My Xbox 360 Elite bricked with the infamous E-74 error at the beginning of the month. While I am not an Xbox fanboy, I certainly did most of my gaming on the system. I posted
an article on my site about the entire situation. A little time has gone bye, and I have decided I am swearing off the Xbox 360 permanently.
When I think back on the money I have invested in broken Microsoft gaming products, it's certainly depressing. I went through two original Xbox consoles and three Xbox 360s. When my first two Xbox 360s broke, I purchased new ones and simply sold the broken ones once repaired. I have spent over $2,000 on Microsoft game hardware and have nothing functional to show for it. Instant replacement was something I would continually do considering companies send me 360 games to review and I have also developed a long-term friendship with my Halo group. We go back all the way to the beginning of the series. I will miss playing certain games with my Xbox LIVE friends, but I can no longer justify giving Microsoft money for a poorly designed product. I never thought I'd say this, but I'd rather play my Wii than buy another 360. The PS3 has its issues as well, but I'd rather spend more time gaming on it than going back to the 360.
At this point, I have sold most of my Xbox 360 games and peripherals. I just have a few low-end games left that I might give away or sell for a couple bucks at a local pawn shop. My decision to abandon Microsoft could be unwise considering I make a little money writing about video games, but I simply cannot bring myself to throw away money anymore. Buying an Xbox 360 is like taking $300-$400, rolling it up and smoking it. Perhaps I am burning some bridges with the connections I have that send me 360 games, but there are plenty of Wii and PS3 titles out there to review.
In the end, I simply feel that Microsoft's Xbox 360 policies should be considered criminal. Their warranty is a joke, their customer service is laughable and their product is a lemon.
Wikipedia has an excellent page describing the 360's technical problems. Only read this page if you have a lot of time on your hands. It's long! The only way I will ever play a Microsoft game again is if I am sent a free system. The days of Microsoft getting my hard earned money for an inferior product are over...
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That sucks. I feel for you.
Honestly, at this point, aside from some minor differences in online features, I believe the PS3 and 360 are basically the same consoles. Hardware is the major difference here, and I think we all know which one is more stable in that department.
I've spent almost half of what you've spent and I'm willing to abandon the 360 if it gets terribly annoying in the future.
I'm on console number 4, btw.
Side note: "The days of Microsoft getting my hard earned money for an inferior product are over... "
If that's your current stance then your obviously not going to be playing the Ps3 or the Wii either. Cya in the PC world!
That said I do most of my gaming on the PS3 and relegate my 30 gaming to their exclusives only.
Also, funny you should mention those few low-end games left that you might give away... I happen to accept free low end games. Go figure.
Apparently it has. :)
They don't make 'em like they used to, eh?!
That sucks, man... Arg.
I feel your pain, son. You, my friend, are not alone...
So, get this: I haven't played my Wii much(no surprise there) and was very excited to play it again now that I have House of the Dead: Overkill and soon Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers. Only one effin problem... My system won't read discs now! Wha?!
I did some research and found this to be a common problem with the system. Anyone else run into this heart-breaking situation?
Dammit, now I have send it off to Nintendo, pay them around $80 and play the waiting game...
Why? Why now?! I wanna play Overkill and Slayers! I could cry...
MadWorld and Punch Out!! will be out soon too...
=`(
I would be as mad as you if I had paid for my 360(s). It's still the crappiest feeling.
Time to go back to carts.
It's sad when buying the extra store warranty is the only plausible way to work around the system's issues while still fully enjoying the experience, and yet it's such a simple solution people don't take advantage of that I can't really feel sorry for them. I'm on my third 360 and both of my first two were covered on the same warranty (after I got my third I had to repurchase the two year warranty, but it has gotten cheaper since the system dropped in price from when I bought my first, so it's not all that bad).
I've never had to deal with shipping off the system or anything. I just walk in the store and pick up a fresh one. It's so much easier and totally worth the investment.
Anyone who buys a 360 not knowing the hardware issues didn't do enough research or is just plain ignorant of their purchase. Here's my advice: cover your ass, 'cause Microsoft won't do it for you.
Sorry, to sound like a dick. I'm just getting tired of the RRoD posts (not saying it's your fault, simply stating). I didn't mean to take it out on you and I am sad you've sworn off the console. Titles like L4D will physically not allow me to come to that point, haha.
The issue of the 360 wasnt repaired, so Im done and I dont think I will ever own a 360.
On my 3rd and 4th 360s. One is a spare. I only bought the newest one.
$250
Approx. 50 games. Probably on average $50 per game with all my used and oftentimes brand new games.
2500$..... :,( Good thing I stopped buying them on account of the recession. I think I will stick to rentals from now on...
XBL 1 year card... twice
$120
Vision Cam
20$
Microsoft Points
$60
yeah.... so three fucking grand spent on shitbox 360.. that doesn't even count my PC, Wii, PSP, DS... oh man... I think I know where all my paychecks went...
I did that because i dont want my gaming experience to be nerfed by another dead system
I understand Microsoft's customer service is supposed to be good (I've never had to call them, myself). But none of these problems should be happening in the first place, whether or not they respond well. You'd think after all this time, the problems would be worked out already.
The games and Arcade and everything else the Xbox 360 offers is absolutely fantastic but I wish Microsoft would invest in making better hardware.
Now, it's not like I've never had issues with my other consoles. First PS2 I bought, a little after launch, failed to read DVD discs. That was right out of the box.
My first PS1 died after about a year.
My SNES just refused to display games unless you held the cartridge at a certain angle (usually if I stuck a piece of cardboard in with it...really weird). Probably an issue with the pins on the connector or something.
My DS Lite suffers from the dreaded hinge crack on the left hinge, and the right one has very tiny but noticeable stress cracks.
My NES, while it works, occasionally needs a reworking of the 72-pin connector inside of it; the gold connections needs to be bent slightly so they make contact with the cartridge.
My Atari? Heh...it works when it wants to.
My Wii will occasionally stall when loading a game. I timed it once...3 minutes to load a Gamecube game. Not talking about a game save...this was for it to go from that little disc-spinning animation to the game's title screen. I've heard that could happen if you don't have much room left on the internal memory. Not sure if that's just a rumor or fact, but I don't have many blocks left, so who knows.
Gamecube is fine...just hasn't been hooked up for about a year and a half.
Oh, and my Genesis. No problems with that, either.
Xbox is like crack, ul be back! u may think you have won but if you havent seen a crawling baby on the ceiling it will bite you again!
Did i mention the Lost and Damned is meant to be f-ing awesome?
wow man, at some point you have to feel YOU are the problem not the hardware...
first had a defect in the plastic cd tray.(bubbles in the plastic poped when made and had holes in the tray that scratched my discs)
2nd one i got the power brick didnt work out of the box. but just used the one from the other system(which by the way pro power bricks have a grounded plug, the cheaper ones do not, why?) then it started to freeze and dye.
spent way to much on microsoft just to play the games. not anymore , i now have a ps3 that has yet to have any problems.
never had a bad ps2 or ps1 or snes or tg16 problem. usual nes problems happen everywhere. but most of the time its a simple fix. not a 100% failure that prevents me from playing games like my 360's did. go to hell microsoft.