Finally happened to me, and continued to happen to me, with Madden while doing an online season. I blame it largely on EA being terrible, though, as apparently the game freezes and all platforms.

Nope. Nintendo consoles are very reliable. At least to me :)

Gamecube and SNES in particular are durability monsters. 

I've owned a console that this didnt happen with honestly. I would seriously question anyone as a gamer who tried to pretend this wasnt a normal thing for any console.

Even with the original NES the loader spring would break but then you just stuck another game on top of the game you wanted to play to keep it down.

You also have this...

Only once on Zombiu. Which was very annoying as I stupidly didnt save for a couple of hours. Do'h!

My SNES is going strong too. No problems. Some of the games battery back up havent packed in yet either

LOL. i totaly did that. i thought i'm the only one.