A recent survey conducted by Game Informer gave a fail rate of 54% to the Xbox 360. None of you seemed surprised by that number. We've all seen enough of the Red Ring of Death to know. I don't think Microsoft was surprised by it, either. But from what Microsoft man Aaron Greenberg says, you can rest assured that your newer Xbox 360 is going to last you. And those bad days? He says that he feels that "most of this is well behind us."
"I can tell you the consoles we're making today have lower-heat chips and better cooling, and we're seeing fantastic quality in those consoles today," Greenberg told GameSpot. "That said, I know people have had issues with systems which were bought earlier in the life cycle and that's part of the reason why we implemented our unprecedented three-year warranty for anyone who gets the three red-ring flashing light error or the E74 error."
I'd ask you, the gamer, if these improvements came a bit too late, but obviously they haven't. I don't know of anyone who stopped playing Xbox 360 because of these hardware failures. You know that Microsoft has learned from their errors. That next piece of hardware is going to be tested so hard that it's not even going to be funny.
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
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Contest:
12:40 PM on 08.27.2009
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I was young at the time; I didn't understand. 4 Xbox 360s later, I do. They got the games, I don't care if I have to replace my console every few months, the games are so damn good.
My PS3 luckily has never crapped out on me once; maybe it's because I've played less than 5 games on it?
P.S MS when everyone in the world is still dealing seeing red claiming its fix will only aggravate the problem.
I got the E74 Monday night. Fuck you Microsoft.
I don't think the average consumer will believe them unless they bring out a new unit that visibly looks different from the rest and says "new hardware" or something to visibly show it's a unit constructed to prevent red-ring. Even then... the stats will tell the real story.
Still, Microsoft has become dominant pretty much everywhere except for Japan this generation. People's willingness to put up with the quality issues may not say as much to Microsoft as the cost of the console failure rates.
Personally, I hope that they do. I think that if nothing else, they will at least IMPROVE the situation on the next console, because they have to have lost profit from all of that warranty work and those replacements. Hopefully, they will even eliminate it. I guess only time will tell.
...idiots
I hate to have to say this, but I think that's probably wrong. I'm on my 6th Elite, all 5 previous have failed under warranty from GAME so at least the replacement costs nothing and only takes a trip to the shop, but I thought the Elite was meant to fix half the problems? The new hardware will be given the same treatment as the old, I expect it will be rushed out before the other manufacturers release their next console in an attempt to get a head start in the market as was the case of the 360, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to find a similar amount of errors. However, I think that next-gen they won't add the red lights, because all that did is give the public a catchy name for whatever errors the new device has.
You only have to look at the Arcade price rise in Britain, the £40-a-year advert driven online service, the £60 Wi-Fi adapter, the cost of Games on Demand titles etc. To know that Microsoft have enough of a brand following to never need to care about consumer satisfaction again.
My nintendo from 1986 still works great.
I live in perpetual fear of my 60gig BC PS3 dying though. I heard it's a hassle to get those fixed or replaced. But PS3s seem to be more durable, so only time will tell.
@PappaDukes - I so agree ha ha.
And I don't plan to ever buy an Xbox 360.
Listening to you guys talk makes me unsure. The stupid 99 dollar wifi also seems like I'm not really saving any money.
Fuck it, you guys just saved me 400 bucks.
I think he means:
"Our last hope to save money about the HUMONGOUS F-UP and not get sued"
I'd rather have a 360 break than a PS3 break. When a PS3 gets the yellow LED or whatever all the data on the hard drive cannot be recovered and Sony replace it with a brand new unit. Back-up your saves!
I would honestly buy a 360 if I didn't have to buy all the extra crap (wifi, HDD, Live subscription). There are some sweet games like Lost Odyssey that I would kill to play. Oh well.
Everything I put on my PS3 is from my PC so I always have a back up. You can backup games, I honestly don't know how lol, but I can re-download them again if my PS3 ever breaks down. [Did this when I swapped the 60g for 500gb! pure sw33tness.]
What is so hard to understand that shrinking the GPU to 65nm in the Jasper chipsets have reduced the heat?