Home Gaming Microsoft Sued Over Xbox 360 Hardware Failures

Microsoft Sued Over Xbox 360 Hardware Failures

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trlcat-bitth More reliable Xbox 360s are starting to trickle onto the market, but the fallout from the “red rings of death” remains. Now Microsoft are facing a class action lawsuit in California.

Kotaku (via Daily Games News) is reporting that the lawsuit was filed under California’s consumer protection statutes and alleges that Microsoft knew that the system would suffer a 50 percent failure rate but concealed the knowledge to compete with the Nintendo Wii and the PlayStation 3. The suit cites articles from sources such as VentureBeat and Yahoo! to support its claims.

If Microsoft loses the suit, they will potentially have to implement a refund program in California as well as surrender profits relating to Xbox 360 sales. But even if they win, it doesn’t look like Microsoft will be allowed to forget about the unreliability of the Xbox 360 anytime soon. The question is, should they be?

It’s gotten a lot harder for us here in South Africa to get our consoles swapped out but only lately. To be honest we’ve really had it easy, the ability to just walk into a store with a reference number and swap out the console was great. those days are over now though and I’m sure as time goes on we will see more bitterness creep in towards Microsoft and the Three Red Lights saga.

Last Updated: October 16, 2008

15 Comments

  1. Jimmytheediblewyrm

    October 16, 2008 at 15:01

    Amazing… not one person saying “dont bash the xbox 360….”
    Unlike a certain other article about a certain other console…

    As much as i love my Xbox, the hardware failures a fugging shocking, atleast i managed to get a newer one before the quote/unquote “simplified method of getting a new console” came into effect here in SA.

    Reply

  2. Fudzy

    October 16, 2008 at 15:41

    As much as I’d like to stand up and be counted as one of the ‘victims’, you have to wonder whats the point and what will they get out of it?

    Reply

  3. ewie

    October 16, 2008 at 15:50

    Can’t we start a class action suit against Mi Digital for all the R684 swapout without a retail invoice.

    Reply

  4. abe

    October 16, 2008 at 16:32

    [Flame]This is fact, most PS3 bashing on this site is opinion[/Flame]

    Reply

  5. David

    October 16, 2008 at 17:33

    My Xbox 360 has been working since December 2006 so its almost 2 years old and it is still pushing on with no failures at ALL, YA HAA. But I fear my turn will come soon to experience RRoD!

    Reply

  6. Vamp

    October 16, 2008 at 17:50

    Here,you can use my fire extinguisher.Don’t want you
    to spontaniously combust 🙂

    Reply

  7. Fox1

    October 16, 2008 at 18:23

    What are the new harder swap out procedures that have been put in place locally?

    Reply

  8. gazza

    October 16, 2008 at 18:41

    well it’s no longer just a case of phoning MS support and getting a ref number then of the store where they swop your console for you strait away (depending on stock ofcourse). But to be honest I saw it coming, I’ve had to swop out my 360 4 times so I’m going to average that for atleast each sale of the Xbox theres been a return aswell. From what i understand, and I may be well off the actual facts here all of the returns have put huge stress on the retailers and some have even stopped stocking the 360 (toys r us) so now instead of returning your console and getting an imeadiate swop out, it will be sent to MI digital either for repairs or to be swopped out and as Ewie said above there can be costs involved.

    Reply

  9. RivaZA

    October 16, 2008 at 20:01

    I have had to Swap my Xbox twice out now. My third one whilst working fine since Jan this year is still one of those june/july 06 models. So the likely hood of it getting a RROD
    is quite high. What I did when I swapped out my Xbox is I skipped the retailer and went straight to MID offices and got it exchanged there. Question is, will I still be able to do that?

    Reply

  10. RivaZA

    October 16, 2008 at 20:09

    At least it is not like the price you have to pay to Swap out a PS3 out of warranty or with no invoice. It is..and I almost choked on my coffee when I heard this..R3000! My buddy has a 60gb version, it’s blu-ray drive stopped working, was told it would cost R3000 for a replacement and it would be a 40gb version. True story.

    Reply

  11. BHW

    October 16, 2008 at 20:39

    I guess I am ahead of the curve Ive only had to swop mine once

    Reply

  12. Fudzy

    October 17, 2008 at 07:56

    Yeah, you jinxed it now. 🙁

    Reply

  13. Milesh Bhana

    October 17, 2008 at 09:31

    i’m on xbox #2.

    Anyway, I’m not sure about the case though. MS did a nasty but clever thing to release the product early with a known defect to get that year lead. Very underhanded and sneaky.

    However, they honoured the warranty and extended it to three years which cost them billions of dollars.

    THe only case i see against them is the cost to retailers of carrying out this warranty. So, if a big chain like Walmart or Best Buy sued MS for “labour and admin costs” it would make sense.

    But i don’t think that the some Consumer Protection Group has a leg to stand on becuase MS made it right with the warranty.

    Reply

  14. 0rk0

    October 17, 2008 at 09:59

    @ Jim
    I don’t know if you’ve noticed but there are no “Doomed?” or “Dark days…” posters all over the show. Maybe that’s why nobody is upset.

    It’s one thing to inform and another to stir.

    But in the end it’s the site owner’s opinion that counts, it’s his site after all. But we as readers are allowed to complain if we enjoy reading their site and find something distasteful. We are entitled to an opinion as well.

    Reply

  15. Wayne

    November 8, 2008 at 21:30

    Im on my second xbox console, and after waiting a month for a swap out for my first and if they want me to pay to swop out my second while under warranty well they can stick it… No matter how great the 360 is its reliability sux and is putting me off. Permanently.

    Reply

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