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Forums - Gaming Discussion - The Xbox 360 Was Probably the Best Engineered Video Game Console Ever

 

What is the best Engineered Video Game Console Ever?

Xbox 360 127 13.86%
 
PS4 405 44.21%
 
SNES 123 13.43%
 
Dreamcast 62 6.77%
 
Atari 2600 12 1.31%
 
None of the above 187 20.41%
 
Total:916
danasider on 25 April 2015
Zackasaurus-rex said:

Do you mean the WORST engineered console ever? I shudder at the thought of that absolutely insane hardware failure rate. That thing suffered from dozens of design flaws. The CPUs literally melted. The steel housing retained heat. The fans were chaotic. The disc drives were highly volatile due to cheap construction. I could go on and on with how dramatically cheap the thing is. That doesn't include other quality cuts. Examples: The controllers didn't connect via Bluetooth. Wi-fi wasn't included for ages (requiring a $100 add-on). The system stuck to old DVDs, despite predictable massive increases in game file sizes. The HDD is proprietary and expensive. The power supply is an ENORMOUS external brick.

The PS4 takes the simplicity of the  core 360 architecture, massively improves it, makes it even simpler while providing better dev tools, provides more flexibility for OS growth, and does so with an almost perfect record on build quality. Meanwhile, it is also better engineered into a small and sleek box, keeps the power supply internal, and allows for superior air flow. All while packing in essential features like Blu-ray; non-proprietary, swappable HDD support; Wi-fi; and Bluetooth. The PS3 had all of those things as well, though it has a confusing internal architecture (albeit with an ingenious CPU design) with far too few dev tools at launch.

I wouldn't say it's the worst engineered console ever, but I agree with all the other points you made. At the most, it is a very flawed system. I can't see someone thinking the console was the best engineered when just the RROD fiasco cost Microsoft billions.

Aside from the first sentence, I couldn't have said it better, myself.



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curl-6 on 25 April 2015

If the early models didn't have reliability of a wet paper bag, I'd say it was up there. It certainly seems well balanced in terms of it's CPU/GPU, RAM setup, power level for its time, and ease of development.



Ultrashroomz on 25 April 2015

The original 360 scratched discs really badly, and there was the infamous RROD.

If you ask me, as great as the 360 was in terms of a library of games, the original 360 is probably one of the worst consoles engineered.

As for the best engineered, I'd have to say either SNES or PS4.



"Just for comparison Uncharted 4 was 20x bigger than Splatoon 2. This shows the huge difference between Sony's first-party games and Nintendo's first-party games."

McDonaldsGuy on 25 April 2015

It's close, but there are a few major problems with it:

a) RROD of course

b) DVD drive.... should've used a proprietary disc that could hold up to 20GB since HD DVDs weren't ready yet. Should have used the special coating Blu-Rays did as well (to help prevent significant disc scratches, which many consoles initially caused as well)

Other than those yeah it was a well designed console.



gergroy on 25 April 2015

Maybe if you exclude this gen and only look at it from a game designer point of view I could see what you are saying...



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Dr.Henry_Killinger on 25 April 2015

Hell no.
Even with out the RROD, which already invalidates it, many things where fished out of the normal sku which was why I got PS3 first. WiFi, HDD, HD-DVD, eww no thanks.

For me its clearly the GameCube, followed by the OG Xbox, then the PS2



In this day and age, with the Internet, ignorance is a choice! And they're still choosing Ignorance! - Dr. Filthy Frank

curl-6 on 25 April 2015
Dr.Henry_Killinger said:

For me its clearly the GameCube, followed by the OG Xbox, then the PS2

I seem to remember PS2 having some reliability issues as well, not to mention some significant architectural bottlenecks.



TheSting on 25 April 2015
brendude13 said:
I can see where you're coming from, but no, not even close. I'd say the Playstation was.


Lol. PlayStation? Lol again 



Farsala on 25 April 2015

I find OG Xbox, PS1, Gamcube and PS4 better.

360 was also quite expensive at launch, but its hidden by the fact the PS3 was more expensive.



Wright on 25 April 2015

I'd say the slim model could probably be up there, on the top three; but the OG model? No way. A rushed product is a rushed product, no matter how good some of its virtues were. A 40% rate of failure due to internal problems isn't what I'd call "best engineered".