14 DAY TRIAL // Is it just me or has Microsoft's Xbox 360 seen all the problems a console could possibly have in its lifetime? And keep in mind that the machine isn't obsolete and still has a good 12 months at least before people forget about it, totally moving on to the Elite. Word has it that there are some Xbox 360s out there that scratch discs. Is that you? If yes, then listen to this.
Since December 2006, numerous reports of Xbox 360s scratching discs have emerged. Nobody took this into consideration, thinking they were just isolated cases and probably a misuse issue, although there was serious reason to believe that several machines were released missing a critical part of the disc drive. I'd say it's an extra part he, he! But it wasn't an isolated issue. More disc scratching Xbox 360 have been reported lately and Engadget brings the problem to gamers' attention. The article says that, Dutch TV show Kassa, carried on a live/on-air experiment, proving that the issue is real and that some machines do scratch discs. Microsoft immediately responded:
"We are not able to respond in detail on the results. It is possible that scratches on discs originate from frequent use. However, we have no indication that the results of the tests from Kassa are a large scale problem." OK, excuse me for interrupting you, but if disc scratching Xbox 360s hadn't been a large scale issue, Kassa wouldn't have done the experiment in the first place. Does anyone honestly think that one isolated case or two led to the on-air experiment? Not likely.
So if you're the lucky owner of an Xbox 360 acquired in December 2006, with discs that look like they've been in WW II, you may just have one of the batch. Well, at least they're promising to investigate and see if anything can be done. However, we all know how Microsoft treats this kind of issues, so for all Xboxers' sake out there, let's hope that it isn't indeed a large scale problem.