San Francisco (CA) – A recent survey conducted by Game Informer indicates that Xbox 360 units suffer from a 54.2 percent failure rate. The publication also reported a 10.6 and 6.8 percent failure rate for the Playstation 3 and Wii consoles.
The survey – cited by The Consumerist – polled approximately 5,000 readers to obtain the above-mentioned data.
“While the 360’s rate is alarmingly higher than the others, it’s still bafflingly low because it blows the mind to imagine that 45.8 percent of the consoles have not broken. Also, Microsoft’s numbers are inflated because 360s are used the most of the three consoles,” wrote Phil Villarreal in The Consumerist. “Results said 40.3 percent of 360 owners use the console three to five hours a day, compared to 37 percent of PS3 owners. Meanwhile, the plurality of Wii owners (41.4 percent) play their consoles less than an hour a day.”
According to Villarreal, Microsoft also “seized the gold medal” for unhelpful customer service, taking nearly a month to repair or replace a console, compared to a week for Nintendo and Sony.
“Only 37.7 percent of Microsoft customers found the company’s customer service was ‘very helpful,’ compared to 51.1 percent for Sony and 56.1 percent for Nintendo,” added Villarreal.
A number of industry publications have already weighed in on the latest statistics, including The Escapist.
“While the number is certainly high, when you think about it, it almost feels a bit low – 45.8 [percent] of Xbox 360s haven’t ever broken once, which doesn’t seem to fly with all the horror stories about everybody and their mother’s 360s bricking,” opined John Funk. “Still, despite the high failure rate, and despite Microsoft having the ‘worst’ customer service of the big three, the Xbox 360 somehow maintains strong brand loyalty – only 3.8 [percent] of 360 owners surveyed said they’d never buy an Xbox 360 again. I guess we gamers are a forgiving bunch.”
