When it comes to buying a games console, reliability is one factor that heavily influences a purchase. Well, if you’ve been thinking about buying a PlayStation 3, read on.

CNET UK, home to product reviews, technology news, gadget blogs and so on, conducted a games console reliability survey back in October, to which 1,128 UK-based console owners responded. 591 of these 1,128 consumers owned a Nintendo Wii, 562 owned an Xbox 360, and 473 owned a PS3.

Of those 473 black boxes, only 16 percent had suffered some form of system failure (fatal or otherwise). Believe it or not, that's a reassuringly low figure. To avoid accusations of a flame-baiting nature, we'll let you consult CNET’s article should you wish to compare this percentage with recorded Wii and Xbox 360 failure rates.

So there you have it; less than one in five PlayStation 3s experience technical difficulties - however that works. In your face, Watchdog!