Digital Home Thoughts: X Minus Two Weeks: First Xbox 360 Lawsuit

"You just gotta love a system where the Little Guy can quickly stand up to the Big Giant Corporation and express his profound disappointment over not being sufficiently able to create enough virtual mayhem. To whit: Reuters is reporting Chicago's Robert Byers has brought a proposed class action lawsuit against Microsoft Corporation, claiming the company's new Xbox 360 gaming console has a design flaw which causes the console's power supply and CPU to overheat, causing the whole system to seize up. Complaints of similar freezing problems began to surface almost as soon as the Xbox 360 went on sale November 22. Owners reported some systems crashed during both normal and online game play; symptoms included a variety of error messages as well as "black screen" crashes. However, other Xbox 360 owners reported no problems at all. Microsoft has stated it has received isolated reports of problems, but emphasized the possible glitches represented a small fraction of units sold. Byers' suit seeks unspecified damages, court costs, and replacement or recall of Xbox 360 game console. Microsoft has yet to comment on the case."



I'm sorry, but consumer expectations are simply too high these days. First, the iPod Nano gets a few scratches on it (as has every iPod before it), and they get slapped with a class action lawsuit. Now Microsoft faces the same wrath over recent reports of Xbox 360 crashes. Consumer electronics are not made perfectly every time. There are occasional defects. Designers can't account for every possible usage scenario (such as putting a heat-generating Xbox 360 console and power supply in a closed cabinet). Not to mention that heresay reports of a small number of glitches or crashes are not sufficient evidence to declare an outright product defect. I think the only group that will win in this case is the lawyers. :roll: