X Minus Two Weeks: First Xbox 360 Lawsuit

[Jeremy Charette]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.designtechnica.com/article8971.html' target='_blank'>http://news.designtechnica.com/article8971.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"You just gotta love a system where the Little Guy can quickly stand up to the Big Giant Corporation and express his profound disappointment over not being sufficiently able to create enough virtual mayhem. To whit: Reuters is reporting Chicago's Robert Byers has brought a proposed class action lawsuit against Microsoft Corporation, claiming the company's new Xbox 360 gaming console has a design flaw which causes the console's power supply and CPU to overheat, causing the whole system to seize up. Complaints of similar freezing problems began to surface almost as soon as the Xbox 360 went on sale November 22. Owners reported some systems crashed during both normal and online game play; symptoms included a variety of error messages as well as "black screen" crashes. However, other Xbox 360 owners reported no problems at all. Microsoft has stated it has received isolated reports of problems, but emphasized the possible glitches represented a small fraction of units sold. Byers' suit seeks unspecified damages, court costs, and replacement or recall of Xbox 360 game console. Microsoft has yet to comment on the case."</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/attorney.gif" /> <br /><br />I'm sorry, but consumer expectations are simply too high these days. First, the iPod Nano gets a few scratches on it (as has every iPod before it), and they get slapped with a class action lawsuit. Now Microsoft faces the same wrath over recent reports of Xbox 360 crashes. Consumer electronics are not made perfectly every time. There are occasional defects. Designers can't account for every possible usage scenario (such as putting a heat-generating Xbox 360 console and power supply in a closed cabinet). Not to mention that heresay reports of a small number of glitches or crashes are not sufficient evidence to declare an outright product defect. I think the only group that will win in this case is the lawyers. :roll:

[Felix Torres]

He's entitled to sue and the court is entitled to shoot him down at the first hearing.

To get past that he has to prove he's not dealing with a sample defect but a design flaw that affects all or most of the 360's.

Since 360 failure rate is reportedly running 1-2 percent instead of the typical 3% for consumer electronics products he's not going very far with this.

[Jason Dunn]

Yeah, this is stupid - it seems that most of the "crashes" I've read about are from people who don't have the IQ to put the power supply facing with the right side up, or bury it in crap - and then it overheats. Granted, it might have helped if Microsoft put big THIS SIDE UP TEXT on it...

[Outlaw94]

This is ridiculas. What piece of electronic hardware never had a defect. I bought an Ipod with video about a month ago after one week it siezed up. Called apple and they replaced it. No big deal.

You have to ask yourself two questions.
1) If you 360 does have a problem is MS doing what it can to fix it?
2) How many are affected?

We know the answer to #2. Not many. And I am willing to bet that if you were to call MS that they would do what they can to solve the problem either by shipping out a new 360 or refunding.

That is the problem with the legal system in the US is that any idiot looking for a quick buck or something for nothing can sue anyone they wish.

It's just to bad you can't sue someone for being an idiot.

[Darius Wey]

Sigh, don't people have better things to do than to sue a company over an issue that affects an insanely small minority of all users? Like, go walk the dog or something...

[Jason Dunn]

It's just to bad you can't sue someone for being an idiot.

Hmm...maybe we should pass a law that says you could - then most of the lawyers on this planet would be stuck in an infinite loop suing themselves. :lol:

[jeffd]

I have to agree with the guy. I am allways running around the game message boards and every other guy exhibits crashes and lockups of some sort. Those who know how it heats and have it ventilated properly only exhibit a few problems, but IMO a console that is so sensitive to heat needs to be better designed (in other words DITCH THE SMOOTH SURFACES NUMB NUTS! Cut slots in the damn thing and form ridges to increase surface area..like everything elese in the world that produces alot of heat!) and the fact that the power box can easily get so hot that it shuts off power to the xbox, what idiot decided NOT to install a fan into it?

[phillypocket]

I know nothing about class action law-suits, but aren't they supposed to be used if your harmed by a product with an inherent design flaw or stuck with a product with an inherent design flaw that a manufacture refuses to address?
For instance if people were getting 2nd degree burns while moving a plugged in 360 power supply, or if he had it for a year, it was out of warantee and they figured out the reason he had all those lockups was a known defective chip run on the board and Microsoft refused to repair.

It seems to me that he has the ability to simply return his unit to the store and get his money back. What's the basis for a lawsuit?