Microsoft Facing Halo 3 Class Action Suit

[Ajar]

If there were widespread problems with the stability of Halo 3, he might have a leg to stand on, but I think he'll have a hard time showing that Halo 3 is defective in general given the lack of widespread crash problems with the game.

I dislike buggy games as much as the next gamer, but I can recognize that as games grow more and more complex catching everything in QA will get harder and harder. I've had to debug basic multithreaded code before, and boy is it ever a *****. On the other hand, some bugs -- like the harmonica bug in The Darkness that kept me from finishing the game until I started over from the halfway mark -- are so egregious that it's very hard to understand how they could possibly have been missed by even a half-assed QA process. So I can put up with some minor bugs, but I take a pretty dim view of showstoppers.

Imagine buying a car, and upon malfunctioning being told the brakes will only operate once they release patch 1.04.

Failed brakes could kill you. A buggy game is at worst an annoyance.

 

[ccesarano]

It's not even a buggy game. It's a defective disk. The game he purchased is defective.

Someone referencing cars? Thanks for showing your ignorance. Cars are tested. They are always tested. Every car you purchase has already been driven before you purchased it. That's right, every car you buy is a used item, essentially, but they make sure it works. Now, let's try to apply that to video games...oh wait, YOU CAN'T, because otherwise you'd never be able to keep stock.

All the problems he has referenced? I haven't hit them. My friend didn't hit them when he borrowed the game. Anyone I know that bought the game hasn't had these problems. It's that copy of the game, not the game being buggy.

Congratulations on being "I HATE MICROSOFT SO I'MA JUSTIFY THIS RETARDED LAWSUIT TO BE A DICK!" attitude. This guy is a moron, and so are you if you genuinely believe he is valid in this.

 

[ValentinesAshes]

This is typical of the sue-and-be-sued culture that infests the United States and has, in recent years, infected the United Kingdom. Everyone wants something for nothing and when an individual with no self-respect and even less intelligence emerges on the scene, this is the kind of thing you can bet your bottom dollar on them doing.

I can't find a single way to justify or defend the accuser which is somewhat unusual and disturbing to me. Normally I can empathise with the other side of any argument but this I can just put down to greed and stupidity. It has been quite rightly mentioned by many of you that the copy of the game is faulty and not the game itself, and that he should do what any other self-respecting productive member of society should do and take it back for replacement. If that fails, then it is probably a problem with the hardware which, in turn, should be taken back for replacement or repair.

Which draws me into another point relating to the anti-ists out there. I can't stand unfounded bias towards or against anything, including consoles. I own an Xbox360 and I've never had a problem with it. I think that, in the course of the several years that I have owned it, it has only frozen on me twice. That's not to say that its design is perfect, I know one or two friends who have had disks scratched and one who claims witness to the "three red lights" of doom but that kind of thing happens and it's not the end of all creation and anyone who thinks that it is seriously needs a slap in the face with the "real world fish."

 

[shadow skill]

Someone referencing cars? Thanks for showing your ignorance. Cars are tested. They are always tested. Every car you purchase has already been driven before you purchased it. That's right, every car you buy is a used item, essentially, but they make sure it works. Now, let's try to apply that to video games...oh wait, YOU CAN'T, because otherwise you'd never be able to keep stock.

The point of the car analogy is to point out that in almost any other product show stopping bugs or defects would not be tolerated by the consumer like they are in the game software industry at large at this point in time.

 

[KurtNiisan]

lol, Americans and their lawsuits.
Fucking facepalm'd at this one.

Holy Fuckin' Shit, someone quoting 4chan memes in here?!

Anywho, it's nothing but a waste of time. The lawyer should have told the guy straight-off-the-bat that he wouldn't have a shitshow of winning because of the overwhelming statistics proving that about 98-99% of the copies of Halo 3 that were sold worked just fine (as people have already stated, just look at the number of LIVE accounts playing multiplayer)

 

[ccesarano]

The point of the car analogy is to point out that in almost any other product show stopping bugs or defects would not be tolerated by the consumer like they are in the game software industry at large at this point in time.

I don't know about you, but it seems every month there's another food recall, toy recall, this recall, that recall, etc. etc. Plus, let's look at other software. Hm, Leopard shipped with a bug that, if you had certain programs installed, brought up the Mac equivalent of a Blue Screen of Death. I have opened up brand new CD's only for the disc to be scratched already, mysteriously.

Humorously enough, while everyone else in the world constantly complains about game bugs, I rarely ever run into them.

Honestly, though, if you're going to compare products, compare games to toasters or something. Not a product like a car, which is a very, very different monster. After all, you aren't exactly putting your life into the hands of the manufacturer when you place a disc into your computer or games console.

 

[JesusWept [deprecated]]

General Allegations

21. "Halo" video games are a series of science fiction games originally created by Bungie Software Products Corporation, which was acquired by Microsoft in May 1991.


--- now i'm not a mathamestatician or a regular einstine.....but Bungie was formed in 1991, not acquired by Microsoft in 1991? If i'm not mistaken, MS bought bungie back in 2000?

hmmm

 

[Kronopticon]

im quite proud of this man, he's making a damn good point, these consoles were meant to play well, not have random errors in gameplay, personally, microsoft should be liable for not making a reliable console.

either way, it will bring a revolution in gaming, in some way or another, well, i hope so

 

[HeadExplodie]

General Allegations

21. "Halo" video games are a series of science fiction games originally created by Bungie Software Products Corporation, which was acquired by Microsoft in May 1991.


--- now i'm not a mathamestatician or a regular einstine.....but Bungie was formed in 1991, not acquired by Microsoft in 1991? If i'm not mistaken, MS bought bungie back in 2000?

hmmm

And that has what to do with the overall issue? Nothing.

 

[HeadExplodie]

im quite proud of this man, he's making a damn good point, these consoles were meant to play well, not have random errors in gameplay, personally, microsoft should be liable for not making a reliable console.

either way, it will bring a revolution in gaming, in some way or another, well, i hope so

What's the point? That he got a bad disk and could easily get a different one? That he had had the console for a while and normal wear-and-tear happens so something like this is inevitable?

If you purchased a car and drove the shit out of it for two years without servicing it or doing anything at all to promote the lifespan of the car, then it broke down, would Ford or whoever be responsible? Nope. This whole thing is rubbish and the man should be flogged in public for being an asshole.

And before you say I'm a Microsoft fanboy, I JUST purchased a 360 and absolutely hated the original Xbox.

 

[Andy Chalk]

So here's what I'm thinking. If this gets to court and this guy actually wins - which I can't see as being in any way possible, but speaking hypothetically here - can you imagine the chilling effect it would have on the entire industry?

Think about it for a minute here. The next potential Troika suddenly finds itself at risk of being sued out of existence within days of releasing its debut title because, as awesome as they are at creating deep and engaging games, they're not so hot when it comes to the testing part of things. So instead of seeing creatively risky but potentially flawed games coming out now and then, we end up with a standardized gaming system and games that trade innovation for small incremental upgrades from version to version.

It's a doomsday scenario, but how anyone could imagine this wouldn't have repercussions extending beyond Microsoft is beyond me.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

So here's what I'm thinking. If this gets to court and this guy actually wins - which I can't see as being in any way possible, but speaking hypothetically here - can you imagine the chilling effect it would have on the entire industry?

Think about it for a minute here. The next potential Troika suddenly finds itself at risk of being sued out of existence within days of releasing its debut title because, as awesome as they are at creating deep and engaging games, they're not so hot when it comes to the testing part of things. So instead of seeing creatively risky but potentially flawed games coming out now and then, we end up with a standardized gaming system and games that trade innovation for small incremental upgrades from version to version.

It's a doomsday scenario, but how anyone could imagine this wouldn't have repercussions extending beyond Microsoft is beyond me.

Why not then offer....I dunno returns as a alternative..gee saves ahell of alot of time and trouble oh thats right we cant return media because of the fake pirates that raid their revenue from games so returns are out of the question because the retail industry refuses to watch over consuemrs and back list thos who abuse it....

However one of my main problems with the 360 is its either broken or working fine and ti seems its 50/50, MS needs to be dragged to court and forced to fix that more than anything else.

 

[J.theYellow]

The next potential Troika suddenly finds itself at risk of being sued out of existence within days of releasing its debut title because, as awesome as they are at creating deep and engaging games, they're not so hot when it comes to the testing part of things.

The next potential Troika.

Bwahahahhaah.

The next potential Troika will crash and burn like the real Troika did, without any help from our friends from the local courtroom. Release two or three games with great critical appeal and maddening bugs and you will either have to sell out to keep from losing your shirt, change your focus to more mainstream and simpler sppeal or go out of business and disband in the hopes that the next incarnation will work better business-wise.

As for the lawsuit, we live in a very litigious society. This is a risk with any high-profile product with vast appeal and profit.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Why not then offer....I dunno returns as a alternative..gee saves ahell of alot of time and trouble oh thats right we cant return media because of the fake pirates that raid their revenue from games so returns are out of the question because the retail industry refuses to watch over consuemrs and back list thos who abuse it....

Actually, you'll find most retailers will happily offer exchanges on defective media which is by all indications exactly what happened in this case. So I'm not sure what your complaint is.

The next potential Troika will crash and burn like the real Troika did, without any help from our friends from the local courtroom. Release two or three games with great critical appeal and maddening bugs and you will either have to sell out to keep from losing your shirt, change your focus to more mainstream and simpler sppeal or go out of business and disband in the hopes that the next incarnation will work better business-wise.

But that just makes the point that these situations are self-correcting; if you consistently release buggy, crash-prone games, sooner or later you're not going to be viable anymore. And my original point stands: A successful suit against any company, large or small, for releasing a buggy game would be a major blow against the industry.

 

[Elguappo]

This it about the time where I wish I wasn't so apathetic and wrapped up in my free stint of Psychonaughts (that's right, I'm plugging a completely different game in the middle of a criticism)that I could send this guy a virtual ***** slap via email.

Sigh..
WTB: Ticket out of America. PST

 

[Deg]

Hmm some people seem to have the wrong idea about what this lawsuit is about. This is NOT about the 'rings of death' or any hardware problems. It is solely a software lawsuit claiming that Halo 3 does not work with the Xbox 360 from a software standpoint (obviously even in his argument the Xbox is able to read the disk for at least small lengths of time and can play it so the hardware is working fine).

Personally speaking this seems unjustified. I own Halo 3 and it works fine on my Xbox, no problems. From a non personal standpoint, plenty of video game critics worldwide (even Yatzee here on Escapist) have played and rated Halo3 and not one of them has mentioned any sort of software incompatibility or instability. With this in mind I don?t see how his argument holds water.

You could argue that the defective CD is microsoft/Bungie's fault. However the retail business already covers this with returns. GameStop itself has a policy that allows you to return games (with receipt) that have been opened in return for a new copy of the same game, so any evilness on manufacturing side can be easily rectified in the customer's favor.

Remember: This lawsuit is about Software and Halo3 running on Xbox, not about any of the Xbox's hardware issues in general.

 

[xb4r7x [deprecated]]

Lol... not true at all. I own halo 3 and i know dozens of other people that own it. None of us have ever had a single problem with the game.

 

[ccesarano]

So here's what I'm thinking. If this gets to court and this guy actually wins - which I can't see as being in any way possible, but speaking hypothetically here - can you imagine the chilling effect it would have on the entire industry?

Think about it for a minute here. The next potential Troika suddenly finds itself at risk of being sued out of existence within days of releasing its debut title because, as awesome as they are at creating deep and engaging games, they're not so hot when it comes to the testing part of things. So instead of seeing creatively risky but potentially flawed games coming out now and then, we end up with a standardized gaming system and games that trade innovation for small incremental upgrades from version to version.

It's a doomsday scenario, but how anyone could imagine this wouldn't have repercussions extending beyond Microsoft is beyond me.

I wasn't even thinking this far into it, as I simply can't wrap my head around a defective game disc being Microsoft's fault. Again, anything that is mass produced runs into problems like this. I don't know why people only think video games are the sole culprit, either. Especially on the internet, where people can only complain and nothing more.

And speaking of all of these faulty 360's, once again, why don't we hold Sony responsible for the Playstation 2? Oh, because they're Sony, not Microsoft, and despite the fact that not only were MORE of their consoles broken than Microsoft's, not to mention they didn't offer free repair for...what, up to two years now? Sony is sacred while MS is obviously the devil and should be punished whenever.

There is a time to be an anti-fanboy, and then there's a time to stop being stupid and start thinking with your head. The Xbox 360 situation is NOT 50/50. The situation is more in favor of working 360's, in fact. The real problem is that not only do people complain more loudly than they praise, but there is a whole army of jerks out to lynch Microsoft for being themselves.

In any case, no, this is NOT going to force companies to release games that aren't buggy (which, once again, I barely hit any bugs...maybe you guys just play crappy games?), but it's going to make them more afraid of trying anything new. After all, bugs are a fact of software. You can never get rid of them all.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Why not then offer....I dunno returns as a alternative..gee saves ahell of alot of time and trouble oh thats right we cant return media because of the fake pirates that raid their revenue from games so returns are out of the question because the retail industry refuses to watch over consuemrs and back list thos who abuse it....

Actually, you'll find most retailers will happily offer exchanges on defective media which is by all indications exactly what happened in this case. So I'm not sure what your complaint is.

The next potential Troika will crash and burn like the real Troika did, without any help from our friends from the local courtroom. Release two or three games with great critical appeal and maddening bugs and you will either have to sell out to keep from losing your shirt, change your focus to more mainstream and simpler sppeal or go out of business and disband in the hopes that the next incarnation will work better business-wise.

But that just makes the point that these situations are self-correcting; if you consistently release buggy, crash-prone games, sooner or later you're not going to be viable anymore. And my original point stands: A successful suit against any company, large or small, for releasing a buggy game would be a major blow against the industry.

It really depnds on how "new" the drones are at the store and some alpha snobs wont take a return for any reason at all.

Much like why the retail stores dont want to pay people with brains creating a better return system that can let people exchange or get a refund is to hard for them to do, because it might harm there bottom line.

nothign like crap customer service and over price products to make one avoid the retail shell game altogether.

 

[halo3 pro [deprecated]]

Yes halo3 does freeze,crash,lock up your Xbox
if this happens just go get another xbox and keep playing