CNet: 47% Of Xbox 360s RROD Within A Year
RROD, YLOD and WiiWaveyStickOfDeath. Or something. Related stories (more)PS4 To Use A Power7 CPU?
European 250 Gig Bundles Revealed?
360 Getting New WiFi Adaptor
Article written by Tuffcub in PS3 News, Xbox 360 News, on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 9:00.
CNet commissioned a survey a while back to help find the most reliable chunk of gaming hardware and the results are in. 1,128 console owners in the UK were surveyed and between them they owned 562 Xbox 360s, 473 PS3s and 591 Wiis. Now pay close attention, here comes the science bit
- Owners of Xbox 360s bought after January 2008 reported a 34% failure rate.
- 47% of Xbox owners reported the console failing within a year.
- 32% of Xbox owners reported the console breaking more than once.
- 16% of all PS3 users had a YLOD or other hardware failure.
- 6% of Wiis decided to kick the bucket.
Bear in mind that that people who had hardware problems were probably more inclined to fill in the survey, but even so the Xbox failure rate is at least double the Playstation. I would suggest that the Wii has a low failure rate just because it is technically less complex.
Source: CNet
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
webby_15-0 | 18/11/2009 09:05
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123 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
I just got the YLOD during MW2. This seems to be quite common don’t you think? Anyway Im now going to have to fork out £108 for a repair from a third party. Plus ive decided to buy an elite to go along side it.
Matherz | 18/11/2009 12:13
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121 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
its for this reason exactly that I forked out on a new elite xbox 360 and stayed away from getting a second hand one. Wanted the warranty cover.
S1nghSat1onal | 18/11/2009 17:13
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73 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
I’d just get mine insured incase this does happen. Ive still got another years worth of insurance left from GAME. Then I can renew it.
jonny_bolton | 18/11/2009 09:12
Chooses The Impossible
1813 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
I had two Slims come into work broken the other day. One with a red screen that said “Techincal Issue” or something like that in every possible language, and one that just wouldn’t even boot up. Everytime you pressed the button on the front it’d go Green for a second, then a little flash of Yellow would appear as 3 beeps sounded before it turned Red. Not good.
We also had some pleb come in and moan that his Phatty PS3 wasn’t working. “It just kept on saying no signal”. He wouldn’t listen to me that he needed to hold down the reset button to get it to display for his TV after swapping from HD…oh well.
djdustb | 18/11/2009 09:19
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1207 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
You should have said to the pleb it would take some time to fix it. Take it off him, reset it, then use it yourself for a while, three weeks later give it back and charghe him £100 for it! SOme people really don’t deserve technology.
Radboud | 18/11/2009 10:44
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899 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
I had a very strange thing with my “phat” PS3 (60GB Launch Model).
After a lot of Flash PLayer loading, YouTube and other websurfing it didn’t react anymore, so I held my finger on the reset button, heard three beeps and let go…. It did restart, but got hungup on the start screen, so I did it again.
Now the PS3 restarted and showed a strange menu to me…. It had the following options:
1. Restart System
2. Restore Default Settings
3. Restore File System
4. Rebuild Database
5. Restore PS3 System
6. System Update
Anyone got an idea what just happened?
I choose to restart the system (1) and it is working fine again, but the menu scared the hell out of me when I first saw it coming on screen…..
Vandix | 18/11/2009 10:48
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Lol, you’ve discovered the PS3’s safe-mode by accident…
RedStarGlow | 18/11/2009 12:35
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After the flash update, my PS3 would not boot up. Lucky for me someone had already posted the a fix on the internet. I had to actually access that menu and I either did #2 or #4.
It booted back up without issue.
Amphlett | 18/11/2009 09:19
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Do CNET state what sort of fanboy/flaming filter they applied to this survey?
Apnomis | 18/11/2009 09:50
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Nice to see I’m not the only cynic on here, that was my first thought too. Unless they can varify the results somehow this survey is useless for 4 reasons:
1) How many 360 fanboys pretended to have a broken PS3
2) How many 360 fanboys claim their 360 has been fine when it has broken
3) How many PS3 fanboys pretended to have a broken 360
4) How many PS3 fanboys claim their 360 has been fine when it has broken
I’m sorry but fanboyism this gen is at a peak, it’s something I’ve never really been aware of in previous generations but maybe that’s because there was always one dominant console and this time it’s a pretty even 3 way split (if you discount the ‘casual’ gamers).
I mean after seeing 360 fanboys attack the user rating of the PS3 version of MW2 because it was scoring a point higher than the 360 version, and then the PS3 fanboys attacking the user rating of the 360 version in retaliation I’ve decided there are no lengths a fanboy wouldn’t go to in order to make the ‘enemy’ console look bad, even when it involves a game on both that looks great on both! It’s all very sad…
Amphlett | 18/11/2009 10:34
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Me, a cynic? If you say so.
My wife made me take a New Year’s Resolution to give up being cynical. It lasted for about 5 days!
Deadpixel | 18/11/2009 09:19
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339 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
Sounds like a story for Watchdog, oh no wait, they shouldn’t… But really; 47%, should we say; almost half of Xbox’s break down? That is unacceptable on any scale..
But n = 562 is a rather small research group, isn’t it? In a market where thousands and hundreds of thousands are sold I’d expect a larger number…
Anyway; the indication is there, the numbers are there.. So, webby_15-0, statistically speaking, it wouldn’t be wise to buy an elite as a sidekick, because it’s 2.9 times more likely this machine will die on you too… Statistics.. I don’t like em! XD
Raen | 18/11/2009 09:35
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Well the day one figures for MW2 in the UK were 1.23 million units shifted, so we can safely assume there are at least (read way more) 360s and PS3s than that in the UK. That means that for PS3s and 360s they’re using a sample roughly 0.08% of the minimum UK PS3 and 360 install base. Kinda crazy, really. On the other hand political survey’s use samples of 1,000 for representing the whole country. What does this tell us? That most survey’s are dumb.
Amphlett | 18/11/2009 10:33
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1001 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
True. A survey where 562 xbox owners respond is not entirely reliable. For example, my own survey in the office the other day of 1 xbox owner showed that 100% of xbox’s incur RROD.
cc_star | 18/11/2009 12:52
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Fuck! thats gonna make a good headline, I’m gonna write it up now “100% of 360’s RROD)
However a PS3 survey of 2 of my real world friends (and me) reveals 4 YLOD’s between us, leading to a 133% failure rate on purchases. FACT.
Tuffcub | 18/11/2009 13:01
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Yet I have two PS3s and neither have failed so that makes it 200% success rate.
cc_star | 18/11/2009 13:09
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Cool I need to buy mine from where you buy yours from, although that gives the PS3 a 66% failure rate if we merge our surveys
Raen | 18/11/2009 09:21
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These surveys are starting to bore me now. While the sample size may be good, they’re generally largely answered by people who have hardware failure and by the type of people who are going to find these stories (i.e. heavy gamers). That would have been fine in previous generations, but last generation and more significantly in this one we’ve started to see a lot of gamers who are significantly less involved in the overall gaming scene.
Deadpixel | 18/11/2009 09:29
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339 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
Spot on! If we’d want to conclude anything at all, based on these numbers, we’d have to know where the researchers got their information, who they questioned, where they spread the survey and so on..
Quoting the source article:
“This was a self-selecting survey, so it doesn’t represent a random sample of console owners. It’s likely that people whose consoles have had problems are more motivated to fill out the survey, but the results are still interesting when you compare the Xbox 360 to its competitors.”
So sample size is NOT a good way of judging whether this research is reliable.. I see it now.
Raen | 18/11/2009 09:37
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Oh dear I didn’t read that in the source. This is the problem with all of these “survey’s”, they’re always just on websites, they’re never done by professional survey companies who really know what they’re doing and how to get a more accurate picture.
RadioactiveMouse | 18/11/2009 09:46
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To be honest only a huge survey of all the owners would represent a good population in which to sample from. That way it would be more accurate.
I think that we all fall for the statistics once in a while but we should always take them with a pinch of salt. (see WatchDog
)
Regardless, the amount of people reporting xbox faults s high even in a sample of people whose consoles have broken
Deadpixel | 18/11/2009 09:55
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Even comparing the 360 and PS3’s respondent numbers doesn’t tells us anything about the actual break down numbers. There could be many reasons why the Xbox’s number is higher than the PS3’s number… Only one of those reasons could be that the Xbox actually breaks down more often.
This research (as far as we know it) has BIAS written all over it, and IMHO it should not be headlined at TSA.
Thechunkymunky | 18/11/2009 09:22
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Well, i’m not suprised to see the Wii not breaking much seeing as the tech was already mature. I personally find that failure rate quite bad for the Xbox 360. Maybe Sony and MS should take a leaf out of each others books though. MS should look at Sony for making a more reliable console and Sony should look at Xboxs online (Although I’ve never had any major trouble with PSN)
Watchful | 18/11/2009 09:40
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So 53% of 360s fail after a year? Explains why my RRoDs come at 13 month intervals.
S1nghSat1onal | 18/11/2009 17:41
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True, all my friends that own an xbox have had it within their 13 months or on the 13th. Some have even converted the PS3 which so far I have heard only 1 case of failure so far. But all in all xboxes have been failing before the ps3 came out so i dont think it would be very biased against the consoles.
SpikeyMikey23 | 18/11/2009 09:44
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Wii wavey sticks of death, i like it!
patch | 18/11/2009 09:51
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All I know is that of the 4 ps3s that my friends and I have, none have failed. Of the 7 xbox owning friends I have, all have had RRoD and needed replacements. I haven’t bought an xbox for this reason, despite driving the wife nuts by uhming and aahing every time I see one on special offer. All I’ll say is this: Everyone knows they’re as likely as not to have a problem and yet they still buy one, so there must be something about the 360 that’s worth the hassle.
SpikeyMikey23 | 18/11/2009 10:16
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My first 2 playstations died on me, 1st one, 3 weeks after i bought it, 2nd one 10 days after change. Luckily i bought it at argos, and they just swapped it there and then both times, the 2nd time, i made sure i bought the extended 3 year warranty, which still has a year on it. When i took the 2nd failure back, I ‘accidentally’ forgot to put the control pad in the box, after realising that argos didnt bother checking the contents the 1st time. So i got a free pad for my troubles. nice
2ofclubs | 18/11/2009 10:20
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Interesting figures but, as most others are saying, is it a fair and representative sample? I’m not too bothered either way because I will probably only ever have a PS3. The exclusive games on the 360 aren’t enough to tempt me and the PS3 is closing the gap in terms of hardware and software features. Plus I spend enough time on the PS3 anyway without trying to make room for another console.
Given my experience with Wiimotes and their ability to hit people I can see the ‘Wii Wavey Sticks of Death’ term catching on.
carlosfilippsen | 18/11/2009 10:27
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That is why I want to get a 360 with a Jasper Chipset.
bunimomike | 18/11/2009 10:30
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Even if the figures have been shifted from fanboyism it may well be a consistent shift, as such. However, the biggest surprise was the question about the 360 breaking more than once. A console breaking is understandable but failing again and again? That’s not good for confidence in the system. I know we had a good handle on these figures anyway but I can definitely see why someone would leave MS consoles and not come back.
Raen | 18/11/2009 10:31
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To be fair you are under three year warranty for the two biggest issues and (I think) that three years gets reset when they send you a refurb. It sucks and is annoying, but at least you’re not buying a new one over and over again.
Tuffcub | 18/11/2009 10:47
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You could just by a console that works. I know it’s a radical idea !
Raen | 18/11/2009 11:32
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Depends whether you want that console or not and how much you’ve invested in the 360 as a platform. Also I think you mean “mostly works”
tyrant161 | 18/11/2009 10:40
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Iv’e read this report on vg24/7 and they said that the xbox360’s failure rate was 60% not 47%. They went on to say that 47% of console failures happen in the first year of purchase. Link..http://www.vg247.com/2009/11/17/report-60-of-xbox-360-consoles-in-the-uk-have-failed/
Tuffcub | 18/11/2009 10:50
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There’s an awful lot of figures for the 360, and only a couple for the Wii and PS3. but even taking in account fanboyism and the small survey size – it’s a lot of Xboxes going tits up. A friend of mine has 4 stacked up, all RROD.
Raen | 18/11/2009 11:33
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And he doesn’t send them back because…?
Mick939 | 18/11/2009 10:51
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I had ylod death once, got a slim now though anyone know if there prone to it
Lorcan | 18/11/2009 10:56
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I reckon another reason that there’s little Wii failure is because they never get played after about a week of them being bought.
hol | 18/11/2009 12:39
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too true, had one for less than a month, even made a profit when it sold
BadBoyBoogie | 18/11/2009 15:52
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That’s certainly true of my Wii. It’s not been switched on for nearly a year now!! I keep thinking that I ought to trade it and my WiiFit in, and use the funds to buy a Guitar Hero band pack!!