New Report Pegs Xbox 360 Failure Rate at 24%
By Benjamin Opal
Failure rate estimates for the Xbox 360 have been all over the map, but we can generally agree that it’s the most unreliable console in history. The latest report from Square Trade, a third-party seller of warranties for electronics, says that 24 percent of Xbox 360s die in their first two years of ownership, with just over half the instances associated with the Red Ring of Death. By comparison, the Playstation 3 has a 10 percent failure rate, and the Wii has a 3 percent chance of death after two years. Square Trade warns that the Xbox 360 may even be failing more than its numbers let on, because a lot of people use Microsoft’s 3-year warranty instead of going to a third-party company.
An earlier report from Square Trade found a 16.4 percent failure rate in Xbox 360s, a claim that Microsoft refused to comment on. Furthermore, Microsoft dismissed Square Trade as being a company it hadn’t heard of. Unfortunately for gamers, the three flashing red rings are far too familiar to ignore. [via PC World]
