When, two weeks ago, my 15 month old Xbox 360 (with HDMI port) suddenly started freezing, and then displayed the Red Ring of Death, I didn’t panic or go nuts. Its demise wasn’t met with anger or irritation – instead I faced it with a sort of world weary sigh, and logged on to get the repair sorted out.
It wasn’t even that I had another Xbox 360 spare (although I did) – it was more the fact that I had been down this path twice before, both times with the Xbox 360 which is now the spare. Both a red ring of death and a drive failure had struck my gaming life, so I knew the ropes.
Normally, this would be the point of the article where I rant and rave about how shoddy Microsoft’s Xbox 360 hardware is, and how it’s a disgrace and they should be ashamed. I’m not going to – there’s enough of that on the Internet as it is. And besides, Microsoft will have learned their lesson. A large number of rants from angry bloggers might not have swayed them, but the almighty $1 billion kick to the coin purse that all the repairs have cost certainly will have. It wouldn’t surprise me if you could use the next Xbox console to ram-raid Dixons without breaking it, it’ll be built that well.
Back in February, Loz wrote about the annoyance of suffering a red ring of death and prompted a comment on her post regarding repairing and replacing Xbox 360 consoles over and over: “Why do you bother?”
Okay, so it was asked from a fairly staunch fanboy perspective but it doesn’t stop it from being a damn good question. Why do we bother? Why did I not just bin the Xbox 360 and move wholeheartedly to my PS3 – after all, the vast majority of games are available for both. The idea never entered my head, and here’s why:
Games. Today’s count is 37. I have 37 boxed games – and quite a lot of downloaded games and extra content. At an average outlay of £40 each that’s £1,480 worth of games. Selling that lot at a massive loss would be madness, when I could buy another brand new console for £150, or pay ~£60 for a repair. As a games nut, £60 is only one and a half weeks game expenditure for me. The same goes for accessories. I believe I have them all now, and they’ve proved to be very sturdy and well made – outlasting multiple consoles.
So far, though, I’ve only talked about cost – those same arguments could be applied to any console. If my PS3 failed, I’d be in a similar situation.
The main thing though, the primary reason I drag myself out to the UPS depot to send off yet another broken crapbox: Xbox Live. The way I look at it, the console is merely (an easily broken) key that unlocks the door to the wonderful world of Xbox Live.
It’s Facebook meets fragfest. It’s Twitter meets total carnage. It’s Bebo meets beating the shit out of each other. The only thing funnier than landing a vertical takedown on a computer player is landing a vertical takedown on a real life human being. And the only thing funnier than landing a vertical takedown on a human player is doing the same thing to someone on your friends list. Sure you can play online on a PS3, and for free, but it’s just not the same. The Xbox 360 interface was not just designed to incorporate Xbox Live – it was designed entirely around it. It runs through the entire system like blood in its veins.
Messages, cross-game invites and the ubiquitous headsets all combine to give the console a community feel that you simply cannot beat. It’s the console’s killer app.
As long as I have friends on Xbox Live, I’ll be repairing or replacing my key to this wonderful world as many times as it takes – just don’t tell Microsoft that.
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