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[DunDunDunpachi]

I bought a PS4 in 2015 (Arkham Knight bundle) and a Wii U the same year. That was my entrance into the 8th generation of consoles. My son was 4 years old that year and was kinda-sorta getting into console gaming. My daughter was 2 and wasn't gaming at all. My other son wasn't born yet.

Since that time, due to repeated drops, tantrums, throws, spills, and other forms of childish neglect, our family has lost the following:

- Pikachu-edition 2DS: dropped too many times. Stopped powering on. Tried repairing but no dice. KO.
- Playstation 3 controller x2: Dropped too many times. Sticks started drifting and some buttons stopped working. Tried repairing but no dice. Double KO
- Playstation 4 controller x3: Dropped, thrown, spilled, and sat on too many times, which kinda makes sense because the PS4 is also our multimedia device on the living-room TV. I think the poor build quality of the PS4 controller is partially to blame here. Triple KO.
- n3DS XL: pea-sized cluster of dead pixels on the top screen after getting dropped from a bunkbed. System works fine otherwise. Not a KO but suffers from PTSD.
- Wii U tablet: dropped many times and spilled on. R3 no longer works and the speakers sound funny so I leave the volume off.
- Switch Joycons x4: also gonna hold Nintendo's poor build quality partially responsible here, but these have been dropped and mistreated a lot. Four out of our six Joycons suffer from some kind of issue, whether it is stick drift, connectivity loss, R3 stops working, etc.

I am by no means an OCD gamer. I am guilty of misusing or neglecting my gaming hardware from time to time, but to date I have never once broken a controller nor a system out of neglect or rage, not even when I was a kid. So it is a new -- but not unexpected -- experience for me as a parent.

What's your killcount this gen, whether the damage was your own fault or a family member's?

 

[Verdanth]

No damage since my PS2 days. Controllers were my main target.

 

[DESTROYA]

Zero for consoles but have killed a laptop and tablet or two.

 

[AV]

I haven't broken a piece of hardware since I was 13.

I don't know if that means I'm careful or just lucky.

 

[Gamernyc78]

Last thing I broke was my Vita on a drunken night. Came home and it was on the floor and stepped on it crushing it. One of my fav systems of all time, that shit hurt.

 

[Dural]

Lots of controllers, some game discs were stepped on and cracked, a couple Switch games were lost, and a 65" TV. The TV obviously hurts the most, only about 6 months old at the time it happened. 3yo threw a phone charger at it because my wife scrolled past a music video he wanted to watch.

 

[Psykodad]

Just this gen?

Only one urban camo DualShock 4 that my son spilled his drink on only hours after I bought the controller.

This gen has been kind to me.

Edit:

I was wrong, that was last-gen with a white DualShock 3.
This gen nothing broke and I didn't break anything, other than a couple of lighters that may or may not have traveled across the room, making holes in my livingroom door.

 

[Grinchy]

I am that OCD gamer who always keeps everything immaculate. You'll find every little leaflet that came inside a game case still inside and uncreased

I haven't lost any hardware, luckily. Though, last gen, I did kill my 60GB PS3 by having it next to a window in the winter time. My brilliant plan was to keep it from pumping too much heat in my room by having the window cracked open. It lasted 2 years, but I have to suspect that the massive cooling and heating is what gave me the YLOD and not the normal reasons most people got theirs.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

I don’t break consoles

Consoles break me

 

[-Troid-]

Broken game systems/controllers are one of the fears I have of having kids. Well that and having to deal with Common Core.

 

[Zero7]

Never broke anything deliberately, that's just dumb.

I've had one PS4 controller malfunction on me, old age I guess.

I went through 4 360's with the RROD and one PS3 with YLOD

P. S Condoms or vasectomies prevent broken hardware

 

[Kronic_Despair]

0 this gen, but I had to repair my ps4 three times.

irst i resoldered the connection on the fan when one of the wires broke and it stopped working and overheated the system.

Second I replaced the fan cause I'm shit at soldering.

And third I replaced my bluray data cable because some genius thought it a good idea to build first gen ps4s with the fan as the very last thing to remove... I damaged the cable after the numerous times I opened the system to clean, troubleshoot or repair.

 

[888]

I’ve never dropped a console myself but my daughter dropped my switch right in tile hard. Picked it up and didn’t have a scratch. I’m super anal about taking care of my consoles. Even my gloss consoles I keep a cover over to avoid scratches. Currently safeguarding my spider man ps4 pro from scratches.

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

- Pikachu-edition 2DS: dropped too many times. Stopped powering on. Tried repairing but no dice. KO.
- Playstation 3 controller x2: Dropped too many times. Sticks started drifting and some buttons stopped working. Tried repairing but no dice. Double KO
- Playstation 4 controller x3: Dropped, thrown, spilled, and sat on too many times, which kinda makes sense because the PS4 is also our multimedia device on the living-room TV. I think the poor build quality of the PS4 controller is partially to blame here. Triple KO.
- n3DS XL: pea-sized cluster of dead pixels on the top screen after getting dropped from a bunkbed. System works fine otherwise. Not a KO but suffers from PTSD.
- Wii U tablet: dropped many times and spilled on. R3 no longer works and the speakers sound funny so I leave the volume off.
- Switch Joycons x4: also gonna hold Nintendo's poor build quality partially responsible here, but these have been dropped and mistreated a lot. Four out of our six Joycons suffer from some kind of issue, whether it is stick drift, connectivity loss, R3 stops working, etc.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Feels exactly like that.

 

[Allnamestakenlol]

Damn, dude. I'm in my 40s, owned a LOT of gaming consoles and peripherals over the years (since around age 8 or so?) and I don't think I've ever broken anything gaming-related, aside from the occasional random hardware failure.

 

[Fnord]

The only broken gaming hardware I've had is the microphone on my DS Lite. It just stopped working. Right before I got whichever Zelda title it was that required the microphone. -_-

Other than that, I've never had a (first party) controller break or stop working, never had a console completely die (did have the disc read error issue on the PS2, but was able to fix it). This goes all the way back to an Atari Pong machine when I was a young 'un.

 

[Spokker]

I've been lucky. I only lost one PS4 controller when my son was being picked up by my wife and he accidentally kicked over a cup of water onto the controller. He was too young to have done it on purpose. I could never revive it.

He's older now, toddler age, and I let him have unsupervised time with one of those 2DS systems that don't close, and a Wii U tablet screen, and they are both still in good working order. We supervise when he uses the Switch though. It feels a little more flimsy than the 2DS and Wii U.

 

[Belmonte]

You guys truly love your child. If I had a son and he left a fingerprint in my 3DS he would be dead to me. And to everyone else. No kindergarten would be safe from me.

 

[GreenAlien]

Do headsets count as hardware? The wired ones break all the time.

 

[IKSTUGA]

My friend spilled beer on my OG Xbox One once, but other than that it's been good, no damage to hardware.

Edit: For context, I think we were drinking and playing Rock Band 4.

 

[Elektro Demon]

I killed an xbox 360. I tried to replace the thermal paste in it while under heavy influence of drugs and alcohol for a bet.
When I woke up, there was an xclamp on my face, bunch of capacitors all over the floor, 2 heatsinks on the couch.
There was like 3 more people with me at this party. Nobody knew what happened. 2 days later I found the motherboard in my dog's house.
How it ended up there, I have no idea.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

This should be a condoms add

 

[DonJorginho]

Once bought a new turtle beach headset back in the day but caught food poisoning during the night and couldn't get out my room in time and projectile vomited all in the earmuff parts of the headset......

 

[Elektro Demon]

Once bought a new turtle beach headset back in the day but caught food poisoning during the night and couldn't get out my room in time and projectile vomited all in the earmuff parts of the headset......

Well, that's no reason to throw them.
You could've cleaned them and I bet they'd be working fine.

 

[DonJorginho]

Well, that's no reason to throw them.
You could've cleaned them and I bet they'd be working fine.

The thought of wearing something with the residue of a mix of vomit which was built up of pasta sheets, beef mince and white sauce.

A gamer's dream.

 

[Elektro Demon]

The thought of wearing something with the residue of a mix of vomit which was built up of pasta sheets, beef mince and white sauce.

A gamer's dream.

Cleaning products do wonders. Isopropyl alcohol especially.

 

[DonJorginho]

Cleaning products do wonders. Isopropyl alcohol especially.

Maybe in another life I would had just not ate that dodgy dinner, maybe that headset would have made me into a professional player and I would be a multi millionaire.

Damn you Dolmio.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I broke my arm as a kid jumping out of a swing. I wanted to play F-Zero and I held my controller so my thumb could press the acceleration. I ended up yanking the cord from out of the controller to where the wires were showing. I ended up getting it replaced.

I remember the day I got my original Xbox. It may not be a user error, but I remember hearing a crunching noise while booting it up. There was a screw stuck in the fan. That was such an awful feeling because I had purchased the last Xbox in stock at the time. I remember the tears streaming down my face. I ended up finding a replacement that night from another location somewhere in town.

My s-daughter was mad one night because she had to stop playing Smash Bros on my Switch. She ended up knocking the dock and the system off its stand. Everything was fine, but she cried thinking she broke it. I just watched the events unfold.

 

[OutrageousFacts]

DunDunDunpachi Tbh I'd trade in all those damages asap for being allowed to raw creampie a girl several times.


(My yellow GameBoy died back then. Fell on the ground in a total freak way that the screen broke. Which is astounding, because ... big old Gameboys were pretty much indestructible)

 

[Virex]

I look after my stuff so I have luckily never had any hardware break or go missing

 

[Mato]

No hardware problems this gen. Although a couple of years back I had the extraordinary idea of throwing away quite a few mint condition systems and/or their boxes... This included: a Master System II (mint and boxed), PS1 boxed, buggy but still working. SNES/PS2/WII/GBA SP, the boxes only. I also threw away among other things, my stack of Edge magazines, 70+ issues, and a mint condition GBC Metal Gear box. At least I had the decency to keep N64's box. Oh well. Yes it was a mistake. Crucify me if you must.

 

[The Scrivener]

They don't make 'em like they used to.

Back in the day a mate tripped over some SNES cables, bringing the whole unit upside down off the desk crashing to the floor with a massive yank. It was still playing though, and all we had to do was pause the game and shout at our mate.

I personally have never broke any gaming peripheral. My kids however go through Xbox One controllers all the time, which is one reason I can't buy them the Switch.

 

[Codes 208]

Just another reason why im glad i dont have children, i guess.

that said, the only console ive ever truly broken wasnt even user error, it was when my xbox RRoD’ed on me.
Controllers however: I've definitely gone through several per system. Whether just wear and tear or the usual dark souls rage.

 

[Lupin3]

I killed an xbox 360. I tried to replace the thermal paste in it while under heavy influence of drugs and alcohol for a bet.
When I woke up, there was an xclamp on my face, bunch of capacitors all over the floor, 2 heatsinks on the couch.
There was like 3 more people with me at this party. Nobody knew what happened. 2 days later I found the motherboard in my dog's house.
How it ended up there, I have no idea.

So, the dog did it? Or was he just as innocent as every other dog?

 

[Zelent]

Only one casualty... My Grandmother sat on my GBA when I was a kid, and completely smashed the screen.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

This doesn't quite count but we've lost at least a dozen DS and 3DS styluses over the years. My wife's 3DS still has the original stylus, somehow, probably because she loans her stuff to the kids less frequently.