Microsoft Facing Halo 3 Class Action Suit

[Anton P. Nym]

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.

Well, other than proving that the litigating lawyer hasn't done his homework on at least one basic item, I guess... kinda like Whacko Jacko misquoting the release date of Halo 3 in his injunction to halt its release because of his "concerns" about it being sold to minors.

All hail tendentious litigation, in its many-splendoured sloppiness.

-- Steve

 

[Andy Chalk]

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.

But you really can't equate untrained or dickhead employees with a company-wide policy. I fully support "no refunds on open software" policies, but if you've got a borked copy of a game and all you want is a replacement, I don't think there's a single reputable store or chain in North America who wouldn't accommodate you. And if you do happen to run into someone who can't or won't help you, move up the food chain to a more experienced employee, the manager or whatever. Bad customer service isn't a problem with the videogame industry, it's a problem with the retail industry, and that's a whole 'nother ballgame.

And I still haven't heard anything about this guy making an attempt to have the game replaced, or even looked at, before he went to the lawyer's. Isn't there some kind of obligation on his part to resolve the matter through normal channels before jumping into the legal system?

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

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.

But you really can't equate untrained or dickhead employees with a company-wide policy. I fully support "no refunds on open software" policies, but if you've got a borked copy of a game and all you want is a replacement, I don't think there's a single reputable store or chain in North America who wouldn't accommodate you. And if you do happen to run into someone who can't or won't help you, move up the food chain to a more experienced employee, the manager or whatever. Bad customer service isn't a problem with the videogame industry, it's a problem with the retail industry, and that's a whole 'nother ballgame.

And I still haven't heard anything about this guy making an attempt to have the game replaced, or even looked at, before he went to the lawyer's. Isn't there some kind of obligation on his part to resolve the matter through normal channels before jumping into the legal system?

either he didn't try or was turned down, sometimes bad and broken get blurred.

The retailers are the "consumers" of the game industry they buy the products almost blindly and then when the games are bad are left with overstocks to be liquidated at half price or less, it would be nice if with all the buying power and money floating around if some of it was put into better return plans I mean on almost any other item you can return it and the store will put most returns back out as new, there really should not be this anal reasoning on media its hurting the industry more than protecting it.


Also if retail can show numbers of returned "bad" games prehaps the publishers would be more focused on not rushing crap feasts to market.

 

[ComradeJim270]

It's all BS. It's ridiculous that this man would file a suit against MS/Bungie when he could easily just get another copy, but it's also ridiculous that game companies receive so little significant (bitching is not significant, things that have a potential negative impact on a company's revenue are) backlash for releasing products that do not work as advertised. It's bad business practice, and those who do it should be made to answer for it. "Don't worry, we'll fix it soon" should not be an acceptable answer. Would you tolerate that answer in regards to another sort of product? I doubt it.

 

[Katana314]

This is pathetic! Just about everyone and their mother knows Halo 3 is a Playstation 3-exclusive!

 

[Andy Chalk]

I mean on almost any other item you can return it and the store will put most returns back out as new

But almost no other item can be taken home, cracked and copied and then returned for a refund while a fully-functional duplicate remains in the possession of the purchaser.

Seriously, I tried it once with a wok, I got my money back but it took me over an hour to scrape all the burned bean sprouts and beef slices off my stove top.

 

[ghostme]

For the people that think the lawsuit came out of nothing and is just purely based on him not being content about the one copy. It started off with just the one person not being able to play due to disc read errors and it ended up with somewhere between 600 and a 1000 people on the forum not being able to play the game due to disc read errors and random lock-ups.

The largest group that encountered the problem traded their disc in several times, some sent their xbox in for repairs but got more and more p!ssed off at the situation as they werent getting any help from the xbox helpline (being forced to pay a x ammount of dollars to get a new discdrive yet all other games were working, sending in their xbox several times, being told to trade in the disc they just traded in).
But if you want to actually see how they started up and waited quite a length of time for a patch or a fix and finally started talking about a lawsuit to get the game working you will see its not because they want a lot of money or anything but they just wanted to play the game, search the xbox forum for halo 3 + disc read error or DRE.

 

[hobartuk]

he could of either driven back to his gamestop with the receipt, got his $59.00 back or got another Halo 3 to see if it worked better

 

[MasterInsan0]

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.

Unless you're Valve.

 

[FreelancerADP]

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.

Well, GTA:SA and the whole Hot Coffee fiasco didn't have that chilling of an effect on the industry. But it does seem like the politicos in and around the video game industry are pushing for video games to be reviewed in their entirety before purchase.

I just hope that reason prevails here, because I kinda like my video games, and I would rather not relegate game development to the companies big enough to manage the sort of testing some are pushing for.

 

[FreelancerADP]

For the people that think the lawsuit came out of nothing and is just purely based on him not being content about the one copy. It started off with just the one person not being able to play due to disc read errors and it ended up with somewhere between 600 and a 1000 people on the forum not being able to play the game due to disc read errors and random lock-ups.

The largest group that encountered the problem traded their disc in several times, some sent their xbox in for repairs but got more and more p!ssed off at the situation as they werent getting any help from the xbox helpline (being forced to pay a x ammount of dollars to get a new discdrive yet all other games were working, sending in their xbox several times, being told to trade in the disc they just traded in).
But if you want to actually see how they started up and waited quite a length of time for a patch or a fix and finally started talking about a lawsuit to get the game working you will see its not because they want a lot of money or anything but they just wanted to play the game, search the xbox forum for halo 3 + disc read error or DRE.

The lawsuit alleges no such remedies on the part of the defendant. The narrative of the complaints goes something like: He bought the game, it didn't work, he got a lawyer.

 

[Exposed Lie]

that actually made me laugh. seriously!! thank god for "ambulance chasers" coz i was having a shitty day but all is now well

 

[[HD]Rob Inglis]

Scratch that, it seems like they have a real case, as stupid as it may seem, cause it sucks for something you pay money money for to not work. I hope they just sue for Microsoft to get of their asses and fix the problem, and not money.

 

[slyder35]

Anyone who's called Randy (or Cletus for that matter) should be automatically refused entry into our legal system for obvious reasons.

 

[slopeslider]

I mean on almost any other item you can return it and the store will put most returns back out as new

But almost no other item can be taken home, cracked and copied and then returned for a refund while a fully-functional duplicate remains in the possession of the purchaser.

Seriously, I tried it once with a wok, I got my money back but it took me over an hour to scrape all the burned bean sprouts and beef slices off my stove top.

You know thats the reason you cant 'RETURN' new games. Fed. law says you can only exchange new games for the same IDENTICAL game, you cant even return 360 c0d4 for ps3 cod4. I work in targets guest service, and you cant even return a dvd trivial pursuit board game once the dvd is opened.

 

[NotAPie]

Something like this happend to me with Left 4 Dead, I could run it just had to turn my console on and off for about 45 minutes...
I lost the recipt so I had to just keep messing with the game...
:3 and then I got a RROD out of warrenty...
My luck sucks!

 

[jasoncyrus]

locking up and freezing i pretty much the entire conept behind all 360s. They all do it, mostly because its a badly built pile of shit. It may have great graphics etc blah blah blah. But even if you us ferrari parts, if it's built by blind dyslexic chinese teenagers, it's still gonna be crap.

Plus as far as i know games for the 360 can be patched (or is that another myth?).

So hes got bugger all legs to stand on since they can state they've been creating a patch to fix the remaining issues in "Some user settings patterns" or some other BS like that.

 

[BoogieManFL]

I don't really care enough to comment about that lawsuit, but games companies are using their players as free testers more and more as time goes on, and it's getting really old. It's an unethical descision to save them money. Tweaks and minor fixes are one thing, but games that have bugs which make render you unable to complete it or seriously hamper play should not get released until they are fixed. And many of them have been so obvious there is no conceivable way it went unnoticed. It's BS.

Maybe it's more the fault of pushy publishers forcing them out the door too early. Like Activision, for example. Go read about how they screwed up Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines, and were probably responsible for Troika's demise.

 

[The Shade]

Wow...that's one hell of a thread necro.

Still, Microsoft probably will follow/followed its usual course in these situations: settle out of court with a huge pile of money.

Hey, if you have it to spare, why not save yourself the time with it?

 

[Bored Tomatoe]

Mr. Nunez. You are a dumbass. I will now present you with a 3 step solution to your "problem". Place the halo 3 disc into it's respective case. Return to gamestop. Exchange your defective copy for a working one. I hope this helps your feeble mind grasp what the average 12 year old can figure out.