09.07.09
Microsoft Still in Court for Failure with Xbox 360
Summary: Microsoft sued over Xbox 360 mishandling and additional reports highlight other issues with the product
Xbox 360 has come under a plethora of lawsuits, some of which over patents [1, 2, 3], but some other lawsuits targeted the obvious issues such as systematic scratching of CDs and the Red Ring of Death (RRoD). One such lawsuit is still ongoing, based on the following unique report.
Microsoft’s motion to dismiss a Madison County suit over its X-Box 360 video game system will be heard Wednesday.
The maker of Windows operating systems and X-Box products is asking Circuit Judge Daniel Stack to throw out a first amended complaint of plaintiff Jason Johnson.
Stack had previously dismissed Johnson’s original complaint in July but allowed him to amend it.
Johnson is suing the company for $50,000 and costs.
Several weeks ago we wrote about the survey which estimated the death toll (in terms of ratio) of Xbox 360 to be roughly 54% and more modest estimates come from another source, which somehow contradicts most prior surveys, going as far back as 2007. Xbox 360 is still by far the most error-prone gaming console.
After the first two years of ownership, 23.7% of Xbox 360 owners reported a system failure, compared with 2.7% of Wii owners and 10% of PS3 owners, according to the latest SquareTrade study. The most common types of problems with the PS3 and Xbox 360 were disc read errors and output issues, while the Wii had more power and remote control problems that the other systems.
Xbox 360 has faced some other waves of criticism this month, one of which is due to this:
VG247 is reporting that Microsoft may be to blame for the apparent standstill in the release of MMOs such as Champions Online on the Xbox 360.
Is there a (profitable) future for Xbox 360? It seems highly unlikely. █