The Good, The Bad and The XBOX 360

To start this post I’ll recap my gaming console purchases:

Many years ago I bought a PlayStation 1 (original? old skool?) and it worked forever. In fact, it still works. When the PS2 came out I upgraded and it worked and worked (and still works). When it came time to purchase a 3rd generation console I thought long and hard about it. The PS3 is awfully cool and sexy and whatnot but way spendy. It also didn’t come out on time. So, I ended up buying a XBOX 360.

I have had it for a little less than a year. Last week I got the dreaded red ring of death when trying to play a game. I looked online and went through the various steps in determining that the system is borked. So, today I called India (XBOX support) and they walked me through the troubleshooting steps again (after first going through the troubleshooting steps with a computer voice prompt thingy) and they agree that it is in fact fubard.

Being that my XBOX is under warranty they are sending me a pre-paid box to ship it back to them in and they will repair it. Expected turn around time is 3-4 weeks. So, I guess I’m relatively pleased that my XBOX isn’t a pricey door-stop and that it will be fixed. On the flip side, it shouldn’t be broken in the first place. I wonder how well the PS3 is doing in terms of longevity. If it’s anything like my PS1, PS2, etc. I’m sure it will run forever.