14 DAY TRIAL // Last week, numerous reports of Forza Motorsport 2 freezing Xbox 360 consoles (around 900 to be precise) filed pages of official Forza 2 forums. Then, as the weekend came, gaming sites started reporting that someone over at Microsoft had deleted the reports, supposedly in an attempt to cover the whole thing up. As it turns out, that was not the case and more than that, it appears that there aren't any software solutions to the issue.
Forza 2 Community Manager Che Chou responded to these very accusations in his Weekly Pitpass Report, as I found via 1UP.com:
"We've gone and tested Forza 2 extensively against the hardware and have confirmed that the game itself does not brick Xbox 360 consoles. Although it might seem like the number of instances is high, especially if you go by forum reactions, it's actually a very small percentage that it's happening to and we acknowledge that it's very frustrating. In other words, there isn't really a software solution here.
...As for the recent controversy over a 'deleted' forum thread discussing Forza 2 and hardware freezing, the truth is that I moved it to a moderator's section for preservation and investigation. It has not been deleted (and I can easily prove it). The thread no longer served a real productive purpose other than as an excuse for folks to violate FM.net's terms of service with ad hominem attacks. However, thanks to the thread, we are acutely aware that it is a very real issue with a small percentage of our community but a problem nonetheless."
OK then. Now, those who are still able to send in their 360s for repair, will actually be getting new ones in return: "From what I understand, the Microsoft hardware team will ensure that newer units -- or at least the ones they return to you -- will have the red rings of death issue resolved. Those with Xbox 360 hardware issues should contact 1-800-4MY-XBOX."
Leaving aside that we're talking 900 (that's "nine hundred") Xbox 360s that have frozen just like that, when running Forza 2, Microsoft acts in typical Microsoft manner, as in doesn't take much action, leaving everyone with a big question mark above their head. This is all for now, but more information will surely be revealed shortly, so stay close.