RROD - It's like Christmas anytime of the year

[BlackDS]

What amazes me is how popular the 360 is despite the extremely poor build quality. Even the original Xbox was total garbage! Goes to show you people, myself included are really dumb and will buy anything thats medicore. Sony amazes me even more how bad they fucked up as well. They were on top of the world with PS2 and now there losing to a console with a almost 100% fail rate "I say 100% because everyone I know has had a issue with there 360." They both suck and thats why I enjoy mostly retro games. I love the simpicity of the whole turn on and just play mechanic. No 600MB patches to download everytime I try to play, no installs and very few hardware issues. Just turn on and start playing I love it.

DS all the way for me man. Its the best system of this gen, by far.

[Breetai]

And for those short sided PS fans please do some research about the original release PSOnes, PS2's, and even PSP's.

Call someone like me "short sighted" all you want, but both of my PS systems are working fine (one before Dual shock and one after... I forget which model numbers), and my second PS2 is working fine. As I said, the DVD drive on my first one went... but I'd modded it. I'm well aware of the problems with the 1st generation PS and PS2, but as far as I know this was not so much of an issue after that. Again, I don't know anyone personally who's had their PS2 die other than me. EVERY SINGLE PERSON I know who has a 360 has had it die at least once. In fact, most have had it go more than once. This isn't just first generation models we're talking about.

To be fair, I love my Halo Edition original X-Box. I find the original X-Box to be a very well build system, personally. Hardwarewise, I think it's better than the PS2. It's solid and has a hard-drive. Win! Also, even though I've got a PS3 and a Wii sitting under my TV, my most played system is either my PC Engine (Turbographx-16) or the Sega Saturn. Still, I DEFINITELY choose the PS3 over the 360. The RROD isn't a "minor inconvenience", it's very major. What the warranty runs out, you're screwed. Buy a new one. Even if the warranty isn't out, waiting weeks for a new system is not cool. Unless there is a relatively easy fix that does not involve sending it in to M$, I'm not interested in getting one. Even then, what does the 360 offer than the PS3 doesn't? Most games are the same. For the exclusives, I don't see enough variation between them to make a big difference at all.

Everyone drops the ball at launch, it's a tradition in the industry now.

Aside from your grammar (PSOne's, PS2's, PSP's... etc.), your aren't looking very good here. As far as quality is concerned, there is NO reason to accept such an idiotic thing like you seem to have. Both the PS3 and the Wii were totally fine at launch. The only real bad launch systems were the PSX, PS2 and, by far the worst from what I've seen, the 360. I waited to get both a PSX and a PS2 for the bugs to be worked out, and I'm not about to buy a 360 until M$ has their shit in order. Have they yet? Not as far as I know, but then again I'm not looking for a new current generation system right now.

[Erik_Twice]

Me thinks the original Xbox was sturdy and that always scores points. The PS2 is too soft and more prone to breaking if you ask me.

I agree that the RROD is a very serious problem. I never heard anything about other consoles breaking down without abuse but all my friends but one who had a 360 got the RROD.

I know I'm a PC fanboy but I think the 360/PS3 don't offer anything that you are not going to have in a PC so they are out for me. The Wii on the other hand has more value to me even though because it offers something different than my PC or my PS2 RPGs.

[Breetai]

I know I'm a PC fanboy but I think the 360/PS3 don't offer anything that you are not going to have in a PC so they are out for me.

Sports games and fighting games, mainly. If you like sports games or vs. fighting games, a console is definitely the way to go. Even then, you can run a lot of the 2D fighters via MAME and Street Fighter IV is on the PC. If you've got the resources (money, space and patience), PCs are awesome.

[HellHammer]

How will you play your games? Even if the next Xbox system is backwards compatible with the 360's games, how will you play the titles you've downloaded?
These are the things I lose sleep over.

Which is a very good thing to lose sleep over, in my opinion. The way I solve it is: I don't download games. The only way I play games is if I can get a copy of it in hard media, or DRM allows me to make a backup copy (like Steam). XBLA does not allow me to do it, ergo I don't buy from XBLA. I rather play games on the original hardware, anyway, not emulated as on the Xbox.

As for my Xbox RRODing in the future, as you said, it'll be discontinued. So I'll just buy another. By that point, it'll only be $50 at Gamestop for another, and I won't blink an eye. And since I don't have downloaded games, I can play my games on whatever Xbox I wish. Also, I prefer having two of every console to begin with, so I'll be purchasing another Xbox once they go down in price. No matter the circumstances, if it's a retro system, I always have at least two, sometimes three of the hardware (in several versions) just in case it breaks. This Xbox will not be an exception, and will probably have even more just because of the potentially unreliable hardware. (I say potentially because my hardware hasn't shown any problems.)

Here's the problem though, 360 hardware probably won't ever reach the $50 mark, why? Well the basic rules of supply and demand show that when you constantly have less and less of something (In this case working 360 hardware) the price will go up. I won't be surprised if 10 years from now we'll have to drop somewhere in ththe neighborhood of $200 for a working unit because of all the longterm issues.

Wow, this is exactly my thought. The failure rate and age of the Xbox360 will leave behind very few new, mint, or reliably working systems, which in the near future, could potentially make it a fairly rare console, in the same way that Sony made BC 60gig PS3 consoles rare by discontinuing them so quickly.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Which is a very good thing to lose sleep over, in my opinion. The way I solve it is: I don't download games. The only way I play games is if I can get a copy of it in hard media, or DRM allows me to make a backup copy (like Steam). XBLA does not allow me to do it, ergo I don't buy from XBLA. I rather play games on the original hardware, anyway, not emulated as on the Xbox.

As for my Xbox RRODing in the future, as you said, it'll be discontinued. So I'll just buy another. By that point, it'll only be $50 at Gamestop for another, and I won't blink an eye. And since I don't have downloaded games, I can play my games on whatever Xbox I wish. Also, I prefer having two of every console to begin with, so I'll be purchasing another Xbox once they go down in price. No matter the circumstances, if it's a retro system, I always have at least two, sometimes three of the hardware (in several versions) just in case it breaks. This Xbox will not be an exception, and will probably have even more just because of the potentially unreliable hardware. (I say potentially because my hardware hasn't shown any problems.)

Here's the problem though, 360 hardware probably won't ever reach the $50 mark, why? Well the basic rules of supply and demand show that when you constantly have less and less of something (In this case working 360 hardware) the price will go up. I won't be surprised if 10 years from now we'll have to drop somewhere in ththe neighborhood of $200 for a working unit because of all the longterm issues.

Wow, this is exactly my thought. The failure rate and age of the Xbox360 will leave behind very few new, mint, or reliably working systems, which in the near future, could potentially make it a fairly rare console, in the same way that Sony made BC 60gig PS3 consoles rare by discontinuing them so quickly.

Exactly.

Ever since I started working at GameStop I've seen countless broken 360's (at least 3 a day) come through the place and feel that it'll truly be a rare sight to witness one in action in just a few short years.

[Droid party]

I have this thought that folks who get RROD must be doing something to restrict air circulation for the unit. I've seen my friend put stuff (cable box) on top of his unit.

The system runs hot (at least 175w) so good air circulation is a must. Even better, a special fan to boost air flow.

I would think that if you do this, your chance of getting RROD would be very low.

Well of the 2 I've had rrod on me niether had anything anywhere near them to restrict air flow. Also my 2 360's that have died are the only consoles I've ever had die. The one that just died, did so as soon as it was turned on, not after an amount of use that may cause it to overheat.

Oh well, I get to find out whether or not MS have fixed or replaced my 360 elite when I get back to my home town on monday. Fingers crossed I got a new Elite.