Xbox 360 disk-scratching lawsuit moves forward

It claims that Microsoft negligently designed the Xbox 360 with a defect that caused discs to be damaged while in use.

The plantiffs in the suit argue that even under normal 360 playing conditions, the console’s disc drive is so sensitive that it spins discs out of control, damaging discs to the point where they become unplayable.

Microsoft may be on the verge of a class-action lawsuit following a recurring claim that an Xbox 360 defect gouges discs.

So what is Microsoft doing to improve all these problems?

Microsoft has been attempting to undermine the case for class action for some time – the company would much prefer claimants to present their cases individually than as a united force, but the latest court decision means that it has failed to do so again. But any celebrations will have been short-lived as the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling back in March of this year, saying that the judge didn’t take previous rulings, regarding a lawsuit about premature tire wear in Land Rover vehicles, into account.

“A Microsoft manager, Hiroo Umeno, said in a court document that the company was well aware of the damage that could be caused to discs when players repositioned their consoles”. Microsoft was accused of knowing about the alleged issue before the Xbox 360 launched in 2005. It’s because Microsoft updated its Xbox One user agreement to forbid class action lawsuits. The company made a loss of $2.1 billion for the quarter.

Have your discs been scratched by your Xbox 360? As of 2008, Microsoft had apparently received over 55,000 complaints about disc scratching, but the company always maintained it was brought about by customer misuse. That said, if it was a Microsoft-published game, customers did have the option of getting the disc replaced for free. “This is… information that we as a team, optical disc drive team, knew about”.