"13 year old Dutch boy sues Microsoft"

[Hapimeses]

MikeB said:

@ Hapimeses

Microsoft uses many different drives, but particularly one model is well known to be extra prone to disc scratching. But not everyone who suffers from disc scratching issues has this drive. Most scratches are minor, but accumulate over time and then cause problems. Some scratches are the notorious deeply carved circle, which is usually caused by console movement.

The problem is also the speed at which DVDs have to spin inside the 360, they are originally PC drives and on the PC they aren't continuously used for playing DVD based games. A slight movement of the console can cause disc scratches and isn't covered by warranty according to Microsoft (So IMO not really a console suitable for small kids or for areas enduring turbulence). Over time DVD drives continuously spinning at such speed will wear, screws may loosen causing more vibration causing more problems, etc.

 

Well, assuming that is all true, I will definitely not buy a 360. I have two young kids, and they move about a great deal. Vibration central, here, and occassionally things get knocked. If the above really does cause scratched DVDs, most of mine would be screwed in a few months for certain.

Not cool.

However, this could possibly be a bit of anti-MS bias. All of the big companies have their detractors, and it is easy for such people to latch onto a few bad stories and inflate them somewhat. Is there anyone with kids and 360s out there who can confirm this? If so, do your kids do the following (or similar):

My 4-year old plays our PS3 a great deal. It has loads of games she can play, and she does so frequently. She loads the machine with the BDs (which don't scratch at all, I hear -- is that true? If not, I'll have her be far more careful, but I've had no issues so far), and plays with ease. She can easily remove the BDs as well, and puts them away in their boxes with care. Obviuously, HDD games require no loading or unloading, so there is no issue here -- she just selects them on the XMB. When playing, she sometimes bounces about a bit, especially when playing games that use the SIXAXIS, or when playing platform games (such as Ratchet and Clank, or the Lego games).

Could she do that safely with a 360? What do you say 360 owners? Is the problem overblown?