Microsoft Sued Over Alleged Xbox 360 Defects

richdun writes "Reuters is reporting that a Chicago man who was lucky enough to purchase an Xbox 360 has filed suit against Microsoft over the overheating and crashing some users have experienced. The man is seeking unspecified damages, litigation expenses, and replacement or recall of all Xbox 360s. While more suits or a class-action is probably on the way, others have sought less litigious solutions."

Comments

Re:When in doubt...

[AuMatar]

Its called the warranty of merchantability. It basicly means that when you buy something, its supposed to do what its claimed to do, without known hazardous side effects. The Xbox360 may fail this due to the overheating.

What's a defect?

[YesIAmAScript]

Now, I know some are just plain defective. That'll happen when you ship hundreds of thousands. There might even be more defective units than would normally be expected. That could happen to, due to manufacturing difficulties.

But a design defect? I just don't know if we're there.

I know it gets hot http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=169465&cid=141 24290

But it gets hot because it does so much. Its regular level of consumption is 160W. That's a lot, and it all turns into heat. Despite this, the Xbox 360 has a great cooling system. It really keeps itself cool.

But, like all devices, a cooling system just moves the heat somewhere else, in this case ouside the case. So if you put it in a confied area or block the vents, it will be unable to cool itself. There is NOTHING MS can do about this.

Perhaps you'd like Xbox to take less power (PS2 uses 50W). I can understand that. But it's not going to happen. PS3 will be the same. These super-capable game machines are pushing the limits of technology and so they use a lot of power and generate a lot of heat.

So, lawsuit aside, when you evaluate your problems with 360, make sure you're not expecting MS to defy the laws of thermodynamics.

BTW, I got together an EXECELLENT cooling system for my 360 in my stereo/video game cabinet now. I'm considering writing it up. Costs a fair bit, but instead of 116F inside there with the front panel cracked an inch, now it gets to 78F (67F ambient in the room) in there with the front panel completely closed. It's so much quieter now.

Failing Units

[everphilski]

... run about 3% and are being replaced for free; please read http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=170258&c id=14188093 and shut up...

-everphilski-

Let's be fair!

[mister_llah]

A friend of mine made a post on our IRL pals forum that I thought I'd share...

"""
Lets be fair here - i'm no fanboy, but even I have to admit its not just Microsoft.

Sega Genisis - Crashes games

SNES - at launch batteries were being drained faster from cartidge then supposed to (not sure what this means)

N64 - At launch wouldn't read some cartridges

PSOne - Wouldn't read some games, laser would lways fall out of alignment, and system would overheat

Dreamcast - Overheating

PS2 - Scratch the hell out of people's DVD Movies as well as some games, majority of systems at launch would overheat

XBox - Overheating problems on some systems

XBox 360 - CPU not functional, overheating, scratching disks
"""

Re:It was only a matter of time.

[ezberry]

It seems that ever since going to law school, all I see on Slashdot is people incorrectly claiming knowledge of the law. The parent is a good example.

The Second Restatement of Torts, Section 402A Special liability of seller of product for physical harm to user or consumer, states:
1)A seller of a product in a defective condition is liable if
  a) the seller's business is to sell that product, and
  b) it is expected to and does reach the consumer without modifications
2) Section 1 applies even though
  a) the seller has exercised all reasonable care, and
  b) the sure or consumer did not enter any contract with the seller.

This results in a situation of strict liability.
There is also an implied warranty of merchantability, as seen in Henningsen v. Bloomfield Motors, Inc. (NJ 1960, 671).
Further, this is not about to go away in the near future as the draft of the third restatement includes clause (see the section on products liability).