Microsoft Sued Over Scratched Xbox 360 Discs

Xbm360 writes "Microsoft has been sued by Jorge Brouwer from the US who claims that Xbox 360s scratched his game discs, making them unusable. 'Some gamers speculate that moving the console between vertical and horizontal positions while a disc is spinning inside could cause the scratching. Microsoft warns against such actions with a sticker placed on new consoles, and Brouwer said in the lawsuit that Microsoft's customer service representatives asked him if he had tilted the console. He said he had not. The lawsuit also cites investigations of similar consumer complaints conducted by a Dutch television program, which found that one of nine consoles tested scratched a disc after five hours of play.'"

Comments

Imagery

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do I get the image of Steve Ballmer sitting next to a stack of SpongeBob SquarePants XBox360 game discs with a pocket knife and a bottle of Jack Daniels laughing maniacally as he scratches each disc one by one, packages them back up & puts them in the "toys for underprivileged children" charity box?

speculate!?!

[ZachMG]

ok even barely bumping the thing will scratch them and its takin this long for someone to sue? Wow, oh and did anyone ever sue about the overheating thing? I know a couple of people that have had disks melted and one that actually had a 360 burst into flames.

Re:speculate!?!

[jimbogun]

According to http://news.com.com/Man+sues+Microsoft+over+allege d+Xbox+360+glitch/2100-1043_3-5982759.html?tag=nl this Reuters Story on CNET, which no longer exists, someone is suing over the overheating.This article has a little more info.http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Microsoft_sued_du e_to_case_of_Xbox_360s_overheating

Little known secret...

[Fx.Dr]

The 360 reads its discs with phonograph needles. It's a real bitch winding that sucker up, too.

Re:Halo 2 Was Pathetic

[Jaqenn]

Why we put up with it and didn't bitch at MS I can't remember... Because you played Halo 2. The thing is rife with pro-MS subliminal messages. The fact that you can't remember why you let them off the hook only proves how effective it is.

Holly shit is that advice *really* necessary?

[xtracto]

'Some gamers speculate that moving the console between vertical and horizontal positions while a disc is spinning inside could cause the scratching.

USA, the land of the obvious... is it *really* necessary to add a warning label of "DO NOT SHAKE THE CONSOLE WHILE PLAYING"??? I wonder what happens if you move your DVD player while it is playing a movie? or what about that Blender! whoooo! lets grab and shake the fucking thing while making a tasty tomato salsa!!

Now, aside of that, I am completely on the side of the guy, if the disks gets scratched after 5 hours of normal useage, then I hope they sue the hell out of Microsoft (or Sony or any other company). Sure, they are all exigent against personal backups, but then they should be held accountable for these kinds of actions. And, the fact that Microsoft has a replacement program for /their/ games does not matter as it is independent of the /other/ games or DVDs (does the X360 plays film DVDs?)...

Re:Disc Return? Screw that. Disc backups.

[Kuukai]

No, no reason for legitimate backups at all according to the Slashdot anti-pirating gestapo.

Are you from Bizarro Slashdot?

Costs

[Renraku]

Obviously they aren't doing anything about it. Not offering to repair consoles that are scratching games. Dragging their feet with replacements. You know. The usual service offered by Microsoft.

They have plenty to learn to be actually successful in the console market. Its not like the PC market. People in the console market expect to be taken care of. Try getting a refund for Windows just because it caused your hardware to burst into flames.