Microsoft orders 65nm Xbox 360 graphics chip Claims the next incarnation of the Xbox 360's internal workings is due to begin being built into the console in August appear to be on track. Microsoft was this week said to have placed orders with chip and motherboard makers. According to a Taiwanese Economic News (TEN) report, MS has TSMC producing a 65nm version of the Xbox …
Of course not, as Microsoft will undoubtably include other cost savings, that will f**k something else up..
PS. The Squaretrade report CLEARLY states, that 16.4% is actually best case, and the real figure is likely to be much higher.
http://blog.squaretrade.com/2008/02/xbox-fail-rates.html
"PLEASE NOTE: this report only tracks this test group for a period of 6 to 10 months after warranty purchase (ending January 31, 2007). Once this same test group is tracked for 24 or 36 months, the fail rate is certain to go up. "
"Also, after Microsoft's well-publicized warranty extension, it is possible some of our warranty owners are not reporting failures to us, but going directly to Microsoft. If so, our 360 fail rate is skewing lower than is entirely accurate."
The real number, is likely to be in the 30% to 40%. Or another way, you are 15 times more likely to have your 360 fail, than if you owned a PS3 or Wii.
Is this news post serious?
360's haven't been prone to the RROD death for over 18 months now, yes people still have the fault but that's only because their console is older than this either because they've had it that long or because shops still had to sell off old stock.
You will not get an RROD prone 360 now (well other than within standard failure rates that the PS3 and Wii are equally prone to) unless you search long and hard for some backwater retailer that just happens to have old stock and sells consoles at a rediculously slow rate (like, 1 a year or something).
Can The Register seriously stop trolling and making shit like this up or is that just the way it is now? All about trolling for hits?
Why was this spun into an article about the RROD issue which is no longer an issue for people buying new systems and hasn't been for over a year rather than just a report on the use of the newer, cheaper hardware iteration? Whilst bias, ignorance and general trolling is what I have come to expect from The Register this article reaches a new low. Just as the quality of articles was looking to improve this bombshell is dropped to prove The Register is still continuing it's downward spiral.
To suggest the modern 360s that have been being sold for the last 18 months are any more prone to failure than the PS3 or Wii is an outright lie, period.
Hmmmm .... I've changed consoles twice and had no problem downloading XLBA Arcades games that I've previously bought. The only issue is that after the first console the only person that can play the games is the one with the gamertag that bought the games. Unless you're desparate for achievements this isn't too much of an issue for most games.
It happened to mine. Luckerly the shop just swapped it over for another one. I had had it for 3-4 months and the nice man at game just swapped it for a new machine. I didn't have the receipt, just a copy of my bank statement showing a £300something purchase in that GAME store. Nothing went through on the till, he just opened a brand new box, swapped out systems over, and said he would send the new box back as DOA.
So thanks, GAME store at an unnamed city.
With greater reference to the story though, the second xbox i was given has not broken, leaving me with a 50% xbox360 breakdown rate!
The visual design of a games console is very important - you can't just modify it like you would with a PC case.
The problem is now well known and is purely down to heat. It was a problem with the initial design. This has been ironed out over time and so far fewer units are failing. If you bought one today I would guess that the chance of it breaking down would be similar to the chance of your PS3 or Wii breaking down.
MS are now reducing the size of the processors as a cost cutting exercise - smaller chips are cheaper and require less cooling components. The 40GB PS3 uses smaller chips than the original 60GB version - and could therefore be sold at a cheaper price.
The Wii is basically a Gamecube so any cost reductions that Nintendo could make were made at the initial design stage.
I really don't care about RRoD as much as I care about a price cut. The 3 year warranty was enough to vaporize that as a factor.
360 has been out 2.5 years and has had a $50 price cut. PS3 has been out 1.5 and had $100 price cut. MS, I'm really leaning towards a 360 because of the games library; but I'm a cheapass, its my nature. Right now the PS3 is looking like a better value, despite the lack of games.
360 NEEDS A PRICE CUT
a doubling of the Hard Drive space would also be MUCH WELCOMED
There's a whole lot of DLC i want, and I'm not shelling out an extra $100 (elite) just so i can buy it.
But I like the thought that pumping out less wattage, it might not require such aggressive cooling, making it more of a media box.
Not that I can afford one [and the HD ready telly to go with it] on my crappy wages.
:-(
Steven "any spare change for a cuppa tea, pal?" Raith
Just because the PS3 launched at an eye-watering £425 doesn't increase the size of the bargain it becomes once the price reaches what it launched in the rest of the world at. If you want a Blu-ray player I do believe the PS3 is good value for money, but the fact it wasn't initially is neither here nor there.
I've got a hell of a lot of game DLC myself, and the standard 20Gb hard drive still has tonnes of space. The Elite model is purely for people who REALLY hate white consoles or download films.
What a surprise to see first post go to the regular shill who regards Microsoft's mere existence as a theat to his manhood.
At least Microsoft extended the warranty however the important thing about this is that as it's smaller it will also be cheaper.
Look at other companies like Apple with iPods that break within a few months after their warranty and some people even claim this is by design. Apple do nothing. To be honest I'm beginning to start to "think differently"
btw - I have a MacBook pro, iPhone, iPod Nano, PS3, XBox 360 so I'm not a fan boy.
I went through 3 broken 360's and only one return was for a RRoD. The other's were for dvd drive issues (mine scratched disks for no reason).
When I got the 4th one back as a replacement for the 3rd broken one, I just swapped it at a gamestop for a PS3. I've never had an issue with that.
Paris, because having her image on the page next to my post is as close as a nerdy gamer dork like me will ever get.
Hey, I'm a huge fan of the XBOX (I have both a PS3 and a 360). My 360 has gone back twice for RRoD. The second time they didn't even open it, sent me a new one with a new serial number/enclosure. Quick turn around too.
It's working great now, but here are some stats, I can quickly think of 10 friends who own XBOx 360s. 4 of them including me have had to send their XBOX in more then once (one of them has had to send it in 4 times). 9 of them have had to send it in at least once.
That means, at best a 1/10 chance u don't get an RRoD. Not good.
All of us were pretty early adopters so all probably had gen 1 motherboards to start with.
No question my PS3 feels better made/more solid. It's quieter. The slot loading drive feels solid, etc. But I would argue that the gaming experience on the 360 is better overall. And while I don't care, several of my friends insist that their controllers should vibrate which the 360 does, and the PS3 doesn't. The PS3 has several annoying shortcomings that remind me it's a poorly thought out Sony product (like all Sony products, it just misses the mark on a few obvious things that I can't believe they missed) for example, eject a game disc while playing... shouldn't it go back to the main menu? Well it doesn't it freezes up and u have to hold the power button down for 10 seconds to reboot. How about IR control from my Harmony universal remote for the BluRay player functionality? Nope, Blutooth only. I'm sure that 10 cent IR receiver was worth cutting out.
So in conclusion both game systems suck. Stick with your Atari 2600.
I haven't heard much about RROD's in the last year since Falcon. Sure you get some still - due to poor hardware or having the vents next to a rad or something - but still pretty quiet on the RROD front generally.
My brother and me both have 360's, and I then replaced mine to an Elite. Had one problem being the DVD drive was a bit flakey. (Shop replacement). No RROD's in the 3 in my household.
Sounds like you've got a faulty PS3. That doesn't happen to mine.
However, I've just had a problem arise with my first gen 360. I'm not a big gamer and mainly used it as a media extender and with the HD DVD add-on. Well, it's just started to hang from cold watching a HD DVD:(. No red ring of death. I called Microsoft and they said send it in and we'll fix it for £60. I complained that it was an original console, Sale of Goods Act, etc. but they wouldn't budge. I'm going to have to go back to Game and do the SoG Act stuff as it's really their responsibility and I'm sure I get it fixed for free but it's a pain.
Mine lasted 2 years without problem (was bought the week they came out)... then habing come back repaired it failed again a month ago.
So either i had a dodgy repair or the problem does still exist in some cases.
They're taking the power supply back aswell this time... personally i don't have an issue, the product broke they're very efficient at fixing it and gave me a free 12 months subscription to Xbox Live Gold last time.... electronics break, end of... it's how a company deals with it that is of more interest to me.
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