9. You'll Avoid Potential Hardware Problems
The "Red Ring of Death" that plagued early iterations of the Xbox 360 is still something that lingers fresh in the minds of many gamers, and rightfully so. One of the more embarrassing tech debacles in recent history, an alarmingly high percentage of the first run of Microsoft's consoles experienced a general hardware failure, rendering them useless paperweights. While Microsoft, for the most part, made good on their part by replacing defective consoles and releasing an updated version of the 360 that was much more reliable, the RROD hasn't been forgotten, and highlights a major concern for console gamers: have early adopters become hardware beta testers? As these consoles continue to become more and more complex with each subsequent generation, the potential of something going wrong in the production of these machines increases. And despite months of testing by the companies to try to reproduce any of these potential errors prior to launch, it is impossible for them to replicate the condition of millions of consumers putting wear and tear on these consoles in their homes. Simply put, there is a very decent chance that there will be some sort of hardware problem early on in the life cycle of either/both of these new consoles that will involve having to dig out that warranty paperwork and deal with some frustration. This is something that unfortunately may be becoming part of the nature of the industry. There is an easy solution to this problem on an individual level: wait it out. Any major hardware malfunctions that could potentially arise will likely be quickly remedied by Sony and Microsoft, and newer, more reliable hardware should be on store shelves to replace the defective models shortly afterwards. A little bit of patience around launch time could minimize a lot of frustration.