Image from GametrailersThe big console news to hit the Internet yesterday involved the results of a recent Game Informer survey. One of the questions they asked 5,000 of their readers was if they've had their systems break on them. Well, a startling 54.2% of respondents said their XBOX 360 has broken, which is in stark contrast to the Playstation 3 failure rate of 10.3% and the Wii failure rate of 6.8%.
Before we just accept these numbers as fact, there are a number of factors that could affect this result. First of all, while 5,000 is a decent sample, 5,000 Game Informer readers (who are likely hardcore gamers) isn't necessarily the best representation of the overall video game playing population. They may also not use their Wii as much, which means it gets less wear and tear.
Outside of all that though, I do believe that XBOX 360 number to an extent. Having seen all of the anecdotal evidence, knowing that all of my friend's with 360's have had this problem, knowing that I myself have had one system red ring, and that Microsoft has spent over $1 billion dollars to try and fix it, I almost feel like 54.2% is too low. Heck, I'd even go as far as saying that any 360 that hasn't broken yet will in a matter of time due to the poor build quality.
As much as I love my XBOX 360, there is no way I'm buying their next system on day one. With this red ring/E74 problem to the original XBOX power cord possibly burning down your house, their track record of hardware quality is atrocious.