Microsoft Sued For Xbox 360 Defects

California’s consumer protection statutes have allowed a lawsuit to be filed in the Sacramento Country Superior Court against Microsoft. Allegedly, too many Xbox 360 consoles have been failing, or have been getting what most 360 owners are familiar with and live in fear of: “the red ring of death.” In addition, the lawsuit argues that Microsoft knew about the failure rate of the Xbox 360, but released it anyway in order to compete with the launch of the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii.

When my PlayStation 2 broke in under a week of purchasing it, I was devastated, even though I was able to replace it with a new one by taking it to the store. So personally, if I owned an Xbox 360 that broke, I would be just as upset, and want to see Microsoft suffer from releasing a faulty system just like I wanted to see Sony suffer back then. But a friend of mine disagrees.

Proud owner of an Xbox 360, Ross Eads, says, “I think the lawsuit is ridiculous. My Xbox 360 got the red ring of death after the one year warranty was up, but because Microsoft had extended the warranty, we were able to send it in and get a brand new one in under two weeks. They had my brother and I take the hard drive out first so we didn’t lose our saved games or anything.” The extension of the warranty he mentioned started at ninety days, then was extended to one year, then three, which it is at now.

Repairs of the Xbox 360 will take over a billion dollars of earnings from the console, according to Joshua Topolsky, who also suggests that Microsoft is taking responsibility for the “33 percent failure rate.”

If California were to win this class action lawsuit, Microsoft would have to surrender all profits from sales of the 360, and publicly announce and implement a refund program in California, meaning other states might jump on the bandwagon.