Is the Xbox 360 a Good Bet for Customers?

...With the Nintendo Wii showing no signs of slowing down (it outsold the Xbox 360 in May and is still nearly impossible to find at retail) and the PlayStation 3 about to put its underwhelming first year behind it with a plethora of new, enticing games, Microsoft's position as market leader in this new generation of video games is, as Moore may say, without guarantee.

[FordGTGuy]

and has a big year ahead for games. Its a very good bet.

@Bill Gates
Its not fanboy ego its a fact that there are more sold Xbox 360s then there are sold Wiis or PS3s.

[Bill Gates]

"It still has the largest fanbase"....

You can come down from your XBOT cloud now.

[eLiNeS]

3rd Xbox 360 but never got the "red ring of death" though. No matter how many times it breaks down, I will still own a Xbox 360. Once you get online with it and find the right friends to play with, it's hard to put down. What I suggest to anyone thinking of getting a Xbox 360 is to buy from Costco or Costco.com if none are in the area. They have a lifetime warranty on most everything for no extra cost. I have been getting my Xbox's there for almost 6 years now and have never had a problem returning them when they take a dump. This is one way to make owning a Xbox 360 a good bet.

@MART_SUCKS
If you had bought from Costco you would not have to wait for it to be returned, you just pack it up and return it and in a few hours be back online gaming with your friends. I know it could be a pain to keep having to get it repaired but at least Microsoft is doing something about it. A 3 year warranty is unheard of for a gaming console. The PS3 and Wii only have a 90 day.

@Disagree
Not sure why anyone would disagree with my post. If I was going to buy a PS3 I would buy it from Costco as well for the lifetime warranty. And if you disagree because I will continue to own a Xbox 360 no matter how many times it breaks down, that is my fact, don't knock it until you have tried the Xbox live experience for a few months, you will be hooked.

[actionjackson]

Really? Last time I checked, Sony owned the part of fan base. Remember that PS2 that sold over 100 mil. Of I forget that MS fans fore all of their products. My bad.

@eLiNeS
I'm still waiting for my 2nd ROD to come back. It's going to be my 3rd x360, and frankly I've kinda had it with MS. They do this with almost all products that they make. The problem is I am invested in the system with 11 games and that HD-Dvd drive. So what do I do. I don't know. My serious question for MS is, do they ever build anything that works for the first time?

[XxZxX]

eLiNes, What's ur obsession with disagrees?? Ppl just can't disagree with you?? not everyone has costco membership you know and not a lot people have such super loyalty to MS like you. Some ppl easily had it with 2 or 3 RROD.

[G_CodeMonkey]

While we'd all love to not have the issue at all, I've got three (wife even got her own XBL account to track her achievements and online play). If it breaks (I've had the RRoL once), send it back--usually its a smooth process. The games, the "experience" they talk about, it kicks a tremendous amount of tail. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. My kids got me a Wii for father's day, and its really cool (Wii Sports + browser + news + weather--hear that M$??), but nothing brings the depth of the games on the 360.. Once the PS3 drops to $300 or less I'll buy it simply for a BluRay player (they'll probably have something I want to play by then as well). gCM

[P4KY B]

Why does this crap get approved?

[power of Green]

#1 has your answer. Also the 10th is MS's day so this isn't suprizing the only sad thing is MS fans will not be trying to make the PS3 look bad.

[XxZxX]

@POS
"Also the 10th is MS's day so this isn't suprizing the only sad thing is MS fans will not be trying to make the PS3 look bad. "

Coming from you is funny!! I wonder who made those PS3 is collecting dust remarks. Nice try, POS

[coolmatrix]

http://gamerush.zoomshare.c...

This brings joys to my heart!!

Once the ball gets rolling worldwide MS would have to produce the true figures of failures which now stands at 72%.

By admitting to ONLY fix Red Ring of Death they will leave many 360 owners out in the cold.

I can't wait to see what happens to ALL those poached PS2 exclusives sales figures. Those companies are happy to be paid upfront.

Only time will tell!

IF you are a MARK...the 360 is for you!!!

[razer]

So you celebrate the fact that some sue happy loser and his lawyers are trying to go after MS for what's basically a non-existent problem? You know who makes money of these lawsuits? Lawyers!

This doesn't even have Class Action status yet, it's just meant to grab headlines for people with half a brain like yourself to latch on to. Nice try with the "mark" comment but I don't get it? If in mark you mean someone who gets to play great games on a good console then yea sure..

Lol at %72! You just pull numbers out of your ass don't you?? Wow, I'd use the word idiot but that's giving you too much credit..

[nobizlikesnowbiz]

Yea if you had any sense you would realize how hard the lawyer is reaching for some money.

Disc scratching problems? It's stated in the manual, M$ is not liable.
If anything I'd expect him to go after RROD, since that actually is M$'s fault.

It just shows how little homework the lawyer did before filing this.
It will probably be dimissed in some way shape or form. Probably in a "get-off-my-d1ck-you-bloo dsucking-lawyer" check.

[TaylorB]

Don't be too happy for Tort law. While in some situations it can be beneficial to the consumer, most of the time it's just more money in the pocket of tort lawyers. Tort is some of the scummiest and corrupt justice seen in the last few decades. Millions in the pocket of the lawyer, a few dollars in the pocket of the wronged consumer.

While Microsoft strategy of refunds was obviously easiest and most financially palatable for the company; it was better for consumers too because it means that they get exactly what they deserved.

Microsoft has a lot of issues they need to fix when it comes to hardware. Harddrive failure, DREs, complete failure and disc scratching are all frequent enough of issues that they should be resolved in as timely as a manner as possible. A tort lawyer isn't going to help us get there though. It'll be longer and more arduous and at the end of the day, there will be less money in Microsoft's pocket, and even less in the consumers.

[G_CodeMonkey]

I'm afraid the lawsuit will be thrown out, so your joy will be short-lived... gCM

[Mr VideoGames]

but in my opinion if i was Sony i would of just put a Regular DVD Player inside of the PS3 instead of a Blue Ray, cause that would of Lowered the price down to where the Xbox 360 is it would be up there with the 360 and Wii so everyone would be happy - am i right?

[witchking]

I'm somehow still on my first 360 (knock on wood) and got it only two months after launch. I guess I can count myself as lucky.

The article definitely had a bit of sting to it, didn't it? :-)

[Jay da 2KBalla]

With the upcoming price drop, the most exclusives for the year, and microsofts switch to 65nm cpu and 3 year warranty I would say yes it is a good bet. And lets not forget the best selling next gen graphical masterpiece that is Gears of War.

[ben hates you]

and thats all i care about

[carlman23]

But I'm not sure why this suddenly changes anything about the 360? The fall game lineup on the 360 is still incredibly awesome and it's not like they've canned Halo 3, so why all this junk about how the 360 is suddenly perhaps 'not a great bet for customers'???

When did N4G become a Sony fansite? If I see one more Sony Protection Group article...

EDIT:

Oh and what an awesome piece of cherry-picking misquoting this is eh:

----

"We constantly tweak, adjust, and enhance the hardware,” says Microsoft vice president Peter Moore of the error. But even with the generous warranty and claims that the manufacturing issues have been resolved, should gamers feel secure in buying an Xbox 360?

"There's no true guarantee in anything," says Moore.

----

Yeah, cause that's the question Moore was answering...

[Fan Tastic]

Good bet for games as well but at a cost of being out of a system 2-4 weeks about 3 to 4 times a yea, so maybe good for 60% playback and 40% waiting for the mail deliver your refurb.

[chasegamez]

first 2 fix why they burnout,
free xbox live shouldnt have to paid for it

[ben hates you]

ALAN WAKE

Intel Developer Forum
Alan Wake was demonstrated at the Intel Developer Forum in September 2006, running on an Intel Core 2 Quad processor clocked at 3.73GHz. The demonstration took the form of a tech demo, showcasing engine features such as day/night cycle, volumetric light, weather and physics. It was revealed that the game engine is multi-threaded and able to make full use of all four cores, with separate threads for physics, graphics & sound processing and seamless streaming of world data. It is therefore likely that the Xbox 360 version will also require the Xenon CPU's three cores which have a total of six threads.

It was also claimed that the game is unlikely to run on single-core systems, but hyper-threading enabled Pentium 4 CPUs may be able to run it with significantly reduced detail.

[FordGTGuy]

Your using the reliability issues as an excuse to ignore everything good about the Xbox 360.

If you go on Xbox Live no one sits around saying i'm on my fifteenth most people just have fun and play games. You guys use every opportunity to just hate on the systems except enjoying the experiences.

I might be on my fourth Xbox 360 but I would still not trade it for anything else.

@trueltie5

I see so enforcing a 3 year warranty is abandoning your customers?

@-_-_-_-_-_-_-

BTW I said hate on systems not Xbox 360 I meant my comments to count to all fanboys and about hating on all consoles.

[HokieFan]

You know, if you hate MS so much, the best thing to do is just to not buy their products. Stealing their software is not exactly a good approach. I hate Best Buy, but I won't walk in to the store and steal things...I just won't shop there. Why do people think it's ok to pirate software? I don't understand that. Sorry, but being a software developer myself, I'm a little touchy on this subject...

As for the rest of your comment, sure there are things on PS3 that I wish the 360 had. MotoStorm looks like fun, and I certainly wish MGS or FF would come to the 360. Nice to hear a Sony fan at least admit that the 360 has some good stuff too.

Edit: @above
I certainly support your "open information" idea, that's why I contribute my time to several open source projects. However, it takes a lot of time and money to develop software, and the developers deserve to be paid. When you pirate a copy of Windows, no, I don't lose my copy, but Microsoft looses a sale. That's less money to pay developers.

Pirating software even contributes to the very idea that you claim to be against. If you steal Windows, then continue to buy software for it, why would companies start supporting other OS options? All the money is in Windows. If you really want to contribute to the movement away from Windows, use Linux. It's free, and most of the software for it is free. That way, you not only take a sale from MS (without stealing), you make it more reasonable for other people to develop software for Linux instead of Windows.

Finally, I don't appreciate your "you must be a brainwashed American" line. That makes you sound just as arrogant as the Americans that Europeans such as yourself complain about. My beliefs on pirating software has nothing to do with me being Amemrican.

[trueltie5]

Word is Ralph Nader is going to be the head guy to handle the consumer affairs with the defects of the xbox360....jk....im sure there are some hungry lawyers that will want this class action on MS...Shareholders are already asking MS to pull the plug on their silly gaming non profit division....Once again MS abandons their customers

[SKullDugger]

Can U please provide some facts for this statement or are U a SONYFAN BOY??? I have heard nothing or read nothing on this.

[SKullDugger]

I think so I love mine and it has great titles and a great on line service. For the price and the amount of games YES buy a extended warrant and if you have issues replace it. POUND FOR POUND best deal right now. I don't mind paying for the online service some do and thats their choice after all thats what its all about CHOICE....

[cdzie1]

Xbox 360 has the best games coming out, the best online gaming service, the most developer support, the most accessories and 3 hardware packages to meet every budget.

Sony fanboys are in “la la land” since yesterday, but the truth remains that Xbox is giving PS3 a beat-down in every way, especially in sales.

[carlman23]

Can I just ask a question for personal clarification reasons (a bunch of my friends are wondering as well)? Okay, I'm excited about MGS 4 and FFXIII and stuff, but can people explain to me why everyone is SO excited about Killzone 2?

Now the reason I ask is because the original Killzone, while a commercial success, was pretty much generally lambasted by reviews (check out the gamestats rating, the average press score was 7.2 out of 10, not 'AAA' material).

http://www.gamestats.com/ob...

So, please understand that I'm not a Sony hater. If the PS3 becomes teh awesome, I'll buy one (and put it next to my 360 Elite... but not too close ;) ). But can someone please explain the KZ2 stuff?!?!?

[HokieFan]

You know, I asked the same question in another article a while back. The only response that I got is that it was underrated by reviewers. I guess it had a big cult following or something. I never played the original, so I can't comment on the quality of the game...but after looking at reviews of the first one I truely can't understand the hype behind this one.

Edit: @-_-_-_ Well, there are certainly plenty of games out there that people loved but reviewers didn't...I guess Killzone is just one of those. I did love Jak & Daxter, maybe I should give Killzone a try?

[SKullDugger]

This is SONY'S only answer for HALO and the FANBOY'S eat it UP !!!!

[carlman23]

I guess I understand that reviews are partly personal opinion, but the negative reviews about Killzone were pretty much across the board. What gets me is that there aren't many titles where the first one was pretty crappy, but everyone's CRAZY excited about the sequel:

"BULLET WITCH 2 IS GONNA BE TEH ROXXORS!!!!"

However, I assume that Sony needs something to counter Halo... I just don't think KZ2 is it. Maybe if they dropped some real dough and made Haze a real exclusive or something... At least that company has a pedigree of awesomeness.

[sony4life]

In my opinion the 360 is a great console to have even though they drop like flies. I cant help but to stick up for the console since they do have some amazing games that i am really looking foward to playing that are RPG. Dont get me wrong i have love for my PS3 but i enjoy playing dead rising and lost planet. Its really just a matter that they came to market first if that had been the WII neither X360 or PS3 would come close to those number. its really just a matter of what you choose. just my opinion

[dale1]

xbox 360 isn,t worth anyones money 2,3,4 xboxs broke its insane to put up with it
this system is a nightmare from a reliability sense when you invest in the games for the unit i know its hard to give it up but ps3 games are starting to come through so its a safer bet by far and remember you can still play thousands of ps2 games still
another point with the 360 its maxed out already in terms of development for it and when its pushed it crashes look at forza2 it killed a sh*t load i bet anyone now youre hear a sh*t load more stories come halo 3 asumming its not all hype

[slugg]

Wow, Sony fanboys love to bash the 360 becuase "some" were defective (My launch system works fine, as does most of the people on my xbox live friends list, only one person I know has had a defective system, and Elite that didn't work right out of the box- something not pushed in all the way or jiggled loose in shipping- his replacement works fine), but here's the thing-- Sony isn't just getting beat by Microsoft (yes, still, even with the 360's "reliability issues"), but they are getting absolutely hammered by the Wii-- especially in Japan. How do you address that issue? Price? I though price didn't matter since the PS3 is so all powerful, etc. OK, then why so many games getting cancelled on PS3 (Beautiful katamari, Fatal Inertia, etc.) or delayed from a simultanious release (DiRT, Medal of Honor Airborne, etc.). Any why do games actually released for both systems look and perform better on the 360 in almost every instance (Madden: 60fps on 360, 30 fps on PS3)? I know all the sony boys will say "oh, wait for this, wait for that," but they might as well wait for the PS4, because by then Sony "might" have their act together. This year will still belong to the 360, even if Nintendo does get Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Brothers out by the end of the year, but Sony will be standing on the sidelines. A price cut is well and good, but with no games, the system still won't sell... MGS4 is March '08, and FFXIII won't even be at E3....

[Cusco]

I don't know if you guys realized this by now or not, but N4G is extremely biased when it comes to the PS3, too much xbox 360 trashing going around, yes it's failing horribly and the hardware is apparantly no good, and like why the heck would anyone want to buy one, what a waste of money, but seriously, the 360 deserves a break.
ciao

[xbotsRidiots]

WELCOME TO N4G.......OR AS MOST PEOPLE DO ON THIS SITE IS NAG NAG NAG

[ShiftyLookingCow]

I know many people are going to disagree but 360 is worth every penny, a few RROD headaches

as for PS3, I think it has great potential and hardware not to worry

[CrazzyMan]

to argue?
everyone decide by himself is it worth to ge tor not.

people, stop wasting your time on such articles. PLAY GAMES. ;)
You will change NOTHING!

[THE_JUDGE]

I guess they could use some positive press even if it is coming from themselves. Seem a bit obvious that a person who works from Microsoft would say what he did though.

[predator]

if u want to play some of the best games around then yeah it is a good bet, now will people please start posting gaming news and not this sh!t all the time, GAMING WEBSITE not someones opinion on consoles

[BIadestarX]

It's E3 week... why do Sony fanboys trying to bring down the xbox 360 by posting stupid articles like this? You don't thing Sony can do it on their own? It's E3 week... you got a PS3 price drop... we will soon see KillZone 2... other Sony anouncements... So you think Sony still need your help with more xbox 360 bad press?

Games! Games! Games!.... I can give a crap about hardware issues... I have the money to buy 3 consoles if I want... I purchased 3 PS2 because it keep giving me that freaken disk drive problem... I am still on launch xbox 360... if it breaks I get another one while the broken one gets repair... stop trying to convince people to buy a PS3... Let Sony bring a better library of games and then many of us will buy a PS3... what do I do with a freaken reliable piece of plastic if it does not have the games I want to play? freak.. it does not even have 1 RTS game...

[trueltie5]

HURRY HURRY Xbox dooped customers you can trade in your 360's now and get the obvious better system thats going to be around a lot longer..The PS3....Thats funny...3 year extended warranty...the 360 will be dead by then and MS will probably try and make another machine...MS has so much money they can toy with so many different industries and make crap products...Xbox and Zune is something else...I can't wait till they make a Microsoft automobile or Microsoft clothing...They're really funny...I agree money can buy you games and tons of promotions...but it still can't buy honesty and dignity.

[ALIEN]

SONY still have the largest fanbase, because of the PS2. Remember a thing, PS3 is expesinve, so alot ppl can't afford it.

[Satans Cousin]

I Just called Costco They dont have a lifetime guarantee on electronics including XBOX 360,So you Sir are a Liyer! (POWNED!)

[XxZxX]

Yeah I found this
Merchandise: We guarantee your satisfaction on every product we sell with a full refund. Exceptions: Televisions, projectors, computers, cameras, camcorders, iPOD / MP3 players and cellular phones must be returned within 90 days of purchase for a refund.

Man I dunno ELines has only 90 days of life.

[viper_1997]

3 Year Warranty against the RROD - that's what the majority of the consoles are breaking down from. Within that time frame M$ will have the new 65nm chips out and they'll soon be retrofitting repaired Xboxes with them to eliviate the issue... sounds like a good deal to me. In addition I purchase the 2 Year Extended Warranty, so I'm good for 3 Years on most issues and 5 Years against the RROD.