Alright I've been a gamer since the 2600. I have owned every platform Nintendo has built, half of Segas and all of Sony's consoles at one point or another. However of all my platforms I have never even had to send one in for repairs, ever. Untill I bought an X-Box 360. Here's some of the things I put my consoles through.

I played my SNES for three days straight the console was so hot that I couldn't touch it. I actually burnt my fingers when I touched it. I turned the console off and let it sit for a day or so. The next time I played it was perfectly fine the console played just as good as ever.

I dropped my GBA into the water outside , I freaked out. I turned it off and let it dry off. Turned it back on and the console played as if nothing ever happened.

I got my GameCube when I was in foster care. Being as such tons of kids played on it and roughed around with it. I remember once I had it up about 7 feet on a shelf so that the little kids couldn't get at it. One of the kids tried to get at it and ended up dropping it 7 feet onto solid concrete flooring. The console was later dropped down a flight of stairs, it had pop dumped in the disc drive and it still ran perfectly.

My Wii, I have left my Wii on for days at a time and it is always running (WiiConnect24) to some degree. Now yes after all the usage it does now make a loud buzzing noise. But the console itself still plays fine. My Wii was also dropped from about 4 feet onto a concrete floor and a kid snapped the top off of it. But it still runs smoothly and plays all my games.

I remember playing my NES and Atari 2600 for upwards of 8-9 hours back when I was like 3. The consoles both got over used but neither one actually stopped working. During my years I have also owned DreamCast/GameGear PSOne/PS2/PS3 though my PS2 wasn't technically mine it was my foster parents.

Now my foster brother owned an X-Box Origional and it over heated and fried, he had to send it in to get it fixed. I in 2007 decided to buy myself a 360 and as of yesterday my 360 red ringed and I have to send it in for repairs.

So of all the consoles I've owned (Every Nintendo Console built) , (some of Sega's consoles) (Every Sony console). Why is it only Microsoft's have ever broken down?

Is Microsoft really that bad at producing working hardware?

Like many have said, the original Xbox was rock solid, so many though at least their console hardware would be neat. Obviously they slipped up, I doubt very much it will happen next gen.

Xbox 360 failure rate>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> PS1 & PS2 failure rate combined

The only problem I had was it would freeze sometimes but all consoles will freeze once in a while.