Defective Xbox 360’s
If you recently bought an Xbox 360, you may be interested to know many users are complaining of various problems due to defective design. In fact, one user was so unhappy; he has brought a $5,000,000 class action lawsuit against Microsoft this week.
The lawsuit against Microsoft claims the company’s Xbox 360 was “negligently designed and manufactured.” Many users believe the Xbox 360 has a problem with scratched optical discs. Some blame this on users shifting the position of the Xbox while it is in use, but others say that the optical disc is scratched even when it is just sitting there. Others have had game discs so scratched that they can no longer use them. This is especially unacceptable for a gaming system in which the game discs can cost as much as $50 or more. Microsoft has replaced some game discs made by them at $20 each, but make no compensation for game discs made by third parties.
In addition to the optical disc problem, many users have issues with a software update causing problems. This update, issued October 31, 2006 was supposed to fix a defect. What it actually does, says many users, is causes the game to freeze up after installation and while playing games on the Xbox 360. This freezing action has caused some Xboxes to no longer function after installing the update. It is not merely a matter of not installing the download, as some users say that when they connect to Microsoft’s “Xbox Live,” they automatically receive the update.
This latest lawsuit adds to the woes experience by Microsoft over the Xbox 360. Last December, Microsoft was sued by an Illinois family. The family claimed their Xbox 360 overheated and caused a fire, killing an infant in the home. The lawsuit claims the fire was “was a direct and proximate result of the overheating of the game’s power supply and wiring.” However, the lawsuit claims the fire occurred in December 2004, five months before the official launch of the Xbox 360 in May 2005, so the console may have been a first generation Xbox.
Microsoft went from denying there was a problem with the Xbox 360 to admitting that there was a problem that could affect up the almost 12 million consoles sold so far. So what does Microsoft plan to do about the problem? They have announced a plan to set aside between $1.05 and $1.15 billion to extend the warranty of all Xbox 360s from one year to three years. In their plans, they also promise to fix all Xbox 360s that display the dreaded “red ring of death.” This occurs when the three front panel lights light up, indicating a general hardware failure has occurred. This works out to Microsoft setting aside almost $100 for each console sold.
What may hurt Microsoft more than any monetary amount they will lose is the loss in faith and confident in their gaming consoles. They originally insisted that the failure rate – between 3% and 5% - was average for a gaming console. It turns out that the failure rate may actually be five times that. If they plan to save face, they may need to make some drastic changes in the design of the Xbox 360 to prevent future problems and lawsuits.