I just read this article over at Venture Beat, and I must say it paints a pretty bleak picture of the XBOX 360 design process. To sum it up, Microsoft cut too many corners, rushed the thing to market and at launch had a failure rate of 68%!!! Yes more 360’s were made that just didn’t work than actually did – and they just kept on shippin’ them.

Fast forward 2 years and after enjoying over a year of flawless play on my flatmates beige model, I finally brought a 360 Elite – I was willing to spend a little more on the Elite as I wanted HDMI, a  black case and theoretically a newer design that would be quieter/more reliable. Fat Chance on that last one. My Elite last 2 weeks until its first crash and then only 2 weeks later it died completely. So for my $800 I got to enjoy 2 weeks of play, 2 weeks of on and off play and then 3 weeks of waiting. Add  the cost of me shipping it to an AKL Airport based address, not a big cost but seriously – I had to pay for something that was not my doing. Interestingly I found it was shipped to Sydney for ‘repair’. For that I got a free month of Live Gold – whoppee.

Since the repair I’ve had no issues thankfully but the more I think about it the more I’ve gone off Microsoft’s console. I’m not rushing out to buy games and theres no way I’m spending $80 a year for Live Gold. Infact I was ever slightly pissed that I couldn’t download the Force Unleashed demo when it came out and instead have to wait a week to get it – which is a Gold ‘feature’.

Things that are good about my 360 –
It’s Black (is this even a feature??)
The controllers are the best weight/layout.

Things that REALLY suck –
Noise from DVD drive
Reliability
Lack of support of true DLNA uPnP – which makes DIVX support more of a gimmick than a usable feature.
Noise from DVD Drive (seriously it’s that noisy).