This is too funny. If this goes through then Microsoft will have to deal with all the possible lawsuits from designing unreliable operating systems. Can you imaging the chaos? LOL

What about the systematic graphics lockup of our new Ubisoft release? Should i get 5 million dollars since they rushed the release? This is a small part of why our legal system is tied up with frivelous lawsuits. Why spend your time and energy making money on a game in this manner. Oh well.

Wow i never noticed how many class-action lawsuits there are about nothing. these guys just want to get money from a company. can i start a class-action lawsuits for espn cause they make me late to work, and its because of there product has such bad timing.

I had almost guaranteed lockups under BioShock -- so much so that I thought my 360 must be getting close to the RRoD. However, after countless dozens of hours of Halo 3 in both single player and multiplayer, I've haven't had a single lockup.

that's all I read

the whole point of a console setup is to pop a game in, pick up the controller, and play. Very rarely should a console have any trouble, since the games being made are all for the same system. There should be no conflicts.

If the console is the problem (and the game is fine), this is even more inexcusable. why would someone buy an xbox over a pc, if the same issues arise? A crashing, freezing, overheating console based off of a Microsoft operating system.. sounds like a poorly designed PC to me.

I bet Randy Nunez looks like that fat comic book collector from The Simpsons. In fact, I bet he even talks like him... LOL

Randy, go home and console yourself with a bucket of KFC extra crispy.

... 10,000 XBOX360s cry out, and are suddenly silenced.

This is just funny. Most people have no problem with Halo 3 and just because this one guy has a problem he files a lawsuit. What is wrong with people now. Just because something doesn't go your way doesn't mean that you should sue.

Why our court system is flawed because lawyers force frivelous lawsuits through the system for personal gain.

is that even possible for a game to actually screw up an Xbox 360? for a regular pc, i'd understand 'cuz it would mess up the OS but for Xbox, that's unheard of. at least for me.

I hve not had any problems playing through Assassin's Creed. Including finishing the game and running around looking for flags. I played through it on 360, and have no knowledge of how it plays on the PS3. Now GRAW2 on the other hand was a shady Ubisoft release that froze often on me. To the point of not being able to even complete the training mission...

The guy should be sueing to get his money back for the system and/or the game. It is a >GAME< system. There is no way he has lost time or productivity due to its alleged failings. Write him a check for $500 and tell him to get lost.

How does he work out 5 million in compensation?, your country really is fubar.

Buy a $50 game - complain that it crashes your Xbox. Sue for $5,000,000. And oh, enjoy the game when it works. Wow, not a bad way to invest $50 for the game and a few hundred dollars for the Xbox.....

Zach, I will explain something to you as I am sure you have little idea what you are talking about. First off why do people certify class actions? They do it because suit would not be worth the recovery if they alone sued the defendant. Secondly, what makes a lawsuit frivolous? The fact that you don't agree with it or are lay and don't understand why?

Believe me dude, there is a reason why lay people are not allowed to practice law: they don't understand it. It is not a surprise that one would knock the system and claim it frivolous when one does not understand. It is in human nature to dislike, fear, or hate what we don't understand. Do some research in sales, torts, and contracts. Then you can be free to write your opinion.

Just so you understand, it's a class action lawsuit. The only people who make any real money are the lawyers in this. If the case is settled or Mr. Nunez wins, then the compensation is divided among the people who opt to participate in the lawsuit (only those who bought Halo 3 and agree that there are issues with the software are eligible). At most they would get a refund for the purchase price.

Class action lawsuits are important in forcing entities to acknowledge problems and provide a redress for people affected by them.

And as far as Joe's comment about unreliable operating systems, I don't have any issues with our installations at work. If anything causes them to be unreliable, it's poorly programmed applications that run on the OS.

By this logic we should all just quit our jobs and sue each other for money.

Jokes aside, I suppose this is one of the reasons game consoles remain popular. You plug it in, it works (or it should, and usually does reliably).

As a PC gamer, I'm more than resigned to the fact that if it doesn't work, I work around it. Fact of life for me, devastation for a console. Looks like MS might have to swallow this time.

Stupid people with their stupid lawsuits just contribute to the higher costs of our video games.

I play Halo 3 all the time and i've never ever had the console lock up. The PS3 on the other hand has locked up on me twice in COD. The Wii has been solid too.

People complain about M$ OS's but how about leopard freezing on a "blue screen" and losing/corrupting data. Wana make a big deal about that?

I'm not an M$ supporter but get sick of the double standards on this site.

I didn't have any problems with Assassin's Creed (so far), just some texture/geometry pop-in here and there. What exactly are you experiencing?

As for HALO 3, I didn't have any problems with that one, either -- I think. I do remember one point where the save may have failed, and I had to replay 10-15 minutes of the game. I haven't played HALO 3 in a while; too busy with CoD4, Mass Effect, Uncharted, Assassin's Creed, etc.

what a money grubbing moron. he probably has his xbox inside a cabinet with no ventilation. microsoft should send ninjas to his house so he can be assassinated. if he does win the suit, m$ should just buy him a wii instead of paying him out, that might be more on his level.

Sounds like this fellow needs a life outside of Halo 3

I have both titles and have experienced absolutely no problems from either! Goes to show you.. You can't please everyone, no matter how hard you try!

What does Nunez do to deserve 5million usd? How can he have lost so much due to this error? Did he have to replace 20000 xbox'es out of his own pocket? This trial should never take place.

Then we might see more games finished when they're "finished" instead of when it's convenient for the publisher's pocket books.

Heck, if he has a case with Halo3, then I, and millions of others Window users will have a case as well for crappy OS's (especially the early releases) of Window 98, 2k, XP, and Vista.

He is not going to win, period.

Another stupid lawsuit. Nintendo should be sued years ago for NES, becuase it wouldn't read the cartridge.
I think what all the game in the future will have a warning sign "Warning: This game may freeze your system"

Maybe this guy is new to the Xbox360, my experience is that a lot more games than Halo3 will crash your system. My media extender even crashes my system on a regular basis now that I am using vista as the host. Maybe we should try to get Nintendo too. How many people remember blowing on your cartridges trying to get it to read. Back in the day...ha

ha ill just sue microsoft every time windows crashes then, it causes my computer to be "totally inoperable"

I'd have to disagree that this is a frivolous lawsuit as it's only holding the manufacturers accountable to their product. The implicit warranty when buying the xbox and any game for it are that they will work in all respects.

$5 million might fly as punitive damages againt MS and bungie...but they'll really have to show malice or negligent intent on behalf of MS or bungie.

btw: statistically, the U.S. doesn't really have any more lawsuits than even Japan (the usual example of an effective legal system). The U.S. starts with more cases, but more are thrown out before trial. The total number of tried cases, and even the monetary payouts, are almost identical.

First, I am in no way trying to start a PS3 vs Xbox 360 flame. I own a PS3 and got Assasin's Creed the day it came out. as far as I know there are no lockup problems with Assasin's Creed on the PS3. It might be possible that it is a heat issue with the 360. I know that they suffered from this a while back and the new games could push the hardware a bit harder causing overheating. Just my $0.02 though.

man is this guy suicidal? what makes his 360 so important that if it crashes he deserves 5mill???

If I was the judge I would throw my gavel at him then go get another one and throw that one at him. Then I'd get the bailiff to shoot him in his thumbs. Is he related to Jack Thompson??

"You" wouldn't get 5 million dollars. These class-action lawsuits usually end up in coupons of equal value distributed to the individual defendents. It's like Western Digital giving out free copies of their diagnostic softare for the misrepresentation of hard drive values, or Creative giving '$50-off' coupons for their online store for not using true 96khz recording in the Audigy Platinum. Usually, it ends up being something nearly worthless. The most I can see happening is Microsoft releasing patches or giving a 'free game' coupon that is restricted to out-of-date $20-rack games.

That this nonsense can occur. You're suing a company, because a GAME system crashed, eventhough they repair it for free? ROFLMAO.....

mine kicked the can with obliv and halo 3 didnt help it taxes the hardware to much it gets to hot and dies or the dvd rom drive dies one of the two

it locked up, so what?
you play and pc game, a lot of time they lockup your computer as well, so I go sue all game company?
the other day I was playing some rpg on ps3 and it lockup too...so I should sue sony?
just press a button and reboot and you are good to go play again.
it's not like it kills the machine forever.
Lawyers trying to make money.

I have one of the first boxes of the assembly line and it plays Halo 3 just fine. This is just another B.S. lawsuit against Microsoft. And if this was the case Microsft has an extended warrenty on the 360, so call and bitch, they will replace it.

P.S. Bungie will take over the world lawsuit or not ;)

If I could sue a came publisher for 5mil a game that locks up, I would be a billionaire!

The game was released with NO AI sure your could run around in the rts and shoot enemy vehicles but they would not fire back lol.

I should get 10 million for that because i only got half of a game.

playing halo 3 for tons of hours and still no lockups? Bioshock worked flawlessly for me.

I did get the RRoD before playing any of there games. So maybe their box was faulty.

Dear God this is just stupid. I doubt there are enough people who can agree to sue. The most who will are going for the money.

I for one have never had a lot of games lock up on my PC. Maybe once in a blue moon. But even if the console does it there is no way to make it inoperable. The OS is stored on mempry similar to a PCs BIOS that is only accesable via updates so no permanent changes can be made to the base files.

What he should do is get it replaced. As for why no one will sue Mac for their screwups is b/c one they are rarely heard of(Appl covers it well) and they are not popular enough. If Apple were in MS shoes and MS in Apples shoes Apple would be the one getting the smashing.

easy fix buy a ps3 which has the power to handle anything. i have never had a problem with mine which is in a dusty basement in between shelves and when i'm not gaming on it im running folding@home.

What is comes down to is you expect the product you pay for to work. The problem is that the standard for the 360 seems to differ a "bit" from the standard for a PC user. I don't recall reading about anyone suing about a PC title. Wait for a patch, update your vid drivers, etc. These units are computers, so why are people surprised when they have issues just like a PC box. Overheating, artifacts, and lockups.the performance and bleeding edge features you get, the more problems you are going to have.

Uh, his console is probably still under warranty, so send it in. There's no point in a lawsuit. And I haven't heard of anyone else having problems with Halo 3, much less that it destroyed their system.

I haven't heard about any of the problems with games and lockups, and neither have had any problems with any that I have played before. I have played on the newest of 360's, so my guess would have to be that if you have an old version, one before September 2007 or before July 2007, then you will probably run into this a lot. They did switch out hardware in July and September, September making the 360's problems almost non-existent now, and the July at least making it a bit more reliable. Overall, Microsoft had fixed the problems already, yet had not told everyone with an older one what to expect from their 360. In the end I bet everyone with an old 360 will probably just get theirs changed out with a newer one, no one is going to be getting anything else, unless they also give the choice for full reimbursement.

I can't believe how many intelligable responses there were here. I really appreciate all the great feedback. I do understand that a class action is a great tool. Don't think it's in the right hands here. And i own a ps3, and have had 3 or 4 lock ups during sassy creed, and have a cooler for my ps3... As for the lawyers cleaning up on class actions, i think it's shady. And i believe it's time for the laws governing all software releases including games everywhere should require 6 months of mandatory updates and upgrades to the software via direct or indirect download via the web. I don't care what it costs the companies. They make a lot. I want a game that gets rushed to be fixed over the next 8-12 weeks. Why is that so much to ask?

who knows if he overheated it on purpose, maybe even knocked off the heatsink!

I should sue my mom for sometimes being an unreliable twit....oh yeah, and she crashed my car once..............

This actually is a frivolous lawsuit. Seriously, even if this is actually happening, it is so hard to test every single case that can go wrong, especially on new machines. You could have a certain number of megabytes saved on your HD and a bug could crop up. These things happen when programming computers, and the xbox 360 is nothing more than a computer. So honestly, what's the big deal? If something is really wrong, Bungie will, I am positive, find it and fix the code.

It sucks and so does the 360 with all those jaggies. Ill stick with my High End Pc with no jaggies and the best games at high res 1920 x 1200 max settings.

seriously how dumb can you be to sue a company just cuz your system freezes. seriously the both companies should his ass for wasting their time on stupidity.
i guess this guy must be in need of money since he's suing for the much $$$$.

Think about it--they made MINIMUM of 300 Million dollars on Halo 3 sales SO FAR!!!

5 million copies of Halo 3 sold so far @ $60 each.

And people, remember all the Halo 3 endorsements? Halo 3 Mt. Dew, Doritoes, Action figures from Hasbro. I could go on and on.

5 Million dollars is nothing to these guys. I'd estimate they've made over 1 BILLION dollars on the Halo franchise.

I thought the article was about Halo 3 causing the Xbox 360 to lock up and not the Xbox 360 overheating? Why are people flaming MS. If you have a PS3 or PC enjoy them both. Let's get to meat of this issue: Lawyers Lawyers Lawyers. If they see that they can make money on something they push for Class Action Status. They can clean up on these kind of suits. I am sure this will not go anywhere, but I would like to see the Lawyer bringing the suit pay for all the court cost, if they lose.

It is frivolous because defects are to be expected when you purchase a product. Especially electronics and software. Its called failure rate, and it’s the norm for this industry. That is why companies issue WARRANTIES, so that in case a product does not function the way its supposed to you can get it REPLACED. If you buy a new car and the transmission breaks within a year of use are you going to sue the car manufacturer or will you take it back to the dealership for service¿

THAT’S WHY WARRENTY WAS INVENTED FOR!!!!!

And by the way Microsoft has a disk replacement policy specifically for Halo 3. They will REPLACE FREE OF CHARGE any game that does not work properly. FREE OF CHARGE PEOPLE. Furthermore, if the xbox360 itself is the problem, then it could be repaired/replaced through the xbox service department.

And that, you geniuses is why THIS LAW SUIT IS FRIVOLOUS.

And NO I’m not a MS supporter, but I HATE people failing FRIVOLOUS law suits in order to make a quick buck. Because of these stupid law suits and the money that companies have to spend in defending against them is why we the consumer have to pay higher prices.

By the way, if I get fired for writing this while at work can I sue Toms Hardware??? Or maybe I can sue the idiots that think this law suit is valid, because their retarded comments made me write this???

"laws governing all software releases including games everywhere should require 6 months of mandatory updates and upgrades to the software via direct or indirect download via the web" - sounds like a good, reasonable idea to me.

And the reason AC has not received a patch yet is because “Ubisoft doesn’t know what’s wrong with Assassin’s Creed”

“We spoke with Michael Beadle, Ubisoft’s senior public-relations manager, about the freezing problems. He says Ubisoft is investigating the matter and is not exactly sure what’s causing the glitches. … Ubisoft is working on a patch for the problems using feedback from gamers and blogs, Beadle says.”

http://www.playstatic.com/news/1071


So there you have it.

If the manufacturer knew that the product was causing problems within the gaming environment but withheld the information from its consumers and sold the product to them anyway. In a class action lawsuit the money doesn't just go to one individual; It will go to those who have proven ownership of the effected product and have legally agreed to be part of the lawsuit. (Usually agreeing that if there is a settlement, they will not seek further action as an individual). So potentially the money can go to hundreds of thousands of people.

Instead of always buying stuff... Try the flipside
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-consumerism

Rob, it's obvious that YOU have not been bitten by these problems like some of us have. Throwing the catch-all warantee at problems such as these is not a perfect solution.

For starters, when my 360 died, it took MS over one month to send me a new one. And, that is a tough pill to swallow for a problem that never should've happened in the first place. And, what about people that have had two or more consoles have RROD problems? YOU GUESSED IT...they have to wait 4-6 weeks for repair on each additional unit that died. There should be a procedure in place for the extreme cases and MS should be doing CROSS-SHIPPING for pete sakes. It's not a new concept--they ship you a new unit AT THE SAME TIME as you ship your broken one to them. If they don't get one in the mail, they can charge your credit card.

But, like I said, MS doesn't do that....they took the least expensive route by just playing reactive games to people's legitimate problems and complaints with the 360 being, in my opinion, a POS system from a hardware standpoint.

So, I can see what people are mad and why they'd want to sue. After all, what's a person's time worth?

AND THAT'S WHY THE LAWSUIT IS NOT FRIVOLOUS!!!

see? I can use all caps too!

Silver, I see your point. And I agree with it. I too had RROD, took mine 3 weeks. But that’s a different issue. That was because of the poor manufacturing process and poor R&D from MS end (the extreme heat from the processors, without proper ventilation make the main board warp). You can’t sue a company for releasing a poorly designed product on the market. You can’t sue them for that, they have warranties/replacement policies in place for that, you won’t win. If you don’t like the product, don’t buy it; or if you really want to stick it to them buy the competing brand (PS3/Wii).

This guy suing because his copy of Halo 3 (software) is causing his 360 to freeze, which is totally different. This guy just wants to make a quick buck of a multi-billion dollar company because of all the negative press concerning halo 3 and the 360’s reliability issues. They probably figure that MS would settle out in order to avoid any further negative press. That’s why he is suing for so little. Figures 5 mil to MS is nothing and they will settle out. But I don’t think that’s going to happen.

All he is going to do is waste the courts time and the tax payers money. And that is why I am against it.

“If the manufacturer knew that the product was causing problems within the gaming environment but withheld the information from its consumers and sold the product to them anyway.”

Joe, you are absolutely right about that. The problem is that the consumer would have to prove that the manufacturer knew that product was flawed beyond acceptable margin. And they decided to release it anyways. And then MS would bring out some data that shows that failure rates are within industry standards. They will also then show that they have an extensive warranty/replacement program in place for such issues. And they will they say that they committed to customer satisfaction by investing in a billion dollar warranty program in order to extend all warranties to current and future consumers. And then will also say that new manufacturing techniques and technologies are in place in order to prevent any further failure issues.

This is my point. They wont win. Yes the xbox360 is a POS, but they are doing some about. They have programs in place to fix the ones that don’t work properly. They have disk replacement programs in place to replace any game that is defective. Like I said, if you feel the xbox360 is a POS they don’t buy it. Show MS how you really feel by buying the competing brand.

The better solution would be requiring the company producing a defective product to pull the product from the market until it is fixed. If they do not pull a defective product, they should face monetary penalties greater than the cost of the recall.

During the RROD, Microsoft should have pulled the 360 out of the market. If it was known that Halo 3 was defective, it should have been pulled from store shelves. I do not think that $1.00 sent to every Halo owner is out of line.

I still think that the X-LAX 360 bites the big pickle. :)

This is too funny. All of you are bitching and arguing about nothing. I disagree with all of you!:-

I have nothing better to do right now then to argue with you people. Your all wasting your time arguing here because it is POINTLESS!!!

PS: I just like the hypocrisy of this comment, so I had to add it :)

Most people run halo3 just fine. I would say that is an exceptable "margin". The question is why did it not work on his machine. And exactly how is his issues mount to 5m? GRAW2 ran fine. I think Mass effect locked up once. Assassin's creed locked up about 5 times. Big deal. What's that problem anyways? One turns the 360 off then turn it back on. You can usually get back to where you were with a few minutes of gameplay. That is why a person buys a game... to play it.

And another thing. If he is so unhappy with his xbox and whether or not he wins. Then MS should offer to buy back all his 360 things. I mean that if he has such a problem with the xbox to the tune of 5m then he would never want to play it again after that right? So he can sell his 360 and gear to MS for what he paid for it. That way he would never have to deal with that problem again, which is what a person would want if they were sane.

Why get frustrated at people that say this lawsuit is frivolous? A person could only assume as much from the way the article is written and the amount of information it delivers.

Alleges what again? That 99.9999 percent of people will have a good experiance playing halo3 and the the .0001 may have trouble? What really is he saying they knew?

You put 5m at the end of an article like a punch line.. Really, how seriosly could anyone take this article.

how about proper cooling guys. If you put your box where there is no airflow and the fight start to heat up, it will block poor x360.

How the F*** can this stupid punk get a 5 million dollar law suit. Its people like this that put the gaming industry in bad positions. I hope Microsoft counter sues this stupid spick!

Chump change. This is just another way to circulate the money around a bit. M$ has billions, and we have not. If you give us some of that we will buy a boat or another game and pay sales tax, then the company pays tax on the money they made, minus writedowns, including payouts to idiots like this guy, taking money from the government. So the gov has to let lawsuits continue to make their way through court, and payoffs continue to grow so idiots get more and buy more and . . . . . pay more taxes.
In the end, it all comes back to the jack. Follow it one day, you'll see.