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Xbox RRODIt’s no secret that Xbox 360s have been bricking, conking out and flashing up red rings of death more often than Bill Gates has had hot dinners, but have you ever wondered what the RROD rate really is? Survey results putting them up against PS3 and Wii breakdown rates are out and they make for very interesting number crunching. Read on to see how the stats stack up.

A poll in the print edition of Game Informer found that the Xbox 360 has a failure rate of 54.2 percent. That’s five times the breakdown rate for the PS3, at 10.6 percent, and 8 times as common as a Wii outage, at 6.8 percent of all Ninty’s units.

Now, the stats are slightly skewed of course: the results also showed Xbox users played their consoles more heavily than PS3 and Wii owners. But that there’s anywhere near a one in two chance your console will die on you isn’t good to know.

To Microsoft’s credit though, it’s doing something right as only 3.8 percent of Xbox 360 owners said they wouldn’t buy another Xbox ever again because of one breaking on them. How many other companies could get away with that sort of brand loyalty in spite of a problem as bad as the RROD plague? Don’t let the power go to your head, Redmond.

Out TBC | £TBC | Xbox (Via Game Informer and The Consumerist)

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  • Mark

    And here is another one that backs up the 360 fail rates.

    http://www.nofussreviews.com/survey-results.php

    As it happens, the ONLY person I know that is still on their original Xbox, had a RROD at the weekend. I don’t know anyone anymore that’s not had at least one replacement.

    I think both these surveys showing 60%ish are being rather generous, as I suspect it to be even higher than that.

    I wonder how many of those are outside the 3yr warranty and get thrown in the bin and replacements bought? I wonder how many people don’t know about the RROD warranty and replace anyway.

    I wonder what the difference is between Microsofts quoted 30m Xbox360′s shipped, and how many are actually in active service….

  • Poppa_P

    You could claim for up to six years in England with the sale of goods act to get your Xbox 360 fixedas proved by the One Show
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theoneshow/consumer/2009/07/03/sale_of_goods_act_letter_downl.html

    or you can try the two towels method to temporary fix the ring of death
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_NkMa9f47Y&feature=related
    it has worked for two people I told.

  • Mark

    @Poppa_P Be careful. You have 6 years to make a claim from date of purchase, that DOES NOT mean it has to last 6 years. That is a total fallacy.

    The SOGA states it has to last a reasonable amount of time. What is reasonable? Thats for you to prove in a small claims court, as that’s the only way you will be able to make a claim outside the manufactuers std 1yr warranty…

    However if you have a XBox fail, I think you wouldn’t have too much of a problem proving there is an inherrent design fault given the numbers of failures are publicity it’s gotten.

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