Ok, now this is truly ridiculous! Xbox 360 failure rate: 30%!

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gaming/xb...ers-271487.php

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We always knew the Xbox 360 failure rate was high, but the only time Microsoft's put any sort of solid numbers on the thing it was always somewhere around 5%. Retailers, on the other hand, have just reported a failure rate of somewhere over 30%. That's pretty ridonkulous. It's a good thing Microsoft support is usually pretty good about taking them back, so you don't have to go all Picard and shout about how many lights there are over the phone.

From what we've seen in unconfirmed reports on the Net, the problem comes from insufficient cooling for the GPU. This in turn causes the three red lights, which means you're going to have to send back your 360 to Microsoft and possibly get a dirty refurbished unit in return. If you're really, really lucky (and French), you'll get a unit with added cooling as well.

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I always thought 5% was already too much, but 30%? Holy damn, no wonder some users are reporting their 5th replacement.

Fredi

Dirty refurbishment?
I like it, my disc drive broke (my fault) and when I got another with my old HD it had all the stuff like free-trials and points. ;)

Subby won't own one because it's made by Microsoft. Every bit of dirt on MS he can get he dumps in the lounge.

I don't like mine. Incidentally, mine's been sent to repairs for the second time just 3 weeks ago. Still waiting for it to be returned. I can't wait for it to get back...so I can sell it and buy a Wii...maybe even an iPhone. :D

Good luck on the resell.

zakp0, do what I do, get a 360 AND a wii.
360 for fun, Wii for when you have lots of people around

if you weren't so far away and shipping would kill me I would buy it :)

I need GTA IV.

sorry, me don't knows what a xbox is. I only play with my wii.

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Originally Posted by tidenburg

zakp0, do what I do, get a 360 AND a wii.
360 for fun, Wii for when you have lots of people around

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You're kidding me right? The 360 is the least fun I've ever had with a console. I've owned over 30 games for it, and only liked GoW, which got repetitive after a while. The only other game I've liked on it was Small Arms, but thats XBL (which I dont have), so I can't even get it.

I'm buying the Wii simply because it has more of a fun factor to it. I want games that are fun, I couldn't care less what they looked like. Heck, I still use an SDTV.

Wannabe, GTA IV on PC FTW. :p

I heard a rumor that an online street fighter was being developed from the ground up just for xbl. If that's true I might have to get one. I'm not buying any console until january at the earliest anyway so we'll see who's out front.

so... with 30% failure, they're still outselling the PS3, right?

my first 360 crashed after about 6 months, had to send it back and pay like 150 for the replacement because it was out of warranty. Customer service was pretty good actually and I got a new one right away. To my surprise I received a check from Microsoft months later refunding my $150 - stating they were going to extend the warranties on all the original launch failures...pretty shocked to receive that to be honest.

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Originally Posted by zakp0

You're kidding me right? The 360 is the least fun I've ever had with a console. I've owned over 30 games for it, and only liked GoW, which got repetitive after a while. The only other game I've liked on it was Small Arms, but thats XBL (which I dont have), so I can't even get it.

I'm buying the Wii simply because it has more of a fun factor to it. I want games that are fun, I couldn't care less what they looked like. Heck, I still use an SDTV.

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You're kidding me right?

I have had both the Wii and the 360 since their respective launch dates. I've put countless hours into my 360, and maybe 30 hours into my Wii. Those 30 hours, were mainly in party situations with Wii Sports, Wario Ware, and Rayman.

I dont think i've turned it on in months. Meanwhile, the 360, I've put 140 hours into Oblivion, 40+ hours into Gears, etc... The 360 Live Arcade is also a great addition where you can play unique titles instead of the Wii's releases of older console games.

Anyway, It's obviously a personal taste. From my experience, my Wii is more of a dusty party favor while my 360 is where i get my serious game on.

For you casual gamers who dont care about anything but short lived fun, the Wii is for you.

That's me. A casual gamer. For more intense gaming I play PC games. Oblivion, I've put over 200 hours into on the PC. Same goes with AOE3, C&C3, and the like, all on PC, and with many hours.

But the 360, meh. It's been away for repairs longer than it's been here for me to play it.

When did you get a 360?

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Originally Posted by gerbick

so... with 30% failure, they're still outselling the PS3, right?

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Maybe they count all the repairs as well. ;)

Nah seriously, Sony has to release more games and reduce the price. They just announced 380 games that are in the work and a price reduction was discussed as well, so I think they identified that problem as well. IMHO they already won the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD fight thx to the PS3, so up to the next fight I would say. ;)

Fredi

They sorta undercut themselves with producing a lower priced (than the PS3) Blu-Ray player. That cannibalized the PS3 sales a bit in the US/Canada region.

Then with the 380 games that are upcoming... how many are "must haves"?

Tekken 6
Dirt
Little Big Planet
EA's lineup
Final Fantasy XIII

erm... I'm already running out.

Metal Gear Solid
Ratchet & Clank
Folklore
GT5
Wipeout
Resident Evil 5
Monster Hunter 3
Devil May Cry 4
Uncharted: Drakes's Fortune
Heavenly Sword
Lair
Ninja Gaiden Sigma
The Darkness
GTA 4
Assassin's Creed
Silent Hill

... and I'm sure E3 will have lots of new announcements.

Fredi

Screw Sony... they never delivered Gran Turismo for the PSP. Launch title... my arse.

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Originally Posted by gerbick

When did you get a 360?

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End of November.

Been to repairs twice, both times gone for over a month and a half. This time, it's already been 3 weeks and no word on whether they've even got it yet (they usually send me an email about it).

I love my 360, Dirt has recently taken over my life and I've had lots of fun with GoW, Saints Row and many others. I see no reasons whatsoever to spent £400+ on a PS3 when Sony are losing all of their exclusivity rights.

GTAIV Episodic Content only on X360. 'nuff said.

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Originally Posted by zakp0

Wannabe, GTA IV on PC FTW. :p

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Did you just say GTA on PC?- Zak FTL. Only thing good that ever came out of GTA on the PC is when you are bored of the actual game you can mod it and god crazy with the maps. Other then that playing it on PC sucks. Maybe if I was a Microsoft whore and gave them my money for Vista- then could use the 360 controller on my pc it might be alright.

I used a pretty basic Logitech gamepad for GTA:SA on the PC. Worked wonders. Can't see how it would be any different from playing it on a console?

Mind you, I HAVE played GTA:SA on my XBOX1, and I really didn't see any difference. My gamepad even has two analogue sticks.

Update on the broken Xbox 360 front: http://www.360-gamer.com/news.asp?id=1143

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New complaints claim out-of-country repair centres are now being used due to unprecedented demand

Microsoft’s UK repair centre in Havant is now redistributing faulty consoles to foreign repair centres in order to clear an overwhelming backlog and keep up with the 1,500 to 2,500 Xbox 360s arriving at its doors on a daily basis, according to customer reports.

According to Lee Sherman (Gamertag, Toxic Daywalker), who sent us details of his horrible experience, his Xbox 360 had been sent to Prague for repair, which has extended the repair time considerably.

He talks of how three weeks and repeated phone calls yielded no further clues to the status of his repair, with customer service representatives merely telling him that it would be “returned shortly”.

Lee even claims that when he asked to speak to the repair centre direct, he was told this wasn’t possible because they don’t have phones... However, using a directory enquiry service he was able to obtain the number for the repair centre, where he was shocked to learn that his console was actually in Prague, not Havant as Microsoft customer service reps had claimed.

Additionally, the call to the Havant repair centre revealed some other worrying stats: “A shocking statistic we found out though is that between 1,500 to 2,500 consoles get sent to Havant by three UPS lorries per day, to then be shipped to Prague for repair,” Lee told us, going on to add, “[We] phoned up Nora the [customer service] supervisor again, who then admitted my console was in Prague and hadn’t been looked at yet – she seemed amazed that we knew!”

Comments from users on the Xbox.com forum reveal similar woes, and some have also discovered their consoles are indeed in repair centres outside of the UK: “I just spoke to the customer support people because my 360 has been gone since the 8th of June,” says forum user, LordBrown in a post dated 23rd of June. “Apparently because of the backlog in Havant they’re sending 360s to repair centres outside the UK! And that because of this Microsoft are legally allowed an additional ten days to get your 360 back to you.”

From the sounds of things it seems Microsoft is fighting a losing battle on this front, as more and more units flood in for repair. It kind of reminds of that bit in Santa Claus The Movie when all of those defective wooden toys started falling apart…

We connected Microsoft this morning, however we’re still waiting for an official response. We’ll let you know the moment we hear anything.

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That's even worse than the >30% reported in the US. I actually thought about buying one a few weeks ago, but with this kind of failure rate ... no way!

http://aycu39.webshots.com/image/188...4351532_rs.jpg

Fredi

Ok Subway, we get it. You don't like Microsoft.

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Originally Posted by gerbick

Screw Sony... they never delivered Gran Turismo for the PSP. Launch title... my arse.

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I'll jump on that bandwagon, but still, I reckon the PS3 is on a different sales curve to the 360. I don't think that comparing the numbers like-for-like offers an accurate view of the market.

If the reported number for the UK is correct, than the failure rate is >50%. You would normaly recall a product with a failure rate this high.

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Originally Posted by j_hunter182

Ok Subway, we get it. You don't like Microsoft.

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And you wonder why? ;)

Fredi

nintendo is worth more then sony in japan.

Has anyone noticed that the xbox in that pic is pushed all the way against the wall. With wires covering the exhaust in an area that looks poorly ventilated. Umm...wonder why it is overheating. I've had my 360 for about a year and a half, I spent 20$ for one of those 'fancy' extra cooling things that snap onto the back and put it on a wire rack that has good ventilation, that is also about four inches from the wall and have never had a problem. Even though it is on for about a third of the day playing movies. Though my friend has his in a corner next to his TV in a shelving unit and has sent it back four time.......I wonder why.......People with the five failures have never thought about moving where there unit is I bet.

Also in those numbers how many are the elite system? are those failing?

creativeInsomnia your forgetting the extra time it takes to download updates, which is even worse how long it takes because you cannot do anything whilst its installing.

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Originally Posted by tidenburg

creativeInsomnia your forgetting the extra time it takes to download updates, which is even worse how long it takes because you cannot do anything whilst its installing.

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I dont know where i am forgetting this...i never said anything about downloads.

If you're talking about downloading updates for your 360...they never take more than a minute to download, so I've never had a problem with that. The Wii on the other hand, is painful. I dont know how many times i've tried to download a system update and it hangs in the middle after about 5-10 minutes, then i restart the Wii and try again...and again.

And Wannabe, I have an Elite and so far so good...it's actually a helluva lot quieter than my previous 360.

No, I meant you listed times for using the Wii. You have to add the looonng download and install times which you have to sit through as soon as you put the thing online. As you said you can do other things while your 360 downloads and installs (and its quicker)

Why did you upgrade?

It's cuz he likes black plastic.

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Originally Posted by WannaBe_80z

Also in those numbers how many are the elite system? are those failing?

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From what I've read, only the normal systems sold in France have the extra cooling. No idea when they start selling those in other countries. Looks like they have chosen France as the test country to test this "fix".

Fredi

Yeah- I read somewhere even if your system isn't failing you can send it to microsoft and get the new cooling system put in.

I almost want to get the Elite has it is a newer model and make then the other systems and hopefully won't have as many troubles...

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Originally Posted by WannaBe_80z

Why did you upgrade?

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I had the extended warranty on my previous 360 and i wanted an Elite. My previous 360 was having some freezing issues while playing Oblivion. So i sent it back and got the Elite.

So you just paid the difference? I wonder if I could get a broken one off ebay and trade it up haha :)

The warrenty card is filled out at the shop right? So you couldn't just buy a system get a broken one off like ebay and then fill out the card for the broken one and then just ship it back?

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Originally Posted by WannaBe_80z

So you just paid the difference? I wonder if I could get a broken one off ebay and trade it up haha :)

The warrenty card is filled out at the shop right? So you couldn't just buy a system get a broken one off like ebay and then fill out the card for the broken one and then just ship it back?

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Yeah i just paid the difference. The warranty was purchased seperately so you couldnt actually buy a broken one off ebay and trade it in. I actually sent my 360 back to Circuit City where they "tested" it and then sent me a gift card for the amount.

I always buy the extended in store warranty when I buy a launch system. It has paid off with the PS2 twice, and now the 360.