Despite price drops, hardware revisions, firmware updates, and whatever other changes have occurred during this generation's life-cycle, a survey from CNET UK assures us all that the status quo of console failure seems to remain firmly in place.

The site polled 1,128 UK console owners (which break down into 562 Xbox 360 owners, 473 PlayStation 3 owners, and 591 Wii owners, with some overlap), and learned that 60 percent of Xbox 360 owners had experienced hardware failure. A significant number, particularly when placed alongside the 16 percent of PlayStation 3 owners and six percent of Wii owners who would experience the same problem. The results were found to be comparable with similar U.S. surveys.

According to CNET UK's survey, Xbox 360 failure problems are highly likely to happen within the first 12 months of purchase, with 47 percent reporting console death inside a year. The site also found a high proportion of people took advantage of Microsoft's extended warranty offer; 72 percent sent them back to the manufacturer, while 15 percent decided to try to fix it themselves.

CNET UK does note that their survey was "self-selecting," and like Game Informer's recent study, "they do not represent a random or necessarily representative sample."

The full article on CNET UK also contains some interesting anecdotes, such as one 360 which was repaired six times before Microsoft finally gave up on it and issued a refund.