Supreme Court to hear Microsoft’s appeal of Xbox 360 disc scratching lawsuit

Microsoft defends any damage is the result of 'consumer misuses'

The Xbox 360's Red Ring of Death was well known by many back in the day. But apparantly the system also had an issue with scratching game discs to the point that they were unreadable. Banding together, a group of Xbox 360 owners are trying to serve Microsoft with a class-action lawsuit, and now the Supreme Court will decide if the company will have to face it.

The justices agreed on Friday, January 15th, to hear an appeal from Microsoft, which defends that any damage done to discs were a result of "consumer misuse and not a product defect." Of the more than 80 million Xbox 360 consoles sold, Microsoft says only 0.4 percent of owners have reported disc scratching. It's also worth mentioning, that Microsoft was aware of an issue that would cause discs to be scratched if the console was moved while the disc was spinning; there were plenty of warnings by Microsoft for that, but many claim these scratches weren't caused by that.

The lawsuit was dismissed in 2012 with a federal judge ruling there were not enough complaints to justify a class action lawsuit. However, it has since been reversed by a federal appeals court, allowing it to move forward.

[Associated Press]