When it continued the Xbox 360's assurance to three years, Microsoft accepted the Xbox 360's abortion amount was unacceptable. However, admitting accoutrement both the "Red Ring of Death" and E74 errors, the aggregation has never accepted absolutely how generally its animate suffers from abstruse problems or accomplishment defects.

The Red Ring of Death is allegedly an all-too accustomed sight...

Now, Game Informer annual has conducted a analysis of 5,000 subscribers to acquisition out how generally consoles break out. The September affair of the Minnesota-based, GameStop-owned annual appearance the after-effects of the survey, which begin that a whopping 54.2 percent of Xbox 360 owners surveyed appear accepting the animate abort on them once. Apply that amount to the platform's 30 million-unit installed base, and the aftereffect is 15.72 actor bootless consoles.

Perhaps added damning, 41.2 percent of 360 owners had a additional accouterments malfunction--meaning that potentially 12.36 actor bodies accept had their consoles abort again. Some 36.4 percent of 360 owners appear accepting to shop for a additional console, against 13.4 percent of PS3 owners and 8.4 percent of Wii owners. Also, Game Informer begin that 69.9 percent of respondents said they had at atomic one acquaintance who had a Xbox 360 cease working. Nonetheless, alone 3.8 percent of respondents said that the 360's accouterments failures assertive them to not shop for a backup animate from Microsoft.

By comparison, 10.6 percent of PlayStation 3 owners appear a failure, with 14.7 percent advertisement a additional accouterments problem. The Wii was the best reliable, with a 6.8 percent abortion amount and an 11 percent accessory abortion rate. However, the Wii's low numbers may additionally be due to the actuality it's the atomic played of the three consoles. Some 41.4 percent of Wii owners said they played it for beneath than an hour per day on average. By contrast, 40.3 percent of Xbox 360 owners played for 3-5 hours per day, and 37.3 percent of PS3 owners played 3-5 hours per day.

Game Informer additionally asked respondents about their adventures with the three platform-holders' chump account departments. Again, Nintendo came out on top, with 56.1 percent of respondents adage they were "very satisfied" with their experiences. Sony was abutting abaft with a 51.1 percent achievement rate, followed by Microsoft with a 37.7 percent achievement rate.

CONSOLE FAILURE RATE

PlayStation 3 - 10.6 percent

Wii - 6.8 percent

Xbox 360 - 54.2 percent

SECOND CONSOLE FAILURE RATE

PlayStation 3 - 14.7 percent

Wii - 11 percent

Xbox 360 -41.2 percent

GAMERS WITH FRIENDS WHO HAVE HAD A CONSOLE FAILURE

PlayStation 3 - 12.4 percent

Wii - 6 percent

Xbox 360 - 69.9 percent

"VERY HELPUL" CUSTOMER SUPPORT RATING

Sony - 51.1 percent

Nintendo - 56.1 percent

Microsoft - 37.7 percent