Well, I guess it had to happen sooner or later.My second Xbox 360 has died. The good old red ring of death. Gone to the great console heaven in the sky.
And just as Halo: Reach landed too. I went and picked up my copy, and anticipated getting back and diving into Bungies latest. As soon as I gained control of my character the screen went black. Sometimes my TV has a habit of just swapping channels, so I thought this was the case. After flicking through the channels however there was still nothing. So I reset the console and it started to load up again. It managed to get to the loading screen and once again the screen went black. Upon resetting it a seond time, I was greeted with the ominous site of the three red rings. Bugger!
It's no hidden secret that the 360 has been plagued with this problem. Various surveys going around have put the failure rate at around the 54% mark. It's a staggeringly high number, and I personally don't know a single Xbox owner that hasn't had the console die on them at least once.
That being said, the gamers still come flooding back. Maybe it's blind loyalty, maybe it's just because of the huge investment that have already put into the 360, what with Live accounts, games etc. Who knows.
So am I pissed? Well, obviously a little. Not just because i'm probably the only Xbox owner yet that hasn't actually played Reach, more so that yet again i'm in the position of being without an Xbox. Still, that being said, I haven't even switched on my PS3 or any other console to get my gaming fix. The 360 is STILL my primary gaming console, and i'll be picking up another.
So within the next week or so i'll be forking out for an Xbox 360 slim. There is no way i'm going to go back and get another of the original design white consoles. I may get a couple of years out of it, I may only get a few weeks, I just don't want to take the risk of forking out for another console that will die on me, at any point.
I'm sure that the whole issue has tarnished Microsoft in many gamers eyes. I know of several people that went out and bought a PS3 after their 3rd or 4th Xbox died on them, and to be honest I can see their reasons. But it hasn't put me off buying another Xbox console.
Let's just hope that Microsoft actually take what they have learned with the redesigned slim console and put all of those lessons into whatever they do with their new machine.
Tony's Xbox 360. April 2008-September 2010. R.I.P
