Author Topic: Console Reliability (~82% for all of them) (Read 5725 times)

theaveng · « **on:** March 11, 2003, 08:07:27 AM »

I took polls on various websites to discover how reliable today's game consoles are. Here are the results (rounded to the nearest integer):

Gamers Who Still Own Their Original Console:
GCN 84%
XBX 82%
PS2 81%

Sources:
http://forums.n-philes.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8916
http://www.xboxforums.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3586
http://www.psxnation.com/Forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?;act=ST;f=1;t=1923
.
.
.
Note: I recognize that this poll was done using informal methods. If anyone has better numbers from a different source (say, Consumer Reports?) please share. Thank you. :-)

CijaroDSK · « **Reply #1 on:** March 11, 2003, 08:29:15 AM »

why do you care?

nolimit19 · « **Reply #2 on:** March 11, 2003, 10:21:46 AM »

as a consumer u have to care about the reliability of the goods u purchased, and his little study suggests that all consoles are equal in quality.......which i am not sure if i agree with, but it is an important issue. in my expirience, the ps2 was by far the least dependable, and the xbox was the most dependable. sometimes the ps2 wouldnt even play games. and would rarely play a dvd without problems. the cube and xbox were far supirior in quality, and i like the ps2 way more then the xbox too, so this is coming from an xbox hater. but it is built very well and it seems impossible for anything on that thing to break. it does freeze every nowand then, but i think the cube does it a little bit more. especially with ed....

Okiva77 · « **Reply #3 on:** March 11, 2003, 11:48:29 AM »

in my experience, my gamecube is the most reliable, only overheating once when my boyfriend played UFC Throwdown for 8 hours nonstop.

My PS2 has infuriatingly frozen when playing some games, and has occasionally got all wacky when playing DVDs. I forget what i read, but just how poorly made is the PlayStation 2? I got mine just over a year ago.
My PSone can also be a shoody POS. That has gone buggy more than a couple times during games.
So aggravating in the heat of an adventure.

Also, thankfully for some reason I have never frozen during Eternal Darkness. What could cause this for all you out there?

And I dont have an Xbox yet, not until Conker's Return, and the embiggening of my wallet.

BrianSLA · « **Reply #4 on:** March 11, 2003, 06:55:46 PM »

I think it is basically known that all consoles are in the same general range of reliability / defects. The rumors say the PS2 is alittle less reliable / sturdy.

nolimit19 · « **Reply #5 on:** March 11, 2003, 07:15:59 PM »

yes very nice to all be close to eaqual

Hybrid Hunter · « **Reply #6 on:** March 12, 2003, 12:52:39 AM »

Nice poll, cool to see you taking your time to do something like this.
All pretty much even, which is nice.

theaveng · « **Reply #7 on:** March 12, 2003, 06:01:34 AM »

GUYS:

Thank you for your calm, rational replies. I can't tell you how much that means to me. After getting verbally abused by the immature children at n-philes.com (below), it's nice to meet some mature, reasonable people who can debate a topic without resorting to insults/slander.

http://forums.n-philes.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9032&perpage=15&pagenumber=2

theaveng · « **Reply #8 on:** March 12, 2003, 06:11:11 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: BrianSLA
I think it is basically known that all consoles are in the same general range of reliability / defects. The rumors say the PS2 is alittle less reliable / sturdy.

There are 5 times as many PS2s on the market, so naturally there will be 5 times as many returns when the console fails. That gives the false impression that PS2 fails a lot, when in reality the failure rate *percentage* is almost exactly the same.

Plus, Sony has a very good record in the appliance industry with Consumer Reports routinely listing Sony at the top for long-term reliabilty. Ditto consumeraffairs.org. (I still have a working Sony Walkman from the 1980s!) There's no reason to think Sony would suddenly forget how to build quality equipment when designing the PS2.

Kellk · « **Reply #9 on:** March 12, 2003, 06:58:07 AM »

How many data points do you have? (i.e. - How many people responded to your survey?) How does it break down by console?
Have any other data? Like age, sex, etc?

a4164 · « **Reply #10 on:** March 12, 2003, 07:42:02 AM »

How does the small group of people that visit these respective forums represent the millions of owners of said consoles? Only the non-casual gamer even bothers to visit forums like the ones you've listed. Good ideal, but its not a fact that all consoles are the same when it comes to reliability. For instance, why would someone buy a console 8 times only to have it break 8 times?

How can you compare the samples directly. So far, 57 people voted at n-philes, 28 people voted at PSX Nation, and 24 people voted at the Xbox Forums. These samples can not be compared directly. You can not go around calling it a fact. Also your numbers have changed. The GC is now at 84% reliability out of those who voted at n-philes. Xbox has a 79% reliability rate out of those that have voted at Xbox forums. And PS2 is 75% for those who voted at PSX Nation. These numbers can be swayed easily or even lied about. A fanboy of x platform can just go there and lie. There is no way to verify that the people voting even own or have ever owned said console.

theaveng · « **Reply #11 on:** March 12, 2003, 08:52:02 AM »

I admit that my numbers are a small sample size. IF you have better numbers, please provide them from a reliable source like Consumer Reports. Or do a nation-wide poll.

If you do not, then we have to use my poll as the best available *at this time*.

nolimit19 · « **Reply #12 on:** March 12, 2003, 09:01:28 AM »

well the resident evil dude seems to think that sony makes consoles of lesser quality...i dont have the quote on me now, but i will look for it.

http://www.gameforms.com/news/?414

The_Gannondork · « **Reply #13 on:** March 12, 2003, 09:50:22 AM »

Damn aveng, I feel sorry for you. Your now the moron of the week at that forum, and yet you didn't do anything wrong.

Gamer Donkey · « **Reply #14 on:** March 12, 2003, 11:12:26 AM »

Quote
How does the small group of people that visit these respective forums represent the millions of owners of said consoles? Only the non-casual gamer even bothers to visit forums like the ones you've listed. Good ideal, but its not a fact that all consoles are the same when it comes to reliability.

Its called a sample. Thats how you take a poll when it is impossible with your resources to question the entire populus. Take the news for example, do you think they ask everyone in America their opinion for their polls? Heck, I didn't get a call. And people do lie, but thats one risk of taking polls. This was not meant in a offensive manner, only in friendly-informative fashion, but a little humor thrown in for spice.

Lexxon · « **Reply #15 on:** March 12, 2003, 01:53:31 PM »

If GC is the most reliable...then why did MINE break?

But, if you read my earlier topic, Nintendo was nice enough to give me a free warranty extension. So no grudge, guys

But my PS2 is whacky, especially with the CD-Based (blue-backed) games. Doesn't like toread them 1st try, usually takes like 3 to get it to read, except me SharkPort CD...takes even LONGER....like 15...

a4164 · « **Reply #16 on:** March 12, 2003, 03:16:31 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Gamer Donkey
Quote

Its called a sample. Thats how you take a poll when it is impossible with your resources to question the entire populus. Take the news for example, do you think they ask everyone in America their opinion for their polls? Heck, I didn't get a call. And people do lie, but thats one risk of taking polls. This was not meant in a offensive manner, only in friendly-informative fashion, but a little humor thrown in for spice.

The people sampled in this survey are not equal across three variables, hence you can not compare them to one another. The survey goes:

x number from group k said product a was this reliable.
y number from group l said product b was this reliable.
z number from group m said product c was this reliable.

x,y,z being your results
k,l,m being three independent samples
a,b,c being three independent variables

You can not say, "Fact, all these products are the same across the board". Now if the products were different but the group sampled were the same, well then you could say, "My results show that among this sample this product was this reliable". In aveng's survey, he went to three different forums and asked the same question about three different products. Then he said, there you have it. Fact, all of these products are the same. I have no problem with him doing the survey. Nice effort in fact. But to call this survey the unfalliable proof that these products are the same is inaccurate.

What aveng did is three independent surveys. Fine. But what you can not do is say that the three surveys are identical and here is my conclusion. They are in fact three independent surveys with no correlation. The sample used is independent across the three forums and the product asked about is independent across the three forums.

PIAC · « **Reply #17 on:** March 12, 2003, 06:27:56 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Okiva77
And I dont have an Xbox yet, not until Conker's Return, and the embiggening of my wallet.

Mrs Krabapple: i had never heard the word "embiggens" before i came to this town
Ms Hoover: why not? its a perfectly cromulent word

sorry i couldn't help my self

also, no need to over analyse the data theaveng got

, its nice job, cant we leave it at that?

also, gameboy reliability would have been interesting to find out too (just a side thought)

News:

Author Topic: Console Reliability (~82% for all of them) (Read 5725 times)