When the Xbox 360 first launched the dreaded and infamous “Red Ring of Death” plagued gamers, but that wasn’t the only thing that drew their ire. Unlike its successor, you could set your Xbox 360 either horizontally or vertically. What you couldn’t do was change the console’s position while using it. If you did you might have been left with a scratched and completely unreadable disc.
Back in 2007, a group of people brought the case to court. Arguing that the Xbox 360’s optical disc drive was so sensitive that even during normal play the disc could spin out of control and into other parts of the console, scratching the disc and rendering it unplayable.
According to Polygon, in motion filled in 2008 it was suggested that Microsoft knew of the issue and even had three solutions for the problem. One of the fixes would have added 50 cents to the overall manufacturing cost of the console.
Allegedly Microsoft received around 55,000 complaints about scratched discs caused by the disc drive issue, but it wasn’t enough and the case was dismissed in 2012. Then in March of 2015 the decision was overturned by a federal appeals court. Now it appears that the case has reached the Supreme Court.
In a report made by the Associated Press, on Friday the justices agreed to hear an appeal from Microsoft arguing that claims made by the plaintiffs had been previously thrown out. If the Justices decide that the case has merit it will move forward, otherwise the case will be dead.
Of the 84 million Xbox 360 consoles out there, Microsoft claims that only 0.4 percent of them were affected by the hardware error.
While Microsoft argues that damage is caused by user error, it’s not hard to see both sides. Is it smart to take fragile electronic device and shake it around while it is running? No. Should Microsoft have planned and tested for that and shipped a product without those issues? Yes. Ultimately, the case is in the hand of the Supreme Court and it is up to them to decide.