Microsoft gets sued: Scratched game disc lawsuit

Ahahahaha...

As an attorney, this one makes me laugh out loud. X3F is actually right-on this time, that a class-action suit concerning RROD hardware concerns would have been fairly viable, but good luck showing any serious disc scratching problems with the 360 where there is not any user contributory negligence. If Microsoft is able to show even the slightest indication that consumer fault plays a role in 360 disc scratching, this case is outta here.

This is useless...Microsoft even has a service out there for replacing scratched discs...

what service is that djdatz?

yeah i would like to know because i have gone through 3 copies of rainbow 6 vegas, my xbox was actually starting little cracks in the center of the disc which after 2-3 weeks would escalate to larger cracks causing them to become totally useless.

after calling MS and Ubisoft the only solution was to pay Ubisoft 30 bucks to send me a new disc..... MS offered nothing.

and for the record i am 21 and know how to take care of my games, im not leaving them in the sun, out of the cases, or stepping/sitting on them.....

@1

I'm not sure how it works.. but wouldn't the guy filing suit have to show proof of all that.

@4
Use CD cases or CD storage devices. Some of these games come in these cases that you literally have to pull the game out of, and that sort of stress on combined with heating in the box, then cooling in the case, etc can cause the cracks

OMG. The kid should have a lawsuit filed against him for playing Madden in the first place. Hell he should be so lucky his 360 eat the game for him, it was only trying to help him out.

aZTEKv2:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/gameplay/discreplacement-program.htm

How does this guy see it proper to sue for 5 MILLION DOLLARS!??! That boggles my mind, wouldn't he sue at most for the amount his games were worth that were broken? So, like $500 bucks at most?

@8

Come now.. We're in America... it wouldn't be proper to sue for anything less than 1 million.

/sickening

not sure what the law is in FL, but in NY, if the guy can show that MS is 51% at fault for F'ing up his discs, then he can get whatever percentage awared by jury, contributory negligence or not

Microsoft's disc service is only for MGS titles and not 3rd party titles if I am not mistaken

@Llarmon
Thanks for the link.

I remember when I worked for their 360 tech support, for about a month when the issue emerged there were only 3 games we could replace for free... Kameo, PD:Zero, and PGR3... completely FREE OF CHARGE.

Now based on the link, it remains to be only discs that MS publishes AND enclosing $20 bucks, thats a load of bologna considering its the console with the issue.

Out of 100 calls I received it was about:
40 --- 3 red lights, red lights, period.
30 --- connecting to media center (zune software fixed that now)
20 --- scratched disks
10 --- asking for a store that has xbox 360s for sale.

360 is by far a cheaper product than the Playstation3 . M$ makes money off each cheap 360 it sells you guys rejoice , we buy a system with $1000 worth of tech for 499 and we're the fanboys yeah right ! The elit isnt even woth the money no wifi ,hd or any thing else for that matter.

I loaded "Lego Star Wars" into the drive and left it there for weeks without jostling the 360 at all, and I found scuff marks on the DVD that might have led to scratches. If that qualifies as contributory negligence on my part, the standard for determining that is biased beyond belief: I feel I'm more likely to damage a game pulling it out every few hours than if I just leave it.

I would like a horizontal versus vertical damage assessment, to see if lying the 360 flat helps or hurts the disks. The air seems to flow well as it stands vertically, but I'm willing to change...

IANAL, but if people can simply show that 360 has a much higher disc scratching rate than similar products on the market (PS3, but also consumer DVD players and PC DVD drives?), would that not be indicative of a manufacturing defect? I mean, say you take a carefully controlled sample of a few thousand households and the scratched-by-a-360 rate is 10x the scratched-by-anything-else rate, would that not show enough culpability to get a class action settlement?


And for the record, "We'll replace your game, if it's one of these very few titles, and if you pay us close to the used cost at Gamestop" is *not* a solution.

WTF @ 13.Qayin

First of all this is xbox360fanboy.com I think your looking for gaystation3fanboy.com.

Second of all, both the 360 and the PS3 looses money on their hardware, they rely on software/peripherals/etc.
To put it in perspective to you since you sound so educated, its like when you go to the movie theater. Sure there is some profit in the sales of tickets, but the theater heavily relies on the markup of food,drinks,etc.

As far as your elite comment is concerned,
It does not have wireless built in as you said. No need if you connect it via network cable, otherwise there are wireless alternatives that range from $20-$100.

It also comes with an HD cable as well as an HDMI out that supports 1080p. It also includes a 120GB HDD.

@13 - I assume you say it's worth $1000 because of A) Blu Ray tech provided B) PS3 gaming experience. So it's worth a $1000 dollars to you, I think that's stupid but it's your opinion. To me, what the PS3 has to offer isn't even worth $300 dollars (watching HD movies doesn't mean much to me really).

Anyhow the vast majority of people in the market for HD movie and gaming techologies didn't even the think PS3 was worth $600. So you think it's worth $1000, most people think it's worth less than $600. I think that's the definition of fanboy.

@1 - You're a lawyer huh? Even the slightest consumer negligence? Like, maybe a kid BUMPING into the console? It is a freaking TOY after all.

Most of you people are idiots.

@19 No it is not a toy. It is a piece of expensive electronic equipment that must be maintained in a proper environment. If you kick it around while there is a disk in the tray, it is your own fault.

@13 Is there a reason you are reading this 360 blog? You're obviously a PS3 fanboy so why b*tch and moan about it. Do you have nothing better to do with your time than cry on a blog where you're going to get flamed by everyone who posts here? Do you notice the fact that we call ourselves fanboys as well, so how is that an insult? Did you also notice the fact that there are hardly any games on the PS3 that are worth playing? I'd much rather pay for a less expensive system that will allow me to enjoy hundreds of amazing games as opposed to a "under priced" (as you put it) system that would sit on my shelf collecting dust. Not to mention the fact that every single person who owns a PS3 to date will have to replace all their controllers because Sony was too cheap to add rumble in the first place.

@10 I don't know if this is what you're trying to say but the jury can award any amount they deem necessary. They may rule MS as guilty but only give the plaintiff the amount of money to replace the games. There is no negligence in this case because the only harm done to the plaintiff is the fact that they can't play a game.

@ 8 and 9 You two are the biggest fools so far. Did you neglect to read the article or do you just have a really low IQ? It says a class action lawsuit, and if you still aren't smart enough to figure out what that means (I'm assuming typing it into Google would be way too hard for you to even comprehend), you should go watch Erin Brockovich. Maybe Julia Roberts can present it to you on a level you would understand.

@1 Is your user name a reference to Legally Blonde? And you're a lawyer?

I know for a fact that the 360 scratches discs, but i just do the $5 blockbuster flip to replace them!

@8,
"How does this guy see it proper to sue for 5 MILLION DOLLARS!??! That boggles my mind, wouldn't he sue at most for the amount his games were worth that were broken? So, like $500 bucks at most?"

"class action lawsuit

A lawsuit in which one party or a limited number of parties sue on behalf of a larger group to which the parties belong. For example, investors may bring a class action lawsuit against a brokerage firm that has actively promoted a tax shelter without having adequately disclosed the attendant risks. See also shareholder derivative suit."

class action lawsuit. (n.d.). Wall Street Words. Retrieved July 11, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/class action lawsuit

If you have an Xbox 360 Console that has scratched your discs and you would like more information about the proposed class action lawsuit filed, please visit the Plaintiff’s attorneys’ website at http://www.Xbox360Litigation.com.

In the lawsuit, the Plaintiff is asking the Court to certify a nationwide class and create a fund for all individuals that have had discs damaged by an Xbox 360. The Plaintiff has alleged that the total minimum amount of damages incurred by all of the individuals combined is at least $5,000,000.00. To be clear, the Plaintiff is not alleging that he or any individual member of the class is entitled to that amount of money. The sum recovered by individual class members will be significantly less than the total damages incurred by the proposed class as a whole.