And now RANT from Jason C...

Subject : First Generation XBoxes Giving Gamers Grief!

I like many, was an early adopter of the Microsoft(r) XBox(r) offering and I happily plopped down my $300.00(USD) for it when it came out. I was overjoyed! Such a machine, not like anything before it, using PC like hardware so it was easy to code for, easy to port great PC games to, oh how great it is. It easily over powers its PS2 competitor on the hardware side, and the games for a change don't suck(for the most part). Halo was actually pretty cool ( and it still is kinda fun ;P ) the XBox Live(tm) service is actually not too bad, it has a built in Ethernet Adaptor so that's just wonderful! 

All great things thus far, so let's hit the fast forward button a bit, let's get into a current time frame where the XBox isn't the hot brand spanking new box on the game store display case that it once was, the current XBox price is about $150.00(USD) - $190.00(USD). So that's over a $100.00 drop in price over this span of time, as always the early adopters pay a premium for the machine, but that's to be expected and everyone's in agreement with that fact, and here's the real kicker in this rant, not only have they over paid a good 100.00 for the machine being sold today, they also got a substandard machine!  That's right all you girls and boys out in gamer land, you've not only spent an extra 100.00 you've gotten sub standard parts in your lovely black and green box! 

"What do you mean?" you say? Well, I am speaking about a most essential component of your bundle of gamer joy, the DVD-ROM. Now as all the XBox games require this little marvel of modern technology, not to mention DVD movies if you own the accessory( I do ), I'd be comfortable saying its pretty darn important, so why did Microsoft see fit, to give us a sub standard DVD-ROM in the original roll out?  Was it rushed and not thoroughly tested? Perhaps..  The DVD-ROM in the original 1'st and -some- of the 2nd generation XBoxes ( mainly the ones built in Mexico , more on this later ) is a "Thompson" brand DVD-ROM, this is a really cheap DVD-ROM to say the least. Current games ( and even some of Microsoft's own Demo Discs ) fail to play properly or at all due to the DVD-ROM's inability to do what it was sold to Microsoft to do. 

How do I know this? Well for one I own one of the aforementioned systems and It's suddenly crapping out in the last 4~ months I first noticed the dreaded "Your Disk is Dirty or Damaged" errors, so I said, ah probably just cheap demo discs(as they were the ones doing it mainly ). Now that's all well and good, it's a demo disc. No real significance as it was free with the magazine. But then I decided to buy some of the cooler new games coming out for Christmas of 2003, notably Need For Speed : Underground and Crimson Skies : High Road To Revenge( which is oddly enough produced by Microsoft's own game studios ). Whelp for one the new games are very much rendered useless due to this cheap hardware Microsoft has so wrongfully over charged me ( and thousands of people like me ) for, the system plays all "older" games perfectly. Not a single hitch in the world and Its wonderful. But as for my recent game purchases, I've got two shiny drink coasters, as they will not play long if at all on the machine. if you're really lucky you'll get 30 minutes to an hour out of it before it dies on you with the error and there's no real 'fix' for the error ingame. Your only choice is to forgo any saving or anything that might let you pick back up where you were, and hit the power button to reset the console, and try your luck again.

Of Course it makes me rather mad, all the newer XBoxes have Samsung or Philips brand drives in them, and they're much much better drives, and work for the most part flawlessly, they also are probably faster so your load times should be reduced, now you might be saying, ah right but Microsoft's a good guy, they'll fix it won't they?  Ha, you wish! If you call them and ask them to do "the right thing" they are going to ask for a major credit card, so they can hit you up for 100.00 + S&H and then they'll "test" the system, and if they find any problems they'll fix whatever it is, and send it back with I believe a 90 Day warrantee.  What's one to do then, well one option might be to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, users have reported that doing this will result in Microsoft contacting you and agreeing to settle the dispute/claim by giving you 50% off the 100.00 repair cost.  While that's better, how about free Microsoft?  You've made 100.00 extra for a lesser machine than your selling today and you're asking me to now shell out MORE just so you can fix my mistake?  I've bought a machine that effectively has been phased out because all the new games will require a better DVD-ROM than is currently installed in the machine. I certainly had no say about putting a substandard DVD-ROM in the machine, but I certainly paid a premium price for it.

However on a slightly more odd note, I called the 1800 number for XBox support, and asked them if they have had any additional reports of this problem, they said "no, never heard of it", so.. I decided to dig a bit deeper, I wound up on the XBox official forums, and there's a 13 page forum thread about this same issue and users all have similar claims. There's also a petition up online, with well over 500 signatures ( it's likely to be nearing 1000 by now ), and yet Microsoft won't officially acknowledge the issue, nor will they fix their mistake let alone admit to making the mistake in the first place. 

I have two options as I see it A) sell the machine B) make it someone else's problem  I've selected the B approach, mainly because if I did pay Microsoft  $100.00 + S&H, It would be gone a week or longer, and there's no guarantee that I'll even receive one of the aforementioned "good" drives.  I have decided to take the XBox to a major game store and trade it in for store credit as its still in perfect condition. Besides the fact that it won't (within a reasonable expectation)  play any of the new games( however, some users have reported no problems, it's unclear weather or not there were 'patched up' versions of this drive, or weather or not the old drives can be fixed, Microsoft sure isn't saying ) and buy a new XBox which is cretin to have one of the  'good' drives in it ( namely a Samsung drive ). 

In conclusion, I'd like Microsoft to fess up and take it like a man. They've made a horrible error. They've silently fixed it during ladder roll outs of the machine and have neglected to offer the previous owners of the "sub standard" machines any recourse other than to pay them a hefty fee to maybe get a fixed machine back, or to blatantly recall the old units and issue new units in their place or to sell it off at a substantial loss on their investment in Microsoft's product, to either go with a competitor or go with a new "fixed" model.

Thanks,

--JC.