My Xbox 360 Has Become Abusive
by Dan Landis on August 30, 2008 at 12:34 am
I know that when my 360 hits me it’s only because I provoked it.
These stories are getting a bit stale, aren’t they? Not stale enough, apparently, or maybe it’s just not important for Microsoft to fix their shit. You see, my latest Xbox 360 is dead. I purchased a new Arcade version in January after my then current 360 was assassinated. I’ve been using it since then until it started freezing, at which time I moved it to the other television and used it solely for movie-watching. Less than eight months later, it does nothing but blink red and laugh at me.
Seriously, Microsoft, what is your fucking problem? Every few months I read about how all these improvements are being made and that 360’s are becoming more reliable. Do you just make this stuff up? Do they break more reliably or something? My latest 360 demise came earlier than the other two, so if by more reliable you mean less reliable, then congrats — you’re definitely on the right track.
Everything that’s great about the 360 and all of this exclusive content you’re getting doesn’t mean a goddamn thing if I’m unable to enjoy any of it because my shit’s all busted. The new Xbox Experience can go fuck itself unless my Avatar will sit inside my console all day performing maintenance to keep it running.
Don’t you realize that you are only hurting yourself? Don’t you realize that the public opinion of the Xbox 360 is that it is an unreliable piece of garbage? Don’t you realize that you are costing yourself more money by replacing 360’s over and over than you would if you just fixed the problem? What happened between the original Xbox, which I gamed on for 4 years with no problems whatsoever (and it still works to this day), and the 360, which I’ve owned 4 of so far in less than 3 years? And now it appears likely I will be getting a fifth one…
There are plenty of 360 fanboys out there that will claim “I’ve never had a problem”, and that may be true, but I don’t know a single person that has owned a 360 for more than a year that has not had to send it in for repair. My guess is that the people that haven’t had any problems are most likely not using it multiple hours every day. The failure rate is clearly 100% — it’s just a matter of when, not if.
My relationship with the 360 has become abusive. I try to remember only the good times we had and pretend that the times he hit me are long gone. The 360 keeps telling me that he’s changed, and I believe it because I love the 360. Then, for no reason, the 360 gets mad and throws me down a flight of stairs, I call the police, and the 360 goes into rehab for 2 weeks.
Then he shows up at my door, gift-wrapped, and we go back to doing all of the fun things that made me love him in the first place. Every time we get together, though, I’m always fearful that he will slip into his abusive ways. Sometimes the 360 will freeze during a game, and I reset it hoping that I will see green lights and not red ones. Sometimes I turn it on and see no lights for a few seconds, and I get scared. I never know when the 360 is going to hurt me again.
For real, Microsoft, I am not very happy. There are millions of 360 owners out there that you are also making not very happy. That is not good. You need to fix this problem NOW before one of us shoots you in the face.
Source: That blinking-red piece of shit in my living room.
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on August 30, 2008 1:54 am
Amen! I had my 360 for less than 2 years. I first turned it in sept of 2007 and aug of 2008 it went down again with E74 less than a year later. Fuck Microsoft! then they want you to pay $99.00 to get it fixed because they know your shit is going to break. Imagine how much money they make if you have to buy a warrenty knowing your 360 will fail. $400.00 dollar system plus the price of a warrenty every year! Fuck u microsoft….playstation here I come!
on August 30, 2008 2:25 am
I bought a PS3.
on August 30, 2008 2:32 am
I’ve had mine for 6 months and ‘boom’ RROD. Now being a guy with a full time job and family this I don’t need. I hear stories all the time and stupidly purchased a 360 because the price was ‘tempting’. What a fool I was and I there’s a saying out there that goes ‘you get what you pay for’ and yes the 360 is truly a cheap piece of unreliable crap. If this was a car, a washing machine or a TV no one would buy it. I’m swapping mine for a PS3 - I don’t care about the $100 difference. I’m just sick of hearing fanboys protecting the 360 piece of garbage and it’s couple of childish exclusives!
on August 30, 2008 6:00 am
Your “source” is fucking hilarious, bravo lol.
on August 30, 2008 6:38 am
OMG!!! the fact that ur xbox has broken 4 times and ur about to get a fifth shows how stupid u are!! Ur 1st mistake was buying it then REPLACING it wit another xbox…if i got a xbox (which gladly i didnt coz 4 of my friends all got RROD) and it broke i would get my money bak and buy a PS3 or Wii even…XBOX is obselete…everyone shud upgrade to ps3!:]
on August 30, 2008 8:28 am
I like my 360 but you cannot help but appreciate the quality of the PS3. as for the Wii….it can piss off.
on August 30, 2008 9:10 am
Dan, if you start a support group for abused 360 owners, I will join it. The 360 is so unbelievably fragile that it blows my mind. All my other systems (NES, SNES, Genesis, 64, GC, PS2, Xbox) all still work, and my SNES had the misfortune to be crushed by a 70 pound speaker (Ironically, the brand is “Genesis”) and it still works like the day I opened it. What gives with consoles today? I’m getting a PS3 when I get the money, but I just dropped 270 on another Xbox when mine’s disk tray died on me (that might have been my fault, but still, never had a problem with the big black brick that was the original Xbox.) I call shenanigans on Microsoft! SHENANIGANS I SAY!
on August 30, 2008 9:24 am
I’ve gone through one xbox 360 premium and then bought an elite. that was a year ago and it still works fine. i could have bought a ps3, but i’m not one to jump ship. everyone has their reasons. i should mention my brother has a ps3 but i rarely touch it, like the wii.
on August 30, 2008 9:59 am
It’s funny the number of people that think the solution is to buy a PS3. The problem with that is that my 360 is replaced for free, it just takes two weeks. The PS3, on the other hand, is also more expensive than just buying another 360, a console that I have 30 games for that surprisingly don’t work in a PS3. The price of jumping ship would be astronomical when you consider all of the games that I can’t play any more. The system itself may be more reliable, but it certainly won’t be fun if I have nothing to play on it.
Oh, and PS3’s won’t be able to play Fable 2 or Gears 2, so that’s just no good.
on August 30, 2008 10:08 am
Aye, Dan, aye. The PS3 was my choice from the outset, so I don’t have to worry about 360’s breaking and such. To be honest, there is only one solution to this problem:
Become a Microsoft employee. Work your way through the ranks until you reach a position of power(i.e- Bill Gates’ old job). Use your power to make the company make reliable products.
on August 30, 2008 10:13 am
Another Microsoft product that was rushed out because of greed, that will end up costing them in the end
on August 30, 2008 10:18 am
Good idea. I will motivate them with donuts and have trap doors under everyone’s chair so that I could “fire” them at any moment. And I will say they got the red ring… of death.
on August 30, 2008 10:26 am
To be ironic, you should make their work PCs break all the time and have to be rebooted. OH WAIT!!!!1111
on August 30, 2008 10:44 am
I own a 360 in order to play Bioshock and the upcoming Fable 2. I don’t hate the 360, nor do I love the PS3, but until something intelligent is done to fix the RRoD problem my only way to (fairly) reliably insure that it doesn’t happen to me is to buy all multi-plat titles for the PS3 and only play Bioshock on the 360, as it’s the only game good enough to risk breaking the system.
Not only is Microsoft losing money by having to repair/replace all of these consoles multiple times, but they lose incredible amounts of money because of people like me too, who only buy a game for the system once every year or two.
I personally think that more gamers should take a stand against Microsoft by not buying games or accessories for their system. Every time someone spends $60 for a new controller or $180 for a (stupid) proprietary hard drive, it just reinforces the fact that Microsoft really doesn’t have to fix its mistakes to keep the gaming masses eating out of the palm of its hand.
It’s in the hands of gamers, and no one else, to decide the fate of the Xbox 360 and Microsoft. If you whine about having a third defective 360 then you need to accept your part of the responsibility when continuing to use and support an admittedly defective product. Please people, wise up.
on August 30, 2008 12:26 pm
I had my 360 for almost a year now without a problem. I did get the Falcon model…. is that news you should post on your site as well?
on August 30, 2008 1:39 pm
I used to hear about 360’s breaking but never see it. My girlfriends dad got a 360 for his birthday July of 2007, and it worked fine for a few months. Then, it started scratching discs. I decided to think nothing of it but then one day, about 4 months after Xmas, it got the RRoD. Then, a couple months later, my best friend got RRod too. His 360 was also reliable until then. So yeah, it’s a case of ‘when’ and not ‘if’ with the 360’s. On the other hand, I’ve had a PS3 since Xmas and had no problems with it at all. Early days yet but, I cant see it happening.
on August 30, 2008 1:50 pm
Ah Dan, you like many others are the only ones to blame for Microsoft’s manufacturing policies. You see, so long as you continue to SUPPORT them, with a purchase of an xbox360,they wont have to do any changes.
Stop feeding the bitch and see how she comes begging for mercy on her knees. Stop Buying Accessories, software,stop making them a profit, stop taking it up the *** every time and make a stand already.
You dont have to purchase a PS3 if you dont want to, but stop complaining about your addiction already and contact consumer affairs already.
As a PSWII owner I;ll never have to worry about such issues. Oh and there is plenty to play on PlayStation 3, stop that “no games” Sh** already, that’s so 2007. Stop living on the past, PS3 is here to embrace what Microsoft failed on miserably.
on August 30, 2008 2:34 pm
If you have so many problems with the 360 why do you keep getting one? There’s another hardcore system out there that’s very, very reliable when you compare it to the 360. The 360’s games are good but it’s hard to enjoy them when you sit in fear waiting for your system to die.
on August 30, 2008 2:57 pm
It’s incredible why you keep getting the XBox over and over. I own a PS3 (actually It’s my second, I sold my first one and got a new one) and I never had a single problem with neither of them.
There are already a lot of great games to enjoy on the PS3 and there are a lot more to come. There’s no doubt on the console you should choose, and that is the PS3. It is more expensive that’s true, but you also get a lot more. The saying “you get what you pay for” has never been so right.
on August 30, 2008 2:59 pm
Loved the story dude. Funny aboose…
I recently picked one up due to a few things.
1.) Fanboyism. I have a ps3 for as long as its been out, that I love. Pretty awesome, but kinda disappointed librery so far. (Besides MGS4. All emblems baby!) But due to friends, and even family that keep ****ing raggin on me to get a 360, I gave in a bought it. Its pretty kick ass in some areas, and sucky in others. I can safely say the Ps3 only has a few good games, and didn’t decide to put out for third party exclusives.
2.)Live. The ability to talk with friends cross game and such is pretty sweet. trueskill is wokring to be kick ass as well. (Though ps3 is catching up with the ingame xmb and stuff.)
I kind of hope for mine to stay alright. Good luck with yours bro.
on August 30, 2008 3:21 pm
I’ve read 100s of stories about how dodgy the 360 is. I know a lot of people who’ve had to get their 360 repaired. I’m onto my 4th 360. The 3rd one I had was an Arcade, it last 3 days. The sticker on the back of it showed that it was made about 6 weeks before I bought it. I took it back, I was given a new one. It’s an old, old, old story…
on August 30, 2008 9:22 pm
Ive had mine first one for about 2 years and its has broken 3 times and now its broke again, this time its not reading disk and they want to charge me $100 to fix. My second xbox works accept for the fact that if it closes without a disk in it it will not open again. I personally like the 360 better than the PS3, but atleast my PS3 isnt dead right now.
on August 30, 2008 11:05 pm
I love comments, but it would be nice for people to read the story before they post.
He owns 2 systems. He doesn’t keep purchasing them more than once, they are replaced or repaired by Microsoft for free. He never said the PS3 didn’t have games, he said that his 30 or so 360 games wouldn’t play in his PS3. Even if they aren’t exclusives, he’d still have to buy the games again, unless Sony has one upped MS and made 360 games compatible with PS3 hardware, but I doubt it. Also, the games he’s looking forward to the most (Fable 2 and Gears of War 2) just happen to be 360 exclusives. There was no PS3 bashing there at all and he certainly didn’t say that there weren’t any game for the system.
I’ve always had problems with every single console I’ve ever owned, with the sole exception of the N64. My NES had to have the game’s case stuffed in the cartridge slot to keep the game down because it wouldn’t work otherwise, my SNES constantly demanded blowing in the cartridge and the system, MY PSOne only worked if it was upside down, I went through two PS2s who just stopped reading disks, and my Xbox disk drive died. I’m not counting milk in the intellivision or the Xbox that was plugged into the wrong power source when I was in Iraq.
That being said though, the 360 is the best system I’ve ever owned functionality and software wise, but the worst piece of crap ever as far as the console itself is concerned.
on August 31, 2008 1:11 am
When we achieve good enough bandwidth and consoles,so we don’t have a physical media,and no disc drives in consoles,we may be getting some points up again in console reliability.Cartridge era FTW!
Drives are pricey,they get hot,they vibrate,they are fragile;they become a burden for the system.
The model should be;the consoles becomes lot cheaper for being driveless,they even get a SSD,you can plug a USB external disc drive if you like.Less heat inside,no vibration,less noise;reliability
Though I fear next gen will have a more defined DRM scheme,and they won’t go so easy on piracy,neither we will have an effective multimedia P2P in consoles between users…in some time.
on August 31, 2008 8:59 pm
I’ve had mine “repaired” twice. I like the game options for the 360 but once it breaks and they say it will cost $ to fix it I’m done. I think I had 30 games for the original Xbox but I’m not sinking that kind of cash into the unreliable turd which is the 360. IF I buy the next Xbox it will be 6 months to a year before I take the plunge. Only when I hear it’s built right will I buy it. So you can brag about your attach rate all you like MS but I won’t be a part of that this gen. I have people on my friends list who have had theirs break 5 times. What the hell MS?
on September 11, 2008 1:20 pm
actually to be honest ive had my xbox since launch and havent had a prob with it and im a huge gamer i play it for hours upon hours for days until now…. now everytime i play a game it tells me cant read disc cause it might be dirty or scratched etc etc so needless to say my next xbox will break in about 2 months :D:S