Xbox 360 Legal Action
Engadget writes and reports: “Chicago resident Robert Byers isn’t buying Microsoft’s claim that “only” 3% of the Xbox 360s that have been sold were faulty, so he’s filed a class action lawsuit against the corporation in an Illinois federal court calling for undisclosed damages, litigation expenses, and the replacement or recall of 360 consoles. The suit claims that Microsoft knowingly released a defective product in order to beat Sony (and presumably Nintendo) to market and gain an early foothold in the next-gen console “war.” As we’ve reported several times, users have been complaining that their new Xboxes crash during regular and online play, displaying various error messages or blanking the screen, and that many units have right toasty power bricks. We sure hope this all gets resolved soon, because we are still on hold waiting for customer service to troubleshoot our store-bought 360.”
It sounds like another frivolous lawsuit to me, and in no way a “class-action”. Defective Xboxes represent an incredibly small fraction of the total units sold (as it should be), and thus its unlikely that this is a fruitful lawsuit. At best, the prosecutors are looking at a restitution similar to that of the PS2 lawsuit (which was just settled): $25, a game, and any necessary repairs/replacements. And how long did the PS2 lawsuit take to get settled? Almost until the Xbox 360 came out…
