As an Xbox 360 user from day one, I will again assert that this wonderful console is a double-edged sword. It has the best games and the best network of any console. But when it comes to reliability, the Xbox 360 puts up Yugo-like numbers. It's just an industry joke. The latest evidence comes courtesy of a new study by SquareTrade:
Game Console Failure Rates: Wii 9 times more reliable than Xbox 360, 4 times more than PS3
SquareTrade analyzed failure rates for over 16,000 new game consoles covered by SquareTrade Care Plans and found that the Wii experienced one-fourth of the common failures that the other systems have.
You can download the entire study in PDF form. Among the details:
Looking at the first 2 years of ownership, 2.7% of Wii owners reported a system failure, compared with 10.0% of PlayStation 3 owners, and 23.7% for Xbox 360 owners.
That seems low to me. The Xbox 360 number, that is.
Excluding "Red Ring of Death" failures, which are covered by Microsoft’s 3-year warranty, 11.7% of Xbox 360 owners reported a failure.
There are other kinds of Xbox 360 failures? :)
While the RROD problem continued to be the major issue for Xbox 360s purchased through 2008, early indications point to the problem abating in 2009.
The most common types of problems seen with the PS3 and Xbox 360 were disc read errors and output issues. The Wii had more power and remote control issues than the other 2 systems.