Xbox One owners with defective units getting free game

Microsoft is offering a choice of any one of its four published launch titles for users who have gotten an Xbox One with a defective disc drive.

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Microsoft has issued a make-good plan for defective Xbox One launch consoles. The company has acknowledged bad disc drives among a "very small number" of customers, and is offering those affected a free game for their troubles.

A support e-mail reported by Polygon states that owners of defective consoles will get one of four games published by Microsoft Game Studios. Those include Dead Rising 3, Forza Motorsport 5, Ryse: Son of Rome, and Zoo Tycoon. Since the games will be downloadable, users will be able to play them despite the disc drive problems.

"While a replacement console is on its way, we want to ensure our advance exchange customers can stay in the game," Microsoft said in a statement. "We will provide each of them with a free digital download of one of the launch titles published by Microsoft Studios."

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  • reply
    November 26, 2013 7:30 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Xbox One owners with defective units getting free game.

    Microsoft is offering a choice of any one of its four published launch titles for users who have gotten an Xbox One with a defective disc drive.

    • reply
      November 26, 2013 7:36 AM

      This is not how you remedy the issue. Then again, this is the same company who gave us undertow...

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        November 26, 2013 7:37 AM

        [deleted]

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          November 26, 2013 7:42 AM

          They could send somebody over to personally flip the thing over and smack the bottom of it for you.

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            November 26, 2013 8:08 AM

            And then smack my bottom...ooh, naughty, naughty customer...

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              November 26, 2013 8:50 AM

              Even as I was typing it... I knew there was so much room there for interesting comments.

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          November 26, 2013 3:48 PM

          Company wide seppuku, obviously.

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        November 26, 2013 7:38 AM

        Huh? Giving them a free digital download to play while their replacement console is on the way is not a way to ease the pain of getting a dead disc drive?

        And, right now, we have to assume these failures are within the expected failure rate since it seems to be pretty low.

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        November 26, 2013 7:40 AM

        Advanced system replacement and a free game seems perfectly reasonable.

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        November 26, 2013 7:40 AM

        Jesus Christ, nothing makes you sperglords happy.

        This is really great of ms. There are some units with issues at launch, ms is replacing their console AND giving them a free game. Seems pretty good to me.

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        November 26, 2013 7:40 AM

        [deleted]

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          November 26, 2013 7:57 AM

          Well, first of all, I wouldn't offer it to only people affected by the disk drive issue. Going from the forums, it seems there are several other hardware issues at hand. http://forums.xbox.com/xbox_forums/xbox_support/xbox_one_support/f/4269.aspx?ThreadSortBy=TotalReplies&SortOrder=Descending

          Secondly, this is a knee jerk reaction to what they are claiming is a very small user base. More data needs to be collected. People in the EU are reporting they are having to pay for shipping defective units back. That's not cool.

          Then there is this "We're working directly with those affected to get a replacement console to them as soon as possible through our advance exchange program" not everyone with a faulty piece of equipment (be it the PSU, a controller etc) qualifies for the advance exchange program. So they're not addressing their entire user base effected by issues. That doesn't sound like thoughtful customer service to me.

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        November 26, 2013 7:42 AM

        Your right, instead they should send them PS4s as replacements

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        November 26, 2013 7:52 AM

        Haha you people

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        November 26, 2013 8:11 AM

        they *also* replace the thing, and there are plenty of bricked PS4s as well. launch failure is normal to a point.

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        November 26, 2013 8:12 AM

        They replace the defective unit in advance to mitigate down time for the end user
        They give you a free game as compensation

        I guess we could send your mom to orally copulate the victims of this gross injustice. Maybe burn down the house of a MS employee for every infraction as well.

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        November 26, 2013 8:15 AM

        I think its an OK solution.. the problem though is assuming the customer wants one of those 4 not-so-great launch titles. Assuming they already bought the game they wanted, why would they want one of the other options they didn't choose? Hopefully they also have an option for a credit where they can get a better game later on when they come out.

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        November 26, 2013 8:21 AM

        last time they just sent me a box and i sent in my red ringed 360. that was really cool of them

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        November 26, 2013 8:28 AM

        huh

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        November 26, 2013 8:29 AM

        A better option would be to shut it all down, I guess?

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        November 26, 2013 9:03 AM

        three dots REALLY MAKES YOU THINK

    • reply
      November 26, 2013 7:38 AM

      [deleted]

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      November 26, 2013 7:41 AM

      Seems like a nice thing for them to do.

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      November 26, 2013 7:56 AM

      Seems pretty decent so if you can't play a game because your drive is defective they give you a free digital game there and then so you can still play the XB1 even before the replacement arrives.

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      November 26, 2013 8:01 AM

      I sure would like to know how close they were to going digital/download only.

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      November 26, 2013 8:28 AM

      Why does every Xbox console have issues with the optical drive? If you put an audio CD in the original Xbox it would scratch it to oblivion. After reading articles about it I tried it myself and it really did destroy any audio CD you put in it.

      To save about $0.01 on the Xbox 360 Microsoft didn't put any bumpers in the optical drive. While you can pick up any cheap DVD player with the disc in and it'll continue to play normally, picking up a 360 would result in a nasty grinding sound and total destruction of the disc. When they made the black 360 they addressed this problem by putting a sticker on the front telling you not to move it while it's in operation...

      You'd think by now optical drives would have reach a level of maturity that they'd be unlikely case issues, but here we are again with another Xbox and more optical drive problems. I've never had issues with any other optical drives, so can only assume that this is once again due to cost cutting.

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        November 26, 2013 8:30 AM

        ps1 and ps2 drives failed in a significant number

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          November 26, 2013 8:59 AM

          That was from the laser dying, right? Microsoft's issue is bad drive vendor selection, from the transport and locking standpoint (as well as the Thomson drive issues). Sony has plenty of experience making compact disc drives with robust load/unload and spindle lock.

          I saw a report that the XBox One per-unit component cost was $471, with $75 of that in the Kinect, so there was probably pressure to reduce cost on other components, and the optical drive was probably a victim of lowest-bidder mentality.

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            November 26, 2013 9:02 AM

            how is laser failure any better than mechanical failure?

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              November 26, 2013 3:20 PM

              It's archvile. He has become a conspiracy theorist against Microsoft and will try to point out anything he believes he can against them for being sinister and evil.

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            November 26, 2013 9:02 AM

            No, in the PS2's case the drive would strip its (cheap plastic) belt and be unable to load/eject. In addition to some other issues.

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            November 26, 2013 4:00 PM

            so there was probably pressure to reduce cost on other components

            welcome to hardware design? I assume you are making the same inference about the small percentage of PS4s failing since they have the same sort of constraint in an attempt to minimize a per unit loss.

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      November 26, 2013 8:29 AM

      That's pretty cool of them.

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      November 26, 2013 9:02 AM

      That's great. Good on Microsoft!

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      November 27, 2013 1:58 AM

      not sure why everyone is so tamed by just 1 free game? I'm not complaining as mine was free from goo.gl/ouQ8F2 but not so sure if I would be satisfied if I were a paying customer

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