According to a GameInformer article, the Xbox 360 still has a high failure rate, of 54.2 percent, due to the dreaded RROD, e74, and other errors, a number much higher than its current console rivals.
The PlayStation 3 had a 10.6 percent failure rate and the Wii was even lower, at 6.8 percent.
The survey used 5000 readers, but the article does mention a few notes to go along with the numbers. The Xbox 360 is the mot used console of the three, with 40 percent of respondents saying they use it 3-5 hours per day compared to 37 percent for PS3 owners and under 20 percent for Wii users, meaning the numbers may be a bit skewed.
Additionally, those surveyed found Microsoft to have the most “unhelpful customer service,” with consoles taking almost a month to be repaired or replaced, compared to 8 days for a PS3 or a Wii. 56 percent of respondents found Nintendo customer service “very helpful” compared to 51.1 percent for Sony and a measly 37.7 percent for Microsoft.
Despite all those numbers however, only 3.8 percent of 360 owners said they would never buy another 360 console due to the hardware failure or the poor service.
Result for: failure
In a recent interview, John Carmack of id Software, touched briefly on the next generation of gaming systems that will replace the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (PS3) consoles. The interview, with Polish site CD-Action, is primarily about id Software’s upcoming shooter Rage, but it is the few words he dedicated to the next-generation of gaming that had caught the interview in tech site’s radar.
“The whole jockeying for who’s gonna release next gen console first is very interesting and really divorced from the technical side of things. Whether Sony wants to try and jump the gun to, you know, to prevent the same kind of 360 lag from happening to them again seems likely. As developers, we would really like to see this generation stretch as long as possible, you know, we’d like to see it be quite a few more years before a next-gen console comes out, but I suspect someone will wind up shipping something earlier rather than later,” Carmack says.
So from his own observation, it’s clear that it is only based on what he thinks might happen and that there is nothing to suggest that PS4 is in-bound in the near-future (relative to console’s life-time), but it does hit on something. The Xbox 360 had a year on the market over the PS3, and its not hard to see that this extra time came as something of an advantage in terms of unit sales - arguably not in terms of hardware failures.
In the previous generation, Microsoft was late to the game with the original Xbox console too, but there were many other reasons why it didn’t gain more ground on the PS2 than it did to take additionally into account. The question remains however just how much each company’s intention to beat the other to the market next time will affect the duration of the current generation.
Result for: failure
Following media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s note that he may begin charging for online content for all newspapers in his empire, the New York Times has begun floating the same idea.
The Times has been hit particularly hard by the global recession as well as the decline in ad revenue for traditional media, and over the past five years has seen its stock price drop 90 percent. Currently, the NYT does not charge for online access to its content, but asks all guests to register one time.
In 2006, the company started the TimesSelect service, which forced users to pay extra to access archives and opinion columns but the service was a failure and in late 2007 the entire site was re-opened for everyone, free of charge.
A NYT staff writer, Jennifer Lee, via her Twitter page has discussed what occurred during a meeting with shareholders and explains that the company is currently “exploring a new online financial strategy” that would implement membership levels. Each level would have different access to content with obviously the most expensive having full access to the entire site.
Perhaps more notably, is the company’s reflection on the failed TimesSelect service. They believe the service itself was sound (had over 500,000 subscribers) but failed because of poor marketing strategy. TimesSelect to make a comeback in 2009?
