Slashdot Mirror


Microsoft Knew About Xbox 360 Damaging Discs

Kelly writes "An unsealed document in a Washington lawsuit filed last week at Seattle, Microsoft was well aware that the Xbox 360 was prone to damaging game discs even before the console was introduced in November 2005. Microsoft had three solutions for solving the issue, but all three solutions were rejected due to technical concerns or on the basis of cost. Microsoft settled on a cost-free fourth solution: a warning was added to Xbox 360 manual, which essentially placed the blame on users instead of the hardware." The scratching-disks problem was mentioned a few years back, too. I wonder whether more people would prefer a slight discount on the price of a console to the ability to reorient it while a disk was playing inside.

2 of 583 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Oh Noes! by Volante3192 · · Score: 2, Troll

    Because absolutely nothing will happen while playing to cause the console to move. Pets, earthquakes, small children, large children...

    Causing the game to crash, that's perfectly acceptable and highly unlikely to prevent as it is. Damaging the disc? Easily preventable.

  2. Re:Isn't this usually a concern by Rakarra · · Score: 1, Troll

    TFA says discs can get damaged when moving the console around/reorienting it (point it eastwards?!?) while there's a disc inside. Now, I tend to take the discs out before I move my equipment around, so I may be wrong. But isn't this usually a concern with ANY device with an optical drive? Or is it far worse with the 360 thanks to their superior engineering?

    Nope, the XBox isn't any more prone to scratching discs than your average non-car-CD player. Most people just know better than to move their CD players around while they're playing, and I suppose don't make the same connection with a game console.