Microsoft Sued Over Game Disc Scratches In 360?
The Consumerist has a report that one Jorge Brouwer, of Broward Country, FL has filed a lawsuit and is seeking class action status against Microsoft following incidents where his Xbox 360 scratched up a few of game discs. The claim is Microsoft "negligently manufactured the system and that the scratching problem is widespread." The Associated Press says that after Broewer's copy of Gears of War and Madden NFL 07, Microsoft "offered to replace the games for a $20 fee." Well, it would seem Brouwer was none to pleased with that offer, so he is currently seeking over $5 million in damages.
I am with The Consumerist's Meg Marco in thinking (and hoping) that the $5 million would be to replace everyone's discs that have been damaged by the 360's disc drive. It could be, after all, a class action lawsuit. By the way, this disc scratching issue is the only one dealt with in the lawsuit rather than a "general hardware failure" that, as the Consumerist points out, resulted in the three year extension of Microsoft's warranty for the Xbox 360. Microsoft spokesman Jack Evans responded with this:
"Out of the millions of Xbox consoles in use, Microsoft has not received any widespread reports of Xbox 360s scratching discs."
To be honest, I've heard much of a few reports from the gaming public about the Xbox 360 scratching up their discs, but I don't know just how widespread it could be. I suppose we'll see if this gets grouped under the general hardware failure category by Microsoft or now. For a letter to the Consumerist from a reader with the same issue, follow the link. What's your whole take on the situation? Have you ever had any problems with the Xbox 360 scratching up your game discs?
Lawsuit: Xbox 360 Scratches Discs [The Consumerist]
Super Timsy
Posted to Video Games on 12 July 2007
· Comments (8)
Other stuff like this: Lawsuit, Microsoft, Scratched Discs, Xbox 360
My Brother had his copy of Guitar Hero II scratched by his 360...the scratch is really deep and perfectly round.
He didn't even take the game out of the tray for over a week after buying it until he started getting disk read errors.
apparently (researching the internet) there's a way to add foam inside the disk to stop the scratching from happening but Microsoft should have already know it would happen, do they not do stress tests?
Their crappy little warning inside the manual is a cop-out if ya ask me...the foam probably costs an extra 5 cents.
doesn't turning your 360 on its side while standing up and the game running cause the disc to scratch? I have not had a problem at all with any of my games on my 360... the only time this happened was when i was playing a game my 360 knocked over onto its side (it was standing up) and it was my fault... and it caused the disc to scratch... so i'm not really buying this lawsuit... besides i don't think he will win anyways... microsoft DID try to make things better for him but he said no... i watch my people court i know how it works LOL!!!!
A lot of my friends are getting fucked over by this.
I'm lucky its not happened to me. Its cool they offer you shitty game compensation, and will fix your console for free.
but they should really consider not having it happen in the first place.
The disc scratching is widespread, believe me. At EB we see tons of people who get these horrid round scratches all the way around the discs and it's well... horrid. Though we do sell more game warranties, it's... not right.
i must be the luckiest xbox360 owner... no red ring and no messed up discs... yay!
I've never had a scratched disc yet (have had one unit replaced for red rings of death though).
From what I've heard, the scratches only occur if you move the unit while it's spinning... mine stays horizontal.
I work at blockkbuster, nearly 1/20 of all our x360 games get scratches and need to be replaced >.
1/20 doesnt seem like much, but it does when each game costs 60$
My Oblivion disc has received some significant scratches from the XBox 360, to the point where the game will (without warning) freeze and instruct me to replace the disc.
Of course, ejecting the disc ends the game and means that all info since my last save is lost.
I will probably run it through a Disc Doctor; shipping it to the States from Norway for a replacement (that will eventually get scratched as well!) would be too cumbersome.
Btw, for those who of you that have scratched discs: a Disc Doctor helps against lighter scratches (I've had impressive success with some of my older PC game discs); deep scratches, outright cracks, and image damage are unfortunately not repaired.