A survey of 5000 gamers has found the failure rate of the Xbox 360 console is over 50 per cent.
The survey in Game Informer magazine found the Xbox 360 breaks down five times as often as its closest competitor, the PlayStation 3. Over 54 per cent of Xbox 360 owners reported that their consoles had needed repair, compared to 10 per cent for PS3 and 6 per cent for Wii.
Microsoft's customer service was also revealed to be poor by the survey. It took nearly a month on average to repair a faulty Xbox 360 compared to just a week for the PS3 and Wii.
After widespread complaints from users suffering from the "red ring of death", Microsoft was finally forced to admit that Xbox 360 suffered from unacceptably high hardware failure rates in 2007, extending the warranty for three years in a move which cost the company over U$1 billion. Microsoft has also made several changes to their internal architecture of the Xbox 360, but gamers have continued to report problems in significant numbers.
Xbox 360 customers whose consoles are no longer covered by the extended warranty in Australia can call 1800 555 741 or visit www.xbox.com/support to organise a repair if their machine fails. Customers that call technical support to organise a repair will be charged $180, while those who use the web-based service will be charged $149.
The cheapest Xbox 360 model costs $299.