An article over at DialyTech suggested that Xbox 360 failure rate is close to 1 in 3. Figures were collected from retailers, either willingly or by an insider. While Microsoft unsurprisingly maintains their claims that only 3-5% of units are faulty (within the industry standards), they admitted that the initial batch of Xboxes are 'faultier' than the later ones.
However figures seemed to suggest otherwise. It is suggested at one retailer that 33% failure rate is closer to the reality. Other sources also suggest figures between a quarter to a third. Most of the units are covered by warranty, but seriously, why can't Microsoft do something right the first time round?
Peter Moore had said that it's not the number that counts, but the service the customer gets. But with customer service like this, you would be one very dissatisfied customer. Let me tell you something, Peter, no customers like their stuff broken. No-one. Doesn't matter how good your customer service is, the fact that it is broken is already one fault too many. Get it right the first time, so you don't have to fix the problem later. Is it really that hard?
My Japanese NES (aka Famicom) still works after 20 years. My Saturn still works after more than 10 years. That's reliability. The worst I have had was a PSX memory card failure that cost me 50 hours of Final Fantasy VIII. Never have I had a console dying on me. Never did I need to call up Nintendo or Sega to have my console fixed.
No-one ever expects things to work 100% of the time. That's just unrealistic. But by any industry standards, 33% failure rate would result in somewhere between "cutting your finger off" and "killing your whole family" if Xbox were in the mafia. It is that bad. If I was an Xbox owner, I would ask myself "Is this thing going to die on me?" every time I turn it on.
If this figure is anything close to being accurate, that would mean on a worldwide scale, about 3.3 million (out of the total 10 million) Xbox 360 has died at some stage during its lifetime.
If the console is made by anyone else other than Microsoft, it would have gone bankrupted. The only reason why people put up with it is because of the Microsoft name.
The same article also cited a source claiming that the failure rate of PS3 is less than 1%, and none of the Wii they sold was returned due to defects. Come on, Microsoft. You have a year head start to get it right. And you still can't. You fail in life.
Source:
DialyTech
