Documents suggest Microsoft knew Xbox 360 could damage discs all along
By Donald Melanson 
posted December 15th 2008 4:57PM
posted December 15th 2008 4:57PM
Microsoft long ago fessed up that the Xbox 360 was capable of scratching discs, and it even offered a (somewhat limited) exchange program for damaged games, but some recently unsealed documents from an ongoing lawsuit now suggest that the company was well aware of the issue for about as long as the console has been around. According to The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Microsoft first discovered the problem in September or October of 2005, and it even went so far as to send a "team of engineers" to stores across the US to determine the best course of action. Apparently, they came up with three options, two of which proved to be impractical, and one of which (installing small bumpers in each and every console) proved to be too expensive, leading Microsoft to offer the disc exchange instead. What's more, the documents apparently also revealed that some Microsoft employees thought that the warning labels on the console were insufficient, and that the company has received complaints about the problem from more than 55,000 customers as of April 30th of this year. No word on any movement just yet in the lawsuits themselves just yet but one of them, filed back in July of 2007, is seeking class-action status on behalf of everyone that's bought an Xbox 360.[Thanks, Lyons]
Hotrod, that's a good article. Thanks for sending it my way. After reading the article and taking a look at the back of my unit it looks like I do have a Jasper. Let's hope that really does mean I'll be okay as only time will truly tell. I was fortunate in the I never had a problem with any of my original XBOX units and one of those was an original. Then again I did get new power cords sent on all of those at one point. Anyways, thanks again for the info.
Why does Miscreantsoft even bother to produce this device? Reason. Arrogance to dominate another market that they have no reason to be in. Using their typical "me too" M.O., the expected outcome of the products created are mediocre at best. Well in this case, utter crap. Billions wasted with the ring of death fiasco, now damaging users property and having full knowlege of the problem is below the belt for users. Migrate to. PS3 or Wii and stop funding this fiasco.
You're terrible at your job. You would have to be the worst "me too" troll I've ever come across. I have more respect for the "M$" thing than your "Miscreantsoft" label.
If you're going to keep pushing the same uncatchy crap daily you may as well try something like "Mal-bad-in-the-Latin-rosoft"
lol
Now he's trying to talk shit about the 360... Jubei, you shouldn't even bother posting about the 360, because it's obvious you don't know anything about it or any of the other consoles.
It's about time to fire those over-paid engineers Microsoft. How could this be so complicated and differ from any regular cd-rom? idiots!
This is another plus for the PS3 using blu-ray. The polymer coating on the discs makes scratching them *really* difficult so even if the PS3 wigs out your disc will more than likely be OK.
As for the 360 I really don't understand why MS let such a crap quality product on the market (to say nothing of the enormous power brick and the fact it sounds like a vacuum cleaner....yikes). I have a Zune which I love and is of very high quality as are the mice and keyboards from them.
Never had this problem with my Xbox. But as we all know the PS3 can do no wrong EVER!!! I think I'll rent a game for my PS3 and move it while it's doing one of those mandatory installs and see what happen. As for the other guy who scratched his disc. The Blu Ray info is on the top of the disc not the bottom. Resistance is about 23 gigs meaning it's only taking up one layer. But I say again the PS3 can do no wrong.
You know what happens in a Class Action Lawsuit, MS will loose a bundle of money. The Lawyers will all get a huge bundle of cash, and everyone else, the 360 users that are having a problem, will get a Coupon for a $10 discount on the puchach of a new 360 system.
My old 77 Chevy Truck, I got in on of of these Class Action things(Not the first time either for other things) and some had problems with getting hit on the side and the truck going up in a fireball. The Gas tank is outside the frame rails. What happens in the end. I lame Discount on the purchase of a NEW Chevy Truck.
These thing are a joke. The only people that get anything from them are the Lawyers on both sides.
55,000 units out of 20 million is 0.275%... this is by any statistic is not a huge issue.. faulty units will probably be replaced based on this.. simple..
If the scratches are in a consistent location on discs, is it possible to make sure that data is only burned onto safe areas. Im assuming that these scratches are thin, eg less than 1mm.
Microsofts business plan is artificially breaking their products after a while to get people to buy the same thing over again.
my 360 majorly scratched my halo 3 and minorly scratched other games. Halo 3 stopped working for a while but I buffed out the scratches with some toothpaste and it worked.
Between my roommate and I, we have every current gen system. They have all gotten the crap beaten out of them (living on a college campus will do that), but only the 360 failed, despite having the lowest amount of shock applied to it.
The PS3 gets moved all the time while it's spinning discs. It once went from being a vertical system to a horizontal system while watching a old fashioned DVD movie. The movie skipped about 5 seconds, the disc and system are fine.
The Wii has been pulled off of a 3 foot shelf onto the hard wood floor numerous times due to short GC controller cables. It doesn't even skip when this happens. It's happened with both Wii and GC discs, with no problems.
The 360 sits (horizontally) in out entertainment center with the PS3. I kid you not, my roommate stubbed his toe on the center while Halo 3 was playing, and it completely ruined the disc. MS wanted $20 to have it replaced. I've never heard "f*** you" yelled over the phone so many times.
The point is that it DOES happen when the 360 is played normally as advertised (vertically), and in any case, shit happens. You've never bumped the table or cabinet your 360 sits in?
People defending shoddy workmanship and engineering because of fanboyism is insane. Pull your head out of your ass.
user error!!!!!!!!!!!!! ive had more than my fair shar of 360 consoles and still have 3, never had one scartch up any of my games