ottolam

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/0...eut/index.html


TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Microsoft Corp., whose Xbox game machine debuted in Japan 10 days ago, said on Monday several users had reported that the console was scratching game discs, but there was no need to recall the hardware or software.

The software giant said the small scratches were most likely caused by the DVD discs spinning in the console being improperly placed on loading trays or by the sliding tray itself.

"In the case that there is actual damage that makes it impossible to play games, we will of course replace them," said Midori Takahashi, a Microsoft Xbox spokeswoman.

"But so far we have not found this to be the case."

Microsoft is betting billions of dollars that the Xbox will be able carve out a significant chunk of the video game market.

Japan's gaming public is notoriously fickle, and Microsoft has made special efforts to cater to the market here with a specially designed, smaller controller and a limited edition of 50,000 translucent Xbox consoles available only in Japan.

Takahashi said Microsoft had received 243 calls about the scratched discs by Sunday evening and that users in the United States had also reported similar problems.

Although Microsoft has not published official figures, numerous sources said it was able to ship about 125,000 Xbox consoles in the first three days since it went on sale on February 22.

Cardiff Giant11

That seems like pretty bad customer service IMHO. If my system was obviously flawed and damaging my games, I'd demand not only that they repair the system but that they replace my games. I'm suprised too at their response as usually Microsoft is great with repairs/exchanges on their computer hardware(their optical mice come to mind).

darkside

I've never heard of this before. Why did this only come up after the Japanese launch?

Kellehair

That sucks especially bad for people that take great care of their games. Now despite their best efforts their games are getting all scratched up. That type of thing would drive me nuts.

jeffdsmith

I don't think this is anything but people scratching their own games. Who knows. Either way, its def. not going to help MS there.

Lonestar9

This is pretty weird, yeah.......you would think that's a problem here in the states as well.....sounds like this a user error though........i've used the xbox for a few months, and no scratches at all on my disks......

Flay

243 / 125,000 = .00162

Wow. Less than 2 tenths of a percent of Japanese XBox owners put the disc in the wrong way. The other 99.99838% did it right.

Somebody better start the recall now.

jeffdsmith

I wish lottery tickets had those odds.



This whole topic is rediculus. Not the post, but the idea that there should be a recall. At least at this point. More boxes were screwed up here then that (nvmd the larger quantity) and there was no recall.

Aghama

I wouldn't be surprised if it caused seizures, too.

jeffdsmith

now that I think about it, all those earth quakes japan has had in the past were probally a omen of the coming damnation that is xbox.

Giantrobo

The Japanese are just jealous that America has once again jumped into the Home Gaming Arena after years of leading the way with PSX2 and Nintendo.


And if you know anything about the Japanese and their attitude towards AMERICAN products then you realize there was NO WAY the Japanese XBOX could be realeased without some lengthy article on how it's flawed

Michael T Hudson

6:52AM Microsoft edges lower on Xbox recall reports (MSFT) 63.63: Stock slips $0.40 in early trading amid reports co is recalling Xbox units sold in Japan due to a defect that causes the game console to scratch CDs and DVDs



This is from Inplay on Yahoo Finance this morning. This should be intresting to see what happens.

belboz

Bloomberg has a bit on it:

http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi...cR4hUWTWljcm9z

This isn't going to help their European launch any.

Flay

This is not a full scale recall. Bloomberg jumped the gun. Read here:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...microsoft_dc_1

And I quote:

"We do not consider this a recall," Microsoft spokeswoman Midori Takahashi said, adding that the scratches found on the edges of the DVD (digital versatile discs) did not interfere with game playing.

They will be repairing the 243 consoles out of 125,000 that scratch disks.

Ford Prefect

Also, no one has mentioned that this problem seems to exist solely with the Japanese systems, and not with the US systems (we'll have to wait for the European launch to see if it happens there).

As for the person who said it was because the Japanese dislike US products (I actually believe this is why the Japanese Xbox launch sucked), Microsoft would not be admitting there is a problem if this were the case.

Gallant Pig

If they denied it, they'd really look like jerks. This has user error written all over it.

darkside

Japan was the biggest supporter of 3DO an American based game company that got no support from the US. They are not against the Xbox because its an American product. If it has games they want to play the Japanese will buy it. Enough with the Japan bashing.

s}{ammer

Actually one of the articles I read yesterday stated that this same info came out right after the US launch. I thought that was strange because I too had not heard of this before.


Edit: here is the link to the article I mentioned.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-854706.html

jeffdsmith

It's starting to look like it is the the actual xboxes and not human error...

Gallant Pig

MS said it was significantly less than 1 percent = Non-issue

Kellehair

Yeah, unless it's your X-BOX.

Gallant Pig

Sounds like they are doing a great job handling problems, at least this side of the Pacific. I'm sure it'll be the same over there.

Outlaw

right, in my STATS class we learned that a lot of the bigger companies operate on statistics and percentages. If the problem reaches a certain percent, then they will issue further action, otherwise they won't do anything.

My guess is that every console launch has a few problems here and there, so it was probably a few hiccups in the assembly line on certain machines like what happened in the US. I wouldn't think it was user error because its not like this is the first disc based system in japan (although a few might be, I dont' have an X-Box so I'm not sure how delicate the discs are). I've seen the pictures of the scratched game discs and its noticable (looks like they are cracked all around the outer most edges all the way around) so its probably a few machine that were bad out of the factory. If its a problem then they should replace the broken games and systems but probably not a full recall.

But yeah it would suck to get stuck with one of those. But thats what the warranty is for.

joshd2012

Learned this from Fight Club...