Poll: Is brand loyalty keeping the 360 alive?

[ZZoMBiE13]

The three best selling software brands in gaming are Madden, GTA, and Halo. Xbox is the only choice that lets players access all three.

That's not actually my quote, it's from the MS show at last years E3. But I think it has merit.

Also for me, I would say that brand loyalty is helping Sony right now more than Microsoft. If it weren't for the die-hard Sony fans I don't know who else would be keeping them afloat with their smaller marketshare.

Personally I own all the systems and it's that way every generation. But the last several years I've had a lot more fun with my Xbox and my 360 than any other systems (except the SNES, obviously).

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I prefer the Xbox controller. All of them. The old Duke controller for the launch Xbox, the S type controller it was replaced with. And the 360 controller is the most comfortable input device I've ever used. While by comparison the Dual Shock and all it's children are too small for my hands and often leave me with hand crampss after extended play sessions.

 

[Jark212]

No, good games are keeping it alive...

 

[Ancientgamer]

Xbox has the best PR. That's about all there is to it.

 

[cowbell40]

I suppose I got a 360 because at time for several reasons. First, it came out early, so I had the next gen experience before the PS3 and Wii owners. Second, I owned an Xbox and never a PS2, so I suppose I picked Microsoft's product simply because I was more familiar with it. Third, the 360 had a far better library than its competitors and there were several titles that were coming out for the 360 that I wanted.

I've only lost one 360 to the rings, but it died after 3 years of fairly intense use, so I'm not too angry about it. Besides, I got it repaired for free under warranty.

 

[DiamondJim]

I've always failed to see the whole 'fan' thing with consoles.

For me, it boils down to functionality and price. I own a 360, but not a PS3 or Wii. I'd love to own a PS3, but I can't afford one at the moment (I'd rather get my own HD TV first... heh). I don't have any 'loyalty' when it comes to gaming products. I could go with a term like reputation, though. I know, for example, Blizzard tends to put out some pretty badass games. So if they make an announcement, I'll check it out. But I'm not going to buy their products strictly because it's from Blizzard. If I see for myself that it's a turd of a game/console, I'm not getting it.

More on topic... I think that the 360 is kept alive by a broad selection of games and some pretty solid online capabilities. Yes, the 360 has some flaws, as does LIVE. But, y'know what? Most things do. I'm happy with my 360, and I'd be pretty happy with a PS3 too if I could get one.

 

[kmg90]

Overpricing required accessories is what keeps a brand alive think of how much you paid for the memory card or hard drive and then consider that it probably took 1/3 of the price to make it

Sony did with the PS2 now Microsoft is taking it to a new level with its hard drives and wireless adapters and online services (ADs for on a paid service is just wrong)


And to the people saying that Xbox 360 has a better library of games that just a mute argument due to the now enormous ammount of exclusives on PSN and Retail for PS3 and PSP

Lets not forget the ablity to play web games on your PS3 and movies using the Flash Enabled web browser

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

For me it is all about the games (the price didn't hurt either) that influenced my purchase. Sure it's not the best designed piece of hardware and there is the impending threat of it dying in the arse but I view that as a minor annoyance rather than a dealbreaker. Plus I'm rather fond of XBL.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

What gets me is that the 360 itself is a bad piece of hardware. The thing breaks often, costs lots of money to fix, takes too long for you to get it back, and the whole process is just way too aggravating.

sorry, but this is exactly why i have to say you dont know what your talking about. first off, the "often breaks" issue is only with the original models which havent been manufactured in several years, the falcon models had a much lower failure rate and the jasper units that are whats currently being produced have eliminated the issue with the rrod. but failures due to the rrod decreased signifantly with falcon.

second, rrod and e74 errors are covered by a 3 year warranty, and if you send it in the warranty resets, so most with these issues dont pay anything but shipping.

third, return time on rrod and e74 360s is only 2-3 weeks, much better than the 1+ month return times for the ps3 and wii.

seriously, the only aggravating this is that they break, but the rest of the process is painless.

the thing is they SHOULDN'T break or at least shouldn't break the amount that they did/do. if it was ANY other industry they would face a class action suit and frankly be charged under the lemon laws

in manufacturing if you have a 1% failure rate, it's not great but it's acceptable
if you have a 2% failure rate, something is VERY wrong with the process
if you have a 3% failure rate, you should recall everything and do qa testing on every part and fix what ever the issue is
if you have a 4% failure rate, you better redo the whole process and overhaul it all as well as recall all the parts and qa them

if you have what the 360 did, which is estimated as high as 30%, you should gear up for a lawsuit AND you should probly fire your whole qa team and find out what the hell is wrong with the product

it doesn't matter that they fixed it, well over a year and a half after they knew about it, they shouldn't have even released the product into the market knowing how faulty it is

that really shows what they think of the people as a whole who buy their products, they like you enough to sell you a known faulty product just so you can buy it and use it. not very nice of them really

 

[ratix2]

cleverlymadeup:

i realise that your example is just to demonstrate a point, however it doesent do it very well. for electronics a 5% failure rate IS considered within normal limits, few electronics manufactures can even claim to have a less than 2% failure rate, let alone under 1%.

second, you want to talk bad failure rates, lets talk about the ps2 and disc read error. some estimates put that issue as high as 50% for orginal ps2 models, and sony ONLY began to offer free fixes to it AFTER a class action law suit. microsoft (though probably to aviod a cal) offered to fix it and extend the warranty to 3 years.

finally, wanna talk about caring about your customers? at least microsoft LISTENS to what the 360 people want, unlike another company whos gamers have been begging for features for 3 years which have yet to materalize.

finally, most rrods occur months or years after being made, qa CANT test systems for that long. i agree ms fucked up, but at least they did right by their customers afterwards.

 

[UsefulPlayer 1]

I got red rings twice and my xbox360 just scratched my GTA4 disc two days ago.

I say the xbox is doing so well, because of large library of games and Xbox live.

I mean my friends and I have some great times in the party chat. Gets to the point where playing video games take second place and we're just socializing.

Plus having alot of kick ass games is pretty awesome too.

I don't really know what I'd do with a PS3 seeing as all my friends have Xbox360s. Also because I like the games on the 360 more, though I acknowledge there's some good ones on the PS3.

But yeah, the xbox is a piece of shit faulty system.

oh and it's not brand loyalty. It really is that fantastic.

 

[Deef]

-snip-

Your post is actually very biased, 360s do not actually break often (just the launch ones did). But because of those ones breaking often, people have been assuming that all 360s are prone to breaking.

OT:
I prefer my 360 to my PS3 because of it's superior online system/games.

 

[paiged]

I would love to have all of the systems if I had the money. The xbox 360 was the cheapest, and had a better lineup of games (a given seeing as the ps3 just released at the time), and maybe I just didn't want to believe that something that faulty could still be allowed on store shelves? Haha.

Overall though, I haven't had a bad experience with it at all. I got the RRoD once, maybe a week or two from it's second "birthday". I had it back in a week and a half, and haven't had any problems since.

That being said though, I think I'd rather spend money on PC upgrades than a PS3 at this point. At least until I see what other exclusives they blow me away with. Right now there's only one or two games that really strike my interest, so we'll see.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

cleverlymadeup:

i realise that your example is just to demonstrate a point, however it doesent do it very well. for electronics a 5% failure rate IS considered within normal limits, few electronics manufactures can even claim to have a less than 2% failure rate, let alone under 1%.

actually most companies are like that. it does help having worked in a factory and also having friends who do qa testing. when we had anything more than 1% that were failing qa standards we stopped our machines

look at cell phones, such as the blackberry, since they've come out i can count on 1 hand how many i've run into that have broken cause of a manufacturing defect and i've worked in environments where every manager and above have a blackberry and there's several thousand employees in said organization

yet i've met several 360 owners who've had the RROD, in fact that majority of the owners i personally know have had the RROD and that's a much smaller sample of people than the blackberry or frankly any other cell phone

your logic is rather bad and frankly just plain wrong, mine comes from experience

 

[MK Tha Rebel]

-snip-

Your post is actually very biased, 360s do not actually break often (just the launch ones did). But because of those ones breaking often, people have been assuming that all 360s are prone to breaking.

OT:
I prefer my 360 to my PS3 because of it's superior online system/games.

Look, that's just what it seems like, so that's what I go by.

 

[MK Tha Rebel]

Because you have obviously decided to also not list any positive features from the Xbox, you have, nor have you pointed out any features from any seperate consoles (I'm sorry, saying you will isn't anything..), then you are simply flamebaiting at the very least. If you're going to attempt a thread on a single console and listing negativity about it then please expect MOD intervention.

As for something to your 'probe', please remember you play the game, not the console. People would not stick with any single console even if it boasted full reliability, they only stick with a single console for the games themselves. The online system itself is also a plus, would you prefer to furish your house with things you find in the street, or those bought from a shop? In this case, you get what you pay for, and for the features offered through LIVE and the promptness of Updates when necessary, sell me on choosing a prefered Online-based console.

If you're only complaint is that of console reliability, you are digging up a grave that has been exhumed so many times it has an autonomous rail track leading to the Internet. Yes, simply put Microsoft did fuck it up and I mean it, seriously leaving plastic in the console? Not exactly the first point in '101 Steps to a Next Gen Console' is it? The console has been out for just under 4 years, there are now improvements in consoles which drastically reduce the chance of RROD, and there is also the 3 year gap of buying the console and sending it off to get it fixed for free.

And simply put, if you can't wait the 2 weeks to get a console repaired, then you can take what little patience you possess and good luck elsewhere... Have they gone?.. Good, less jittery 12 year olds.

I would list positives about the system, if they were in any way relevant to the point I'm trying make, and that is clearly going over your head. This has nothing to do with games, online services or the Xbox franchise. It has to do with how loyal are you to your brand, and would you still be if they royally fucked up. NOT WHY YOU ARE LOYAL, but what do you think of the 360's cult-like following. NOT THE 360 ITSELF, ITS FOLLOWING.

What isn't surprising is that a not many people have answered the second question in the OP. Would you stay loyal to your brand of choice if they fucked up? What also isn't surprising is the massive amounts of posts calling this flamebait, instead of answering the questions I asked in the OP. What IS surprising is the even LARGER amount of intelligent posts addressing the questions I asked.

But to a point, I'm glad these posts show up, because they prove my point: The 360 has a devout, cult-like following, defending their brand any chance they get. I mean sure, I'm happier about the intelligent posts that actually answer my questions, but ones like yours are nice too.

Anyways, I'm just happy with all the interesting points that are being made. This is why I joined the Escapist.

 

[Satin6T]

I think it's because I can finally buy american