time (I love me some Queen), so I hope his doesn't poop out.
@PSN