The PS2 failure rate was high enough that a class action lawsuit was considered, I think that proves they had a case to be answered for but chose to shaft their customers over by not offering any free repairs or extended warranty.  The problem the 360 had is it was a lot more expensive product when it failed than most PS2's were.  You say its not anything to be praised that they offer the warranty, well it is because they're not obliged in ANY country in the world to provide a product that lasts longer than 1 year.  I think you've misunderstood the difference between a retailers obligation and a manufacturers obligations, but thats easy done when people only learn a small portion regarding such matters of law. 

You do not have a 5 year warranty on all electronics at all but I really cannot be bothered to correct your inaccuracy in that instance, assuming you're based in the EU then you need to understand first what a warranty is and second how no repair is guaranteed without legal action and even then can be dismissed.  Please don't tell me you've been learning from the MikeB school of EU law, which is complete bullshit I'll add.

First of all, you should check which countries that are part of the EU and which ones that are not. Because we're not a part of the EU.

And no we don't have 5 year warranty, we have 5 year "warranty", in search for a better word. So yes, we can get a free repair/replacement up until 5 years after purchase if the product is victim to a manufacturing error, for instance RROD, Disc Scratching error or whatever. The you file a complaint, and in most cases, the consumer wins. It must be shitty living in a country where companies are allowed to make shoddy products and piss on their customers like that without consequences.

Oh, and all my freinds' PS2s got replaced for free by Sony. Because they had to, by law.

I think its great that microsoft has the extended warranty but its something they had to do. Potiential customers would not even consider purchasing one and its reputation would be affected. I just can't believe people would actually buy a product that has such a horrible failure rate. I know all electronics have problems but the xbox 360 is a faulty product and as mentioned in a earlier post a rushed product. From reading some of these posts I'm not sure how people can be on there 4th xbox. Thats crazy talk. Some had to buy 2 of them and get others repaired twice. I think i wouldn't support a product again if it stopped working. I wouldn't spend more money on it thats for sure. I own a ps3 and wii haven't had any problems. Not worried about the wii. Sure its not as powerful as the other systems but at least its not getting shipped off in a box for repairs. Nintendo makes quality products that lasts for years. I think my 8bit nintendo was not working after the 5th year. Super nintendo still works. I'll admit the ps3 i'm more concerned about. no problems yet though.

I know one person whose second xbox broke down and another person whose on his third xbox. So people complained the ps3 was expensive when it launched but people don't seem to mind to purchase 3 or 4 xboxes. Which probably costed more than 800 dollars.  On vgchartz, they have the sales totals for consoles. I would like to know how many of the xbox 360s sold are from repeat buyers. Some of these people are buying 2 or 3 consoles. That will affect total sales. I don't think wii owners are purchasing 2 or 3 consoles and there winning by alot. Ps3 maybe 2 consoles purchased and that would be a small number of people(not sure).

^I told him this and he got me banned well not this but something with one of my REAL LIFE FRIENDS

Just explain to me how you prove a fault such as RROD is a manufacturing error and not a natural product failure within expected tolerance without the manufacturer coming out and admitting a problem please.  Its true that in most cases retailers will buckle rather than goto court and suffer the expense and hassle for such a small item so they do settle outside the vast majority of the time, but if they do go all the way there is a lot you have to show evidence wise to prove your case.  In order to prove that the RROD you suffered was a manufacturing defect you would need to prove a systemic fault which would require expert testimony, it's not for the defence to prove they're innocent until you've shown them to be guilty of something.

The point is that without Microsoft publically admitting they had an issue with the 360 then you'd have a lot of hassle to get a free repair in most countries.  Disk scratching by the way is not a systemic fault, in 99% of cases its dirt on the rubber inside that causes the disk not to slow properly when the spinner motor stops, this can be prevented by people keeping their console from getting excessively dusty.

The UK doesn't follow EU law when it comes to this subject, for many years we've had the Sales Of Goods Act which supercedes EU law in this instance and the protection is very good.

I'd love to see where its law for a manufacturer to have to replace any product outside of its warranty period in Norway, I'm pretty sure you're wrong.  It might be that retailers are made to do so but certainly not the manufacturer.

This proves some interesting things.

1. Sony can't make reliable consoles. PS1/PS2/PS3 have all got what we would call excessive failure rates. Power/heat/complexity are no excuse if laptops which are more complex and have hotter components have lower failure rates.

2. Nintendo are masters of making reliable, cheap and powerful consoles. You don't have to pick two with Nintendo, such is their skill. Anyone who hates unreliable consoles has to avoid both Sony and Microsoft and they can only choose Nintendo. Saying that you hate unreliable consoles but then by choosing either a Microsoft or Sony console makes you a hypocrite.

3. Microsoft are like Texas, when they fail they fail big. No surprises there.

Hmmm, this is news why??? On a side note, I'm buying a 360 this thrusday...If it RRODs at least I get a replacement up until 3 years into it's life cycle.

What I cannot see from this survey is whether the failure rate for the 360 is going down or up. Obviously the 360 had a very well publicised failure rate in its early machines which will always skew figures when being asked the questions as posted above.

What we can see is that the PS3 is rising which is to be expected to be honest and that the Wii has a very low failure rate again to be expected. This is entirely down to what these machines do and primarily heat. I suspect the PS3 is exhibiting heat fatigue whereas obviously the Wii does not suffer this to any serious degree.

What would be really nice is know what the failure rate is off the console once the RROD was deemed mostly fixed. I say mostly as only a complete redesign is likely to fully resolve the problem. I think it is probably true to say that the PS3 redesign has probably removed a lot of the problems the fat model had with heat but only time will tell.

At least is it a sizeable poll.

Listening to all the Warranty and 5 year this and that. I would just like to add that in the UK at least the term "fit for purpose" applies. It could certainly be argued that a console failing in its 2nd year was not "fit for purpose" and could reasonable be expected to be working.

Microsoft pre-empted any such discussions by offering a free extention and as is often the case it is not the fault itself but how the company responds that matters. This is why Microsoft is praised and why the RROD has had little effect on the sales considering the impact.

Unfortunately, that isn't how it works. You need to take into account the fact that only 12% of the people are in your situation. So, the chance of failing is closer to (6/12) 50%! Best of luck!
(Nah, I don't think re-buying counts, heh) 

On topic, I must be really lucky. My 2 360's are still alive from late 2008, the 60gb PS3 is still going, and my Wii is fine. Hell, the PS2 I bought used (from 02, got it in 03) still works fine, though I gave it away recently. I did buy 2 Dreamcasts / N64's due to failure, though (DC couldn't read discs, N64 has trouble turning on).