Thursday, April 13, 2006

Xbox360: you get what you paid for and its broken


Matt from IGN Revolution has posted a funny topic on his blog about how his Xbox360 has not YET broke, but how it seems that everyone else that he knows that owns one HAS.

Here is the post:

Excellence in Not Yet Breaking

If you own an Xbox 360, there's a good chance it's broken. At least, that's the impression I'm getting as I browse through some of the latest blog updates. Peer broke his by playing 27 hours of Oblivion without ever pausing the game. Seriously. He actually played for more than a day straight without blinking. Both of his eyes dried out and he suffered a stroke, but the good news is that his character has been cured of vampirism.

Meanwhile, lots of editors -- and I'm talking upward of five or six people here -- have also broken their Xbox 360s.

It serves them right, I say. After all, if you're going to play your 360, you have to be prepared for the eventuality that it's going to break. You get what you pay for. And apparently $500 for a system and its accessories doesn't guarantee you that any of it will work for very long. Suck it up and take it, bitches. You've been consumer-pnwed and Bill Gates is laughing his ass off from the top of his golden, hovering pyramid in the clouds.

I, on the other hand, am completely owned free because my Xbox 360 is running just fine. I have created an award to celebrate this occasion.

Of course, when I say that it's running just fine, I mean that in relative terms. Sure, it's locked up on me a half dozen times -- mostly when I play PGR 3 -- but again, I only paid $500-plus for the thing so, you know, I expect nothing less. Thanks, Microsoft. Quality forever, guys.

I will keep this award on my blog until my 360 breaks. I'm planning to play Tomb Raider through the weekend, so you can probably look forward to the award going bye-bye by Monday.

Matt's Blog

Its funny because I remember all the reports of faulty Xbox360's at launch and how Microsoft tried to dismiss the reports as "normal amount" for a launch like that.

Well, it seems that the people that did have a working system at launch are now either having problems with the system locking up(Matt) or just breaking completely. Ouch. I don't know about you but if I paid over $500 for a game system, I just want one thing: for it to work and work great. Is that too much to ask?

Now you take Nintendo for example: How many of you have had problems with your Gamecube's breaking? I'm not talking about the occasion that a game freezes, but when the system actually breaks and you must buy a new one. Any takers?

I bought my Gamecube on launch day back in 2001 and have never had a problem with it for 5 years.

I just think that its funny that not only is Nintendo releasing the Revolution at a mass market price of around $200 but we all know what Nintendo's track record is when it comes to quality game consoles. They last and are solid.

So say you are one of the unlucky chaps that bought an Xbox360 at launch and now it breaks on you. Its been over 6 months since launch so Microsoft is not going to replace it for you. You must buy another one if you want to play all the games you bought for it. Thats another $4-500 dollars you must spend.

I say this because waiting for the Revolution is just more cost effective. You pay a (most likely) one time price of $200 instead of $1000 total for a second replacement Xbox360.

Call me a Nintendo fanboy(because I am one)

or you can call me a fanboy of saving money. Both are true.

4 comments:

Metaldave said...

Nice points. I think that Microsoft just made a system with components that are too sensitive to work with each other for an extended amount of time(6 months).

If they want consumer satisfaction, then they have to re-work the inside of the Xbox360 so that people won't have to keep re-buying or sending them back a week later.

I just bought a Dell XPS M170 laptop with the Geforce 7800 GTX and so far it can do whatever the Xbox360 can do-only better.

Better control for Call of Duty 2(Mouse)

Better graphics(1900x1200)

Granted it cost me a lot more than an Xbox but at least with these new laptops you can upgrade them. I won't be buying a 360, just a Revolution and my Laptop will do me fine for now.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of problems, I heard Jessica Chobot, one of the editors at IGN, not only had problems with her Xbox 360, but also had problems with Microsoft's service department concerning it.

I thought Microsoft was one step ahead of Sony in terms of product durability and quality, but I guess not.

Michael said...

Damnit Metaldave, you ARE a nintendo fanboy! Coming from me though, thats a compliment. :)

Personally, I think MS took a lesson from Sony's playbook: make a system with great potential that fails often enough to drive up your marketshare!

Everyone with a brain knows a large portion of PS2s are warranty replacements and 2nd/3rd purchases. Who doesn't know someone who has had a PS2 fail on them. I know 3 people who have had failed units, 1 of which had 2 failed units. Take into consideration my circle of friends don't all own PS2s and thats a big deal. Then take into account that we ALL own cubes and not one person I know has had a problem. Personally, I have had 1 game lock up on me 1 time in the last 4 years. It was a used game and the disc was no great. I reset the system, cleaned the disc and it has never happened again.

I hate to jinx myself by proclaiming the revolution will be equally robust but I certainly have faith in Nintendo so far. I currently own 3 nintendo consoles, including the NES and all 3 still work. BTW, my NES just turned 20!

Metaldave said...

I don't think that Microsoft "plans" for these kind of failures in their Xbox360 line. However, I do think that they just were not ready launching the system as early as they did. They also obviously don't know how to make a videogame console last a very long time like Nintendo does. Microsoft is really just looking to make money as all developers are, but they need to have a solid product to make themselves trusted in this area if they want to really succeed.

For me, I'm just saying its not worth the money.

Yes its going to have Too Human and Gears of War, and of course Halo 3. I still don't see that as warrant enough to buy the system because all the other games minus a few are already on the PC(Sorry Kameo and Perfect Dark, not good enough)

Too Human might be the only reason to buy an Xbox360, it looks like a fantastic adventure game. Too bad it won't be using the Revolution control for it, as that would make it a way more immersive experience. There is only so much you can do with today's control styles and even then you are still going over the same gameplay that we all have been playing for 10 years. Too Human looks to have content that is very unique, but control that will not be much different from all the other third person action games. Its really a sad thing too because that is the reason I will not buy an Xbox360 and hence am going to miss this great game.

I'll live though. Metroid Prime 3, Red Steel, Twilight Princess and a lot of others that Nintendo will announce at E3 are sure to make me forget about that game. At least mostly. Just borrow a friends and play it that way, thats what I did with the Final Fantasy series on PS2. Its all good.