I bought an original Xbox right before its effective end-of-life, and when I was looking to upgrade (my little brother loves him some vid games), I naturally considered the 360. Games were there (especially if you liked shooters and drivers) and the PS3 did (and still does) suffer from a lack of games.
Then I found out about the 30% failure rate (red-ring-of-death, since reduced to somewhere around a still unbelievable 10-16%).
Microsoft strapped their customer service balls on, however, and offered 3 year warranties. But there was a larger problem: the relatively cheaper price of the Xbox 360 compared to the PS3 was an illusion. With a PS3 you got HDMI out, but also Blue Tooth, an HD video player built in (Blu-Ray), Gigabit ethernet, Wi-Fi built in…
With an Xbox 360, at the time, you needed to spend another $200 if you wanted HD-DVD. Another $150 if you wanted Wi-Fi. That’s +$350, and even that couldn’t buy you HDMI (you needed to wait for the more expensive Elite, and then wait more for it to filter down).
But now that HD DVD has lost the format war, rather than junk an entire Xbox line with built in HD-DVD, they can (and did) just chuck the extra player. Good for them.
Not sure it was ever good for consumers. (The Xbox 360).
Xbox 360 HD DVD Support Statement Updated - Paul’s SuperSite blog
As a result of recent decisions made by Toshiba, Hollywood studios, and retailers, Microsoft plans to withdraw from HD DVD. Xbox will no longer manufacture new HD DVD players for the Xbox 360, but we will continue to provide standard product and warranty support for all Xbox 360 HD DVD Players in the market. As we stated earlier, we do not believe this decision will have any material impact on the Xbox 360 platform or our position in the marketplace. HD DVD is one of the several ways we offer a high definition experience to consumers and we will continue to give consumers the choice to enjoy digital distribution of high definition movies and TV shows directly to their living room, along with playback of the DVD movies they already own.
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