02.08.10
Xbox 360 Still Under Many Lawsuits
Summary: Lawsuits from many fronts add to the trouble that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 already faces
Xbox 360 is a big disaster. Microsoft is putting an end to more parts of Xbox 360, but it still faces lawsuits that involve Xbox.
Well, the word has spread that Microsoft is sued over Live Points. We wrote about this before and Microsoft-sympathetic/paid sites are playing ball for Microsoft’s side, as usual. Microsoft opportunistically uses Psystar versus Apple as precedence and the outcome might be interesting. From BetaNews:
All the major home video game consoles offer downloadable games and add-ons that can be bought from a Web-based store, directly through the user’s console. But of the three major companies, Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft, only Sony assigns actual dollar values to its downloadable content. Both Microsoft and Nintendo work on points systems where users must first buy a specific amount of credits that are then spent on new content.
More here at Kotaku:
Samuel Lassoff, an attorney in Philadelphia, is taking Microsoft to court over claims that the Xbox 360′s currency system – Microsoft Points – exists to “unjustly enrich” the console manufacturer.
Microsoft handles several other Xbox 360 lawsuits, many of which involve patents. But here is one which relates to a real fiasco demonstrating that Xbox 360 can only be rented, not owned. From the news we have:
One of the reasons Xbox 360 owners shouldn’t be allowed to use unauthorized third-party memory cards is that users sign away their right to do so when purchasing the console, according to Microsoft.
In other words, the users do not own their own hardware that they paid for. Microsoft wants to bury serious allegations.
Sony is about to bring out a motion controller and maybe even beat Microsoft to it. Microsoft does not impress any of its console competitors because Xbox 360 was a failure from a technology and business perspective (extremely high error rates and massive losses which are related to those errors).
Sony is breathing down Microsoft’s neck, and it’s “not going to take too long” for the PS3 to pass the Xbox 360, the Japanese company has confidently claimed.
Nintendo was the first with the motion controller and it is the winner of this generation of consoles. Its competitors just try to imitate now.
Take yourself back in time to 2006 for a moment. The Wii just came out, and it has a controller that looks like a magic wand and controls games in a way that’s never been done — at least not on such a large scale, and not as the main draw of a console. Motion control establishes itself as a bonafide addiction, and the Wii turns into a runaway success.
Nintendo has managed to beat expectations as Wii sales increased. Microsoft is nowhere near and it has already spent billions trying to catch up. It’s the same as the story against Google. █
“They [Microsoft] have the deepest of pockets, unlimited ambition, and they are willing to lose money for years and years just to make sure that you don’t make any money, either. And they are mean, REALLY mean.”
–Robert X. Cringely
