Home Gaming The Xbox 360 disc-scratching lawsuit is back on track

The Xbox 360 disc-scratching lawsuit is back on track

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30

Scratching

I have a lot of love for the Xbox 360. It was probably my favourite home console in the last generation, and is very definitely one of my favourite systems ever. It was cheap, had great games, and one of the best online systems, making multiplayer gaming a pleasure. It did have its problem though – most notably its infamous Red Ring of Death; a hardware design issue that resulted in many dead Xboxes and a $1bn dent in Microsoft’s coffers.

It’s not the only problem the system suffered from though. IF you’ll recall, the Xbox 360 was prone to scratching discs, particularly if its orientation was changed while the system was running. It scratched discs so badly that they would have deep rings etched in to them, and be rendered unplayable.

A case against the company was filed in 2007 and now nearly 8 years later, looks like it’s going ahead. A decision this week by 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a previous decision to bar class action against Microsoft, bringing the years-old case back to the fore.

The panel reversed the district court’s stipulated dismissal and order striking class allegations in a diversity action brought by a putative class of owners of Microsoft Corporation’s Xbox 360 video game console.

The putative class alleged a design defect in the Xbox console that gouged game discs. In striking the class allegations, the district court concluded that comity required deferral to an earlier class certification denial from another district court decision involving a similar putative class.

But what does it all mean? Well, it means that we could see a lot of people jump on to try and extract a lot of money from Microsoft. And frankly, they might.

In the original motion to launch class action, Microsoft project manager Hiroo Umeno confessed that the company knew that the console was likely to eat away at discs.

“This is … information that we as a team, optical disc drive team, knew about. When we first discovered the problem in September or October, when we got a first report of disc movement, we knew this is what’s causing the problem.”

There were even three suggested solutions to the problems before the console was released, including a simple one that was scrapped because it would have added a fifty cent price premium on to each unit’s manufacturing cost. If the Class Action goes ahead, those 50c per unit will end up looking like chump change.

Last Updated: July 22, 2015

30 Comments

  1. WitWolfy

    July 22, 2015 at 13:33

    I never saw mine scratching discs.. Maybe I got lucky?

    Reply

    • Pariah

      July 22, 2015 at 13:36

      Did you get the slim one like me? This is probably specific to the original Xbox 360.

      Reply

      • WitWolfy

        July 22, 2015 at 13:37

        I had a few Phats back in the day… No scratches there either.. Had a few that had failing drives though, especially with games like Enchanted Arms.

        Reply

        • Brady miaau

          July 22, 2015 at 13:42

          What a surprisingly fun game!

          Reply

          • WitWolfy

            July 22, 2015 at 13:47

            The protagonist irritated the hell out of me though.. I think Atsuma was secretly in love with that Toya. I swear he bitched and moaned about Toya more than a whiny girlfiend does about her.

          • Brady miaau

            July 22, 2015 at 13:48

            YES. That was the love angle and it was soooooo annoying

          • Brady miaau

            July 22, 2015 at 13:53

            And it was not secretly in love. the opening scene spelt it out, with Toya blithely missing it.

            I killed the super powerful monster in the dungeon to one side. I grinded so much Omega (not the end boss, but more powerful than end boss) was easy. Ooops.

          • WitWolfy

            July 22, 2015 at 13:54

            Really? Looks like I missed it too then. hahaha

      • Zander Boshoff

        July 22, 2015 at 18:47

        My friends original model did unholy things to disc so could be they fixed it with the red ring of death

        Reply

  2. Dutch Matrix

    July 22, 2015 at 13:34

    But shoot me if I am wrong: Moving any piece of hardware, whether it be PC or console whilst discs are spinning is a bad idea.

    Reply

    • WitWolfy

      July 22, 2015 at 13:36

      I remember this one idiot on Youtube a while ago tilting his Xbox 360 at every possible angle with a spinning disc in the tray, then showing the disc scratched afterwards made me go like…

      http://lastgif.com/gifs/17032.gif

      Reply

      • Dutch Matrix

        July 22, 2015 at 13:37

        Yeah. That is akin to stabbing yourself in the stomach just to show the world the results…

        Reply

    • Brady miaau

      July 22, 2015 at 13:47

      This actually pisses me off.

      The manual on mine said not to move it while it was running. But I bought a newer model, maybe they added that message later.

      Reply

      • Dutch Matrix

        July 22, 2015 at 13:50

        If I remember correctly, when I bought my very first console it had that warning too. And that was shortly after it launched.

        Reply

    • RinceThis

      July 22, 2015 at 13:56

      THIS^

      Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      July 22, 2015 at 13:56

      No, my car plays a disc fine while I’m driving

      Reply

  3. Hammersteyn

    July 22, 2015 at 13:43

    A. Take the number of 360s in homes
    B. Probable rate of failure
    C. Average out-of-court settlement
    X. Cutoff number for a recall

    If A*B*C < X Microsoft doesn't do a recall 😛

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief in Skellige

      July 22, 2015 at 13:46

      HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, I see what you did there

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        July 22, 2015 at 13:56

        @johnambitious:disqus would be proud

        Reply

  4. Admiral Chief in Skellige

    July 22, 2015 at 13:46

    wub wub?

    Reply

    • Dutch Matrix

      July 22, 2015 at 13:53

      Out of my belly are flowin’ rhymes like rivers
      I’m an MC and I’m gonna give you
      A death rhyme
      One time
      Or maybe two times…
      I think we got something here.

      Reply

  5. RinceThis

    July 22, 2015 at 13:55

    HAHAHAH! Le Sigh. OvG made the STUPID mistake of moving it from horizontal to vertical while it was spinning and killed his Skyrim disk. What do you expect?!

    Reply

  6. Steffmeister

    July 22, 2015 at 13:58

    All my discs were scratched… ALL of them.

    Reply

  7. Stosta

    July 22, 2015 at 14:45

    When I first bought my 360 I borrowed my friend’s Guitar Hero game. While rocking out I managed to kick it over as it was vertical (looks cooler that way) and carved this ring into the disc. Took it to Blockbusters who charged me R10 to buff it out, worked perfectly after that! Also, left my XBox lying flat from then on because I’m poor and can’t buy the same game twice.

    Reply

  8. CypherGate

    July 22, 2015 at 15:00

    I remember how mine scratched discs. I thought I was imagining myself. Until the game I was playing didnt want to read anymore.

    Reply

  9. AfricanTimeZA

    July 22, 2015 at 16:04

    nope some discs got scratched without moving the xbox 360

    Reply

  10. FredMC

    July 22, 2015 at 19:57

    Typical of a comments section, blame the victims.

    I had numerous discs get gouged when I had my Xbox 360 in the vertical position, and I never ever moved it while it was running..I left it that way for a good six months until I heard what was causing the problem. My guess is the jet fan would kick on and wobble the console enough to cause the scratching.

    Reply

  11. PsychoSpazz

    July 23, 2015 at 11:49

    Have an old original phat console… never had an issue to this day…. … lucky me I guess

    Reply

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