Survey finds Xbox 360 is played five times as often as Wii, five times more likely to fail than PS3
By Tim Stevens 
posted August 18th 2009 7:42AM
posted August 18th 2009 7:42AM
Ready for some numbers this morning? Some scary, scary numbers for Xbox 360 gamers? Game Informer, current king of the smoldering ruins of the print gaming magazine empire, polled about 5,000 of its readers to get a feel for their gaming experiences, including just how many of them had unlocked the fabled "Red Ring of Death" achievement. We'd heard estimates ranging from 16 to 30 percent, but even the most pessimistic guesses don't line up with the survey's findings of a staggeringly high 54.2 percent failure rate. That's five times higher than the PS3's 10.6 percent, with the Wii coming in at 6.8 percent. Mind you, the Xbox 360 was the most played console, with over 40 percent of Xbox gamers button mashing for three to five hours a day, compared to 37 percent of PS3 gamers, and less than an hour's worth of gaming per day for 41.4 percent of Wii owners. However, game consoles should be designed to shrug off marathon sessions and just keep on spewing polygons, something that the first revisions of Microsoft's baby obviously couldn't manage.That said, there are some problems with this survey; as far as we can tell there was no verification made that respondents actually own the consoles that they indicated they did, and we all know how people like having fun at Microsoft's expense. Also, the survey was naturally only of readers of the magazine itself, who don't necessarily line up with the gaming world at large. But, it's impossible to deny there's truth in these numbers. Indeed, it's hard not to think they're too low, as you'll be hard-pressed to find an original Xbox 360 that hasn't thrown up the three-light salute. Even so, there's nothing to be proud of in Sony's 10.6 percent failure rate, or even Nintendo's 6.8, particularly given that system's relative lack of attention. All are much higher than the three percent most consumer electronics companies strive for -- and that Microsoft initially (incorrectly) claimed its console was managing.
[Via TG Daily, The Consumerist]
...Call it even then.
AHAHAH Even?
I think not.
Wii players have something Xbox players dont have. A Life.
Point #1; Wii player are fit not fat, get off your arse fatty!
Point #2; 5 times as likely to FAIL as a PS3? Crikey! talk about your overpriced pieces of crap. Americans prove once again, that they cannot design anything that is not crap, just like AMERICAN CARS.
Point #3; FU Xbox!
With a name like "meat_juice" you lose all credibility with the heterosexual community
PS3 is being played around 37% Xbox360 40%, so both consoles are heavily used
Failure rate XBOX360 55%~
PS3 10%~
wii 7%~
Failure rate for PS3/WII is normal for devices, but wth the xbox360 failure rate? it's too high
Does anyone remember the fail rate of the original PS2? I do, I got burned twice and Sony did not cover my ass when it needed repairs (Yes, less than a year old). After the second one died, I bought an Xbox.
My original 360 went RROD and my console was nearly 3 years old. Guess what, Microsoft repaired it FOR FREE. I was without my console for a couple of weeks, but thats not a big deal. My 360 is still going strong.
My point is, as least MS did something about their failure... that something Sony never does.
puggs you are kidding yourself if you think so, before this gen we have NEVER heard of people owning 5-8 PS2 that dies on them, but we have seen proven cases where people get up to 5-10 failed xbox360 , there was something so wrong with the xbox360 but as far as i know it was "fixed" with newer versions "jasber/falcon" or whatever they were called.
Many of you are too young to remember having to play the original Playstation upside down. That thing was a piece of crap! The laser would break if you looked at the machine funny!
Dr House... why am I kidding myself? Its a fact that I had 2 original PS2's and both failed to my expense. Yes, my Xbox 360 failed, but got repaired, by them. for free. What is hard to understand about that? That was MY experience and guess what, there are alot of other people out there that had theirs repaired for free, have you not heard? I am not defending MS for the bad job on their original Xboxes, but I am commending them for stepping up and repairing them.
Mark:
Oh man, that brings back memories. I ended up buying a broken 5xxx (I think) series Playstation and Frankensteining the laser into my old one.
You don't remember PSXs and PS2s failing all the time back in the day? Disc read errors, overheating, all that fun? A friend of mine went through maybe 4 PS2s, although he played like 6 hours a day, every day.
They weren't as bad as 360, and later models actually fixed the problems, but they were still weaksauce.
I just want to agree with the others - meat_juice, from that comment, you are a total moron and a tool to boot. Since you like to go out and play so much, I recommend the nearest highway.
@Mark
Wow, I remember that. Except I didn't turn it upside down, I had to lay it on it's side... >_>
Why are people mentioning the PS2's failure rate? The failure rate of the PS2 is irrelevant to the 360.
I get annoyed when people greatly applaud MS just for simply covering a device that is under warranty. By definition of a warranty, the company is supposed to cover the device, so they don't disserve great praise for doing something they are by law required to do IMO. The problem, is that the 360 has proven hardware design faults which *will* cause it to fail. Simply "repairing" and sending back someone else's repaired broken console does NOT fix the problem. Indeed, it only assures you will have to send it in again. Unless they actually FIX the hardware faults which cause the problem to happen, the fact that it's covered on a 3 year warranty does not make me satisfied.
Warranties are limited and expire. My warranty has recently expired. I called MS *4 days* after the warranty expired to see if I can re-new it. They told me that because my console is no longer under warranty, I can no longer renew it. This is despite them telling me during a previous phone call that I CAN renew the warranty, even if the console is not under warranty! Keep in mind, I'm currently on 360 #4, and despite having my console repaired in Feb of 2009, I received a Zephyr revision back. A revision from 2006! Can you guess what's going to happen to this console in a few more months? When it breaks, I will be forced to dish out $100+ to repair a product that they knowingly sent me will fail.
I don't care what Sony did with the PS2. It does not justify what MS has done with the 360. At least Sony eventually fixed the PS2 problems, whereas brand new 360's are still susceptible to the RROD, as they are still using the proven-to-cause-defects X-Clamps.
Having a warranty is not enough. I want the expensive product that I paid for to be reliable and work properly.
Oh, and don't get me started on their customer service...
@meat_juice
You know people disagree with you when I have to copy/paste your comment in Notepad just to disagree with it.
Failure rate statistics:
XBOX- 54.2%
PS3- 10.6%
Wii - 6.8%
http://consumerist.com/5338852/xbox-360-failure-rate-is-542-percent-game-informer-finds
I still have to blow out dust from my NES game cartridge. QTip is even used on some rare occassions.
In all seriousness I find the Wii numbers to be a little low. Mine has already been sent off for repair ($90 charge). Several of my friends/family were in the same boat. Personal experience is more like a 15-20% failure rate.
And just like Engadget's year end Best of Technology surveys (which Apple wins in every single category if they have a product), polls like this are very susceptible to easy manipulation by those that have an agenda.
Let me point out:
THIS WAS A POLL BY "GAME INFORMER" MAGAZINE.
You know-- The magazine you subscribe to through GameStop? The one you get only because you want a discount on a used game? At the place that sells used and refurbished Xbox 360 consoles to people?
Yeah.
Same here, Puggs. Went through 3 PS2's, none were repaired even though it was under warranty.
If the RROD was an achievement, it would have had a higher percentage then people completing level 1 of Kung Fu Panda Achievement.
meh, mines nearly 4 years old and never red ringed.
i guess i was lucky
My first XBOX 360 (release day) lasted about 3 years. After it failed, I had 2 additional failures within 12 months. All failures were RRoD. I'm now on my 4th unit, which is refurbished from Microsoft (manufactured in 2005, refurbished last year).
My guess is that the high failure rates are partly due to the same lemons being repaired, used as replacements, failing, and being returned again.
My dad and brother have had 1 failure each. Dad's was a bad optical sensor in the disc drive, don't remember what the problem was with my brother's (possibly RRoD, but I'm not sure).
My family's record: 5 failures in 8 units. However, we all have working XBOXes and Microsoft has been pretty keen on helping customers get their money's worth out of their purchases.
Sad story.
I also got mine within a month of launch and it is still chugging along no problems. (knock on wood)
I bought my first Xbox 360 in Dec 2005, had hard drive failure in two months (exchanged with GameStop for free), then RROD 1 year later (MS repaired for free, it actually died right before MS extended all coverage to 3 years), then RROD again 1.5 years later (MS repaired for free) had another RROD again about 6 months ago way outside the 3 year warranty and MS still repaired for free. It was annoying as anything to wait a few weeks each time, but at least I have only bought one Xbox 360
i have never had RROD and ive had a 360 since launch and an elite since its launch so going by statistics one of them should have broken by now, but no
I've got 3 360's. Never had a red ring on any of them.
What does one need with three of the same console?!
Media Center throughout the house.
3 separate Media Center extenders for each TV in the house, with a central PC as a Media Center server?
So why the hell do you have three?
yeah. All of the media is stored on Windows Home Server on an array of drives totalling 10TB. TV is recorded with an HDhomerun network tuner.
Works great and there's no monthly charge for the antenna :)
You could have bought one of these too, you know:
http://www.extenderforwindowsmediacenter.com/products.html
I guess the price was a factor (they're not much cheaper), but at least they're kind of reliable.
But if you haven't been gaming much with the Xboxes, I guess they never really heated up much.
Those were more expensive for quite some time. Now they don't work with h.264 encoding that is now available with windows 7. The 360 is cheaper and works perfectly.
True. Plus, it would make for one awesome LAN party.
I have 3 as well. I've been a media center junkie since xp. once you go media center, everything else is junk.
High five. I made it thru a PS, PS2, and now a 360 Elite, no problems.
Guess I don't play 'em enough.
I'll have to pick up that PS3 slim and see how it treats me...
Have to be some high decibels at your place.. I cant justify one xbox360 for its high soundlevel, what about 3 :)
Moral of the story: Using Xbox360 mainly as media center doesn't RROD but using it for gaming likely will.
So, does that mean that I shouldn't mention that two of them also are used for gaming? Still no RROD.
Wow so thhey poll gamers and say the 360 is played more even ignoring the fact that most of the wiis fan base is not gamers and wouldnt read game informer. That poll is so heavily biased.
"most of the wiis fanbase is not gamers" -most accurate opinion on the page
Exactly my thoughts.
Only hardcore gamers (or enthusiasts) make up most of Game Informer's subscriber base. The poll is statistically insignificant, especially the data about the Wii, since the largest part of Wii owners are either kids or light gamers, who don't care enough to sign up for a gaming magazine.
I'm guessing the non-hardcore Wii gamers play even less often, so if anything, the Wii usage number should be lower.
I know I haven't played the Wii in over a year, but I use my XBOX daily.
Not true. Most of the people who bought wii's were parents buying them for their kids. Parents at gamestop are easy to sell a gaming magazine that comes with discounts to. Ill bet quite a few of them paid the 10 dollar edge membership fee.
But how many of those consoles that RROD'd are still being played?
Mine is. So, while it failed, I sent it into MS and they fixed it for free and no more problems. While it did fail, it is not in the dump and still being used.
Ive had mine since launch and it has never RROD.
Its high...but that sounds too high....hell joystiq said had they polled just their writers it would have been 100%.....point is that if they would have broadened that survey to say 20,000 people it may have been slightly more realistic somewhere around 20%....unless they happen to purposely poll 20,000 people that had failures...
out of the 40-50 people I personally know with 360's ALL of them have sent their 360 in at LEAST twice.....would that be 100% but also unfair considering its such a small number of people
Also, don't forget that people with problems might be more interested in voicing their opinions; I haven't had a problem yet (knock on wood) but I didn't feel compelled to make my voice heard in any survey.
true....I've only had my Elite 360 for 5 months....I HOPE that mine is fine for at least a couple of years.....but since I only play 3-4 games on it it should be fine
Im sorry but 100% of 40-50 people is not a small number of failures. Its just ridiculous.