Xbox 360 Failure Rate is 54.2 Percent, Game Informer Finds

The Xbox 360 breaks five times as often as its closest failure-prone competitor, the PlayStation 3, a print edition-only Game Informer survey found.

The poorly manufactured, red ring of death-prone console has a 54.2 percent failure rate, compared to 10.6 percent for the PS3 and the Wii's 6.8 percent.

The magazine surveyed nearly 5,000 readers to get the data. And while the 360's rate is alarmingly higher than the others, it's still bafflingly low because it blows the mind to imagine that 45.8 percent of the consoles have not broken. Also, Microsoft's numbers are inflated because 360s are used the most of the three consoles. Results said 40.3 percent of 360 owners use the console three to five hours a day, compared to 37 percent of PS3 owners. Meanwhile, the plurality of Wii owners (41.4 percent) play their consoles less than an hour a day.

Microsoft also seized the gold medal for unhelpful customer service, taking nearly a month to repair or replace a console, while Nintendo and Sony stuck closer to a week. Only 37.7 percent of Microsoft customers found the company's customer service was "very helpful," compared to 51.1 percent fo Sony and 56.1 percent for Nintendo.

The most shocking number from the survey — and frightening from a consumer perspective — is only 3.8 percent of Xbox 360 owners said they'd never buy another Xbox because of hardware failure.