Microsoft had foreknowledge of Xbox360 flaws

The Xbox 360 was a much awaited gaming machine developed by Microsoft. The machine was all set to offer maximum enjoyment to its users until the great flaw within was exposed.

Just last week there was a report of a man from Illinois who sued Microsoft because his Xbox 360 would scratch the DVD discs even before it started to play.  Following the incident some documents from Microsoft revealed that the disc scratching flaw was known to the company since before its launch in 2005. The company had devised three possible solutions to the problem that is now costing them a great deal.

The Xbox 360 has a console that can be used horizontally or vertically. The disc scratching takes place when the position of this console is disturbed while the drive is spinning. The Illinois man is suing Microsoft for $50,000 after the machine managed to scratch three of his game discs.

Ironically the company’s program manager has come out clean and confessed that Microsoft had been aware of this technical problem before hand. The three solutions that were put forward by the company includes strengthening the magnets that are used to hold the discs in place, reducing the speed of the spinning discs and installing rubber bumpers that would reinforce the discs. What is even more ironic is that the company rejected all these solutions although installing the reinforced bumpers could have been a cheap solution to the problem that is now costing them thousands of dollars.

This is not the first time that Microsoft has managed to get it self into trouble regarding having the knowledge of hardware issues associated with the Xbox 360 and not taking any action to safeguard against it. The company perhaps hoped that the flaw would go by unnoticed and was certainly not expecting to be sued for such a big amount over it.

A couple of months ago certain systematic failures in the design of the Xbox 360 were also exposed and there were questions being raised regarding the quality assurance of the product. The Xbox is also tagged with the overheating “Red Ring of Death” failures which have caused many potential buyers to shy away from purchasing the product.