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Last week I asked the CAG community to report on their Xbox 360s' health history.
Over 3500 registered CAGs responded via a simple online poll.

Here are the results:



59% have experienced at least one Xbox 360 failure.
24% had more than one Xbox 360 fail or one 360 fail more than once.

While I do believe these results accurately reflect the CAG community experiences, I have no way of knowing if these results apply to the general public. It's probably safe to assume that members of an online video game community use their systems more than others. I'd imagine that increased use could lead to increased console failures.

In order to keep the survey simple, I only asked if CAGs experienced one console failure or more than one failure. If I included more options, we would have a more accurate representation of the actual percentage of console failure.

Since 24% responded that more than console failed, if we give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt and assume that this group had only two failures:

At least 67% of CAG-owned Xbox 360s have failed.

If we increase that number to 3 failures, the failure rate jumps to 72%. My guess is that the actual percentage of console failures is 70% or higher.

Although no survey is 100% accurate, I believe this one is pretty realistic for the following reasons:

• We only took responses from registered users and we did not receive an abnormal number of new registrations during the duration of this survey. Also, in an attempt to keep people honest, CAGs were told their individual responses would be made public.
• We had a large sample size. With over 3500 responses, even if there were hundreds of attempts to skew the results, the percentages would not change very much. It's also fairly safe to assume that skewing could occur in both directions, canceling each other out.

If you want to run your own survey, here's what I would have done differently:

• Rather than having an open poll, randomly surveying CAG Xbox 360 owners (via email or private message), could have potentially been more accurate. Having an open poll such as this could be somewhat self selecting as it's possible that people who have had failures may be more likely to respond because they are upset. Then again, it is also believable that those who have not had failures are just as likely to respond to show their support for their console of choice.
• Having more poll options for the number of console failures would have given us a better idea of the overall console failure rate. If many respondents experienced a high number of failures, that would significantly increase the overall console failure rate.

Since everyone loves charts:

I think it would be interesting if those people who answered No and (time owned)<6 months took this survey again in 6 or so months. Of the 7 I know who have had the RRoD, 5 of them died around the 1 year mark.

Edit: Wow, I really shouldn't post in the morning. Fixed my typos/signs.

Well, I don't feel so bad knowing more than half of the people here had one fail. Maybe there is a trick like PS1. We should try turning upside down.

It's not a matter of IF your 360 will fail...but WHEN.

Great job Cheapy and hopefully this sparks something in the media and MS is brought to task for making such an unstable hardware product.

*Knocks on wood* Guess I'm luckier than most. Launch 360 & Thomson original both still kickin. Condolences to those who've had numerous problems cuz it's plainly obviously that failure rates are much too high.

The only system I've ever had break on me was a PS1 (never owned PS2) that finally died after being extended by going upside down for about a year. I wasn't too pissed cuz I wanted a dual shock system anyway.

I had an near launch 360 for almost a year, but I decided to upgrade to an Elite. The only problem I've ever had would be the transformers game freezing on me. but I cleaned the disc and had no problems after that. and up to recently i can think of one game freezing on me on my 360 but other than that everything has been good.

I do not have a Ps3 and if something were to happen to my 360 , I wouldn't hesitate to replace it. As much as I want a ps3 , the games just aren't there (FOR ME). I do not need a blu ray player yet.

But I digress, I love my 360.

I also see people speaking of messed up PS1's, now that I think aboutit, I've need had a problem with a console.

Just keep em' clean and in a good environment, basically, using your head will SOMETIMES extend the life of your system.

Originally Posted by moojuice I think it would be interesting if those people who answered No/>6 months took this survey again in 6 or 6 months. Of the 7 I know who have had the RRoD, 5 of them died around the 1 year mark.

Agreed. I think it would have also been interesting to see a timeline breakdown for the failure responses. In other words, of those who have had one or more failures, how quickly after they bought the system did it get the RRoD? I wonder how many of the failure responses came from launch systems. At this point, the idea that launch systems are ticking red-ring timebombs is more or less taken as fact, so it could be more instructive to know how many systems bought in early to mid 2007 have failed.

I would have liked to see an option for "My Xbox 360 never broke". I have a unit bought one year after launch.

Only problems: Mass Effect crashes all the time.

Cheapy, I think it's a fair representation. Despite the fact that it was an open poll, and people who had problems were more likely to post their problems in the poll, the fact that you posted it on the front page means that everyone who went to the index page would have seen it. I, for one, wouldn't have voted in the poll if I hadn't seen it on the front page.

Well that's pretty unacceptable, but what can we really do? I love the games and I've made the investment so I'll keep sending the thing back until I get a replacement that lasts.

Depressing findings.

60% failure rate is disgusting, there's no excuse for that high a rate of failure. The most worrying thing is that MS still have not fixed the problem.

Having said that my over 2 year old 360 is running fine, but I do suspect it's more a question of when rather than if.

Well it's obvious that 67% of CAGs don't know how to take care of their electronics. I have a launch day 360 and have had no problems.

^If someone comes into this thread and says something like that I will hunt them down.

I won't ever support another Microsoft console, which is funny since one of the reasons they entered into the gaming industry was to build brand loyalty among younger demographics.

I bet a lot xbox haters simply answered the poll anyway. If the real failure rate is above 70 percent, then MS might as well quit.

pretty big margin of failed 360s, all of which i'm a part of.

Why not do a Poll for PS3 and Wii?
I would like the comparison.

Very VERY interesting Cheapy. Hopefully some hotshot notices this. I know MS claimed the 3% and the other company claimed the 16%, but I'm thinking this poll is closer to the actual number than MS wants to admit.

A more comprehensive survey would have to factor in build dates (i.e. are older units worse?) and average usage patterns (i.e. do you play 4 hours per week or per day?) into the failure responses. My unit was bought in March 2006 and failed in Feb. 2007, just after they'd extended the warranty to one year. I play an average of 2-4 hours per week. OTOH, a guy here at work played his launch unit 4-6 hours per NIGHT and it was still humming along fine when he replaced it with an Elite just because he wanted the new hotness, not that he was having problems. Mileage definitely varied.

Originally Posted by foxhunt99 I bet a lot xbox haters simply answered the poll anyway. If the real failure rate is above 70 percent, then MS might as well quit.

Well they don't have to, luckily for them they can afford the Billion dollars to pay for the "fixes".

I guess most companies in the world probably couldn't afford to take that kind of hit.

Originally Posted by moojuice I think it would be interesting if those people who answered No/>6 months took this survey again in 6 or 6 months. Of the 7 I know who have had the RRoD, 5 of them died around the 1 year mark.

You're right. I've had Xbox 360 for two years and I've had 2 failed consoles.