blog
- The 360 RroD
- Posted About 1 month ago by Voyou San
So i found this article today and I thought it was a well written and thought out article and I wanted to post it up here and see what the 360 owners here have to say. Why are you guys not upset with Microsoft and their hardware issues? Why do people just accept this? I am just curious, not trying to bash the 360, i am just honestly curious as to why so many people just accept the hardware failures and never really force Microsoft to change. I mean the main reason i have not purchased a 360, though i would love to have one, is the fact that i cannot trust the hardware.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
First of all, I'm well aware that we're a PlayStation-oriented site (not a fansite or blog, for the record), but this doesn't mean we're not gamers like everyone else. I own both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 as does most everyone else I know at this point. However, regardless of the platform, I'm not understanding something: the catastrophe that is the "Red Ring of Death" system failure - yeah, you heard me; catastrophe - continues to run rampant, and as far as I can tell, Microsoft hasn't done anything to fix the problem. They hide behind this, "oh, it's just a flaw that can happen...there's nothing we can do about it." Translation- "We want all of you to buy multiple 360s."
Why? Why aren't more consumers absolutely livid about this? Over the past few years, I've paid close attention to this ongoing saga, and at one point, the RRoD issue caused defective rates to jump to over 30%. That's 1/3, people. One out of every three 360s sold have failed or will fail; that's what that number means. Since then, retailers have reported a decreasing number of defective returns, but it certainly hasn't decreased enough to be respectable. The latest results are all over the place, but the bigger retailers will still estimate a sold : returned defective ratio of anywhere between 10 and 25%. Now, during the worst times, Microsoft insisted it was no more than 3-5%, which is a flat-out lie, and nobody seemed to care. Then they say there's nothing they can do about it, and still, everyone stays quiet. What the hell is going on here?! Is this the biggest, most elaborate mind-wash in the history of electronics?
It would be one thing if the 360's competitors had similar issues, but both the Wii and PS3 are remarkably reliable, with retailer defective ratios always hovering around 1-3%. That's acceptable. That's expected. Nobody I know who owns a Wii has ever had it fail, and nobody I know who owns a PS3 has ever had it fail. The 360 tally? Well, one friend is currently on his third. Another is only on his second, but he just bought his first back in March. A third friend is on his fourth 360 in two years, and another acquaintance of mine has simply given up after his fourth bit the dust. This is insane. Look, I have the 360 for the same reasons others have it; games like Gears of War 1 and 2, Halo 3 and Fable II are too good to pass up, and I've immensely enjoyed other titles like Lost Odyssey, Beautiful Katamari, and I'm looking forward to Left 4 Dead. While I firmly believe the PS3 outstripped the 360 in 2008 (MGS4, LBP, and R2 is an unbeatable exclusive trio), the software is there for the 360.
But can that be the only reason? Is it somehow less frustrating for other people when their system fails? Because it would piss me right off, and it has in the past. We all pay a substantial sum of money for our entertainment, and the 360 is - and I'm not going to sugarcoat this - a horrendously unreliable machine, and it's an utter embarrassment as far as I'm concerned. It wouldn't matter if it were a blender or a camera; when something has such a disastrous defective rate, it is completely unacceptable and consumers need to punish the company responsible for the product. And yet, this isn't happening. Well, the PS3 has been catching up quite rapidly as of late, but that's probably due more to the aforementioned exclusives, Blu-Ray, enhanced Network and Store, and lower price. It probably has less to do with the RRoD issue on the 360, and this just bugs the crap out of me. Yes, the 360 gets a lot less play time for me, but a lot of that is because I'm just worried it'll fail if I even look at the thing.
Everywhere I go, I hear about another failed 360. It could be my cousin's house where my uncle has brought the 360 to the post office three times already, or it could be down at GameStop, where yet another 360 with the three flashing red lights is sitting in the promotional display. Yeah, that's one hell of a promotion. But obviously, Microsoft doesn't care, and that's because they clearly have nothing to worry about. And they won't have anything to worry about unless consumers smarten up and execute their right to say, "ah, no, I don't want to be stolen from." The 360 is a fine gaming machine, and I'm not going to deny that. But someone somewhere needs to force Microsoft to fix this. And if you honestly believe they can't, you really are a lost cause.
P.S. Concerning 360 worldwide sales, I'm just wondering...how many of those are "new" buyers whose warranty ran out and had to buy a new one? I mean, I'm just curious.
http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/4152.html
| Share this article: |
|
Comments
and honestly right after Gabe said that, he came out and said that they needed to look into making games for the PS3 so :)
@ sean, i have not seen those issues, i have a 60GB PS3.
It's completely ignorant for the author of that article to suggest that 360 owners are morons who are too engulfed in their love for BIG AMERICAN CORPORATIONS (as opposed to BIG JAPANESE CORPORATIONS) to notice that they are being swindled every time they turn on an xbox 360.
The red ring of death is tolerable because the 360 consistently hosts better games, and xbox live is the undisputed online gaming champion.
I have had my console for 2 years, and just recently (about a month and a half ago) got the RRoD. It is certainly frustrating, but MS fixes it for free, and throws in a free one-month trial of XboxLIVE Gold. I would like to know whether or not it is something that can be totally fixed, as in, it will never happen again.
For the author to definitively state that Microsoft can fix the problem, I have to ask: what does he know about the 360 hardware that the general gaming public does not?
seanasaurus for the win.
Here's a question for you PS3 owners: how do you tolerate constant changes to hardware, negation of features (backwards compatibility), and major developers calling your system a total failure?
I will agree that this is a PS3 oriented site
Honestly, my PS2 was sent away 3 times to Sony for disc read errors, and they wanted $89 dollars each time which I had to fight hard to have the waive. Eventually nothing played on my PS2. That being said I was still huge on the PS2. I loved it and I stood by it till the end.
Same thing with my 360. It died on me once. I called them and they fixed it for Free and did it in 4 days. They even threw in a free month of LIVE. I really think it comes down to the fact that re-vamping the entire system to fix the problem is probably more costly than offering to fix any for 3 years. And the price drops show that they don't want to alienate you from purchasing another.
Replacing my system through Microsoft was overall a pleasant experience, which is weird considering that I am a MAC guy and hate them in all other regards. But Sony only offered to fix my PS2 for free when I yelled at them for 30 mins on the phone.
Besides the issue with the rings of death, the 360 online community is tight, where Sony's is not as of yet (it is getting there). And the exclusives on 360 grab my attention better than the PS3s.
I say theirs a reason to get mad theirs different rings of death full rings are not covered by the extended warranty as I found out so I am not covered
its a great system, but IMO hardware failure is not a minor setback.. its something you shouldn't have to deal with. Great games are all good but failure to put out decent hardware that you know is faulty is bad business and shouldn't be condoned. I mean do they expect me to trust the next system they put out?
its a fix that should fix it for a year at the least.
if it is to severe for them to fix they send you a brand new systyem.
and the system is great along with its onlien and game selection so it is very worth it.
its jsut a minor setback
I'll gladly put up with the RROD for the amazing games on the system and an all around better online community. Yeah, it sucks. But shit happens. I'll deal.
i would hope they fix it for free, its their cock up that is causing your system to crash. Though you have to wonder, what do they do to really fix it if users are getting multiple systems that crash? If i send mine in, i get it back "fixed" and then i get the RROD later, how much did they really "fix" my system? Would that just hint that all they did was send me a refurbished system?
The newer 360s have better hardware now.
as for the old ones i see no reason to get mad.
Microsoft fixes it for FREE.
and mines took a week to fix, if that.
they do a really good jopb for the most part with fixing it
PS2 had a pretty high failure too, not as severe, but I had at least 2 "phat" PS2 die on me from the drive dying out.
My current "phat" model can't play Valkyrie Profile 2 correctly, I keep getting "Reading Disc" red dialogs right in the middle of battles. (which is what pushed me in buying a slim with which it does not happen)
initially, Sony disregarded this as being widespread, but they almost got hit by a class action suit which made them switch to fixing the issue for free.
Though, the latest models of the 360 are much much less prone on getting RRoD's though it is still happening. It's probably costing them a lot less to repair those for free than remodeling it completely.
i really do not remember the PS2 having that much of a failure rate and i dont know if they can really say hey, after 3 years guess what, pay us 200 bucks for another console when other console owners are sitting there, only having to purchase 1 console in that time frame and theirs is still going. My fat PS2 lasted me the whole 8-10 years that I had it, the SLIM PS2 the whole 4 years or so i had it and my PS3 better last me a long time too, i shouldn't be expected to have to shell out 200 bucks every 3 years because of lazy development.
They are, the 3 year one is ending for a lot of people. Luckily, that's when the price drops hit, so it's 200 bucks for a new one. I think they also did it because 3 years (give or take) was about how long the PS2 lasted before people needed to flip it, put a book on it, or use other voodoo to keep it running. They can always throw that card.
very true and i think that has helped offset the hardware failures in a lot of people's mind. Hey it may mess up a lot but its super cheap, though i wonder what will happen when all these warranties expire and the RROD is still happening.
I agree, and I think MS should be sued out the ass for this, but it doesn't negate all of the good exclusives. It's a problem, but not enough of one to ignore the system over. Plus, they are dropping in price and CHEAP as hell now, which helps.
thats very true and a good point Coop, though i know with my lack of patience after the 2nd time of it dying i would just miss out on those good games and go somewhere else. I just feel that for the amount of money i put into a system with games, accessories, etc, that i should be getting a system that works and works all the time. I just know that one day i would get home after a horrible day of work, wanting nothing more to get lost in video games, my 360 would RROD and i would be utterly PISSED, same thing if my PS3 suddenly died on me.
What's the point of being angry about it? What can we do? If we get upset and don't buy the system we miss out on amazing games - woo hoo, yay for being angry! I've had two die, and it really, really sucks, but the system is fantastic when it works, and it works 99% of the time. That 1% sucks, though.