SquareTrade found that Xbox 360 quality has improved dramatically since the third quarter of 2008, shortly before the 65nm CPU/GPU "Jasper" model was introduced. Since then, first-year failure rates have plummeted to below the 4 percent the company projected. Looking at 500 units purchased in 2009, SquareTrade found that less than 1 percent had suffered the Red Ring of Death.
"Consumers and developers alike have been talking about the variety of issues that have plagued Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console since launch. The infamous Red Ring of Death was something that millions of consumers have had to deal with over the past few years. Although these issues are well-known, the exact failure rates are still unknown…"
Yahoo! Games: Playback 92 Part 1
The Xbox ‘red ring of death’ error may have affected as many as half of the console’s users.
Videogame fans are no stranger to the concept of hardware failure, especially if you happen to own an Xbox 360. James Lincoln of NoMoreGameBlogs takes a look at console failure rates and whether they should be enough to sway a consumer’s decision.
If you’re reading this and you own an Xbox 360, chances are you have seen this image at least once. In fact even if you aren’t an Xbox owner chances are you know someone who has. Unfortunately for Xbox owners this seems to be a far more regular occurance than it should be.
In a survey of 5000 gamers carried out by Game Informer they found that 54.2% of Xbox owners had their Xbox die on them at least once with a terrifying 41.2% having their Xbox die a second time. Compare this to the PS3 which has a failure rate of just 10.6% with 14.7% experiencing a second failure and the Wii’s results of 6.8% and 11% respectively then the numbers make scary reading both for 360 gamers and Microsoft.
The other startling fact thrown up by the survey are that 69.9% of gamers know someone who has had a suicidal Xbox 360 next to 12.4% for PS3 and just 6% for the Wii. The approval ratings for customer service are also pretty appalling for Microsoft with only 37.7% of customers being satisfied by their service compared to 51.1% for Sony and 56.1% for Nintendo. These numbers are pretty bad across the board when you think that each company is aiming for 100% customer satisfaction.
These jaw-dropping figures were published in September’s issue of Game Informer and we would hope that someone from Microsoft reads them and takes note.
