New Xbox 360 said to 'still scratch discs'
So don't move your console, OK
Anyone hoping the new-design Xbox 360 will treat game discs more gently than its predecessors have been claimed to is set to be disappointed.
Following the new machine's unveiling at the E3 event this week, website Destructoid had a play with one on the show flow. Alan Wake was playing - you can read Reg Hardware's review here - and a way into the game, the players decided to move the Xbox a tad.
The result, they claim: "Suddenly all hell breaks loose. Goodbye, Alan Wake."
The crucial point here is that the Xbox currently - and will presumably continue to - come with a sticker warning punters not to move the machine while a disc is spinning. Microsoft acknowledged the problem in 2008, but so few folk feel the need to knock their consoles around while playing games that the issue has affected a relatively small number of people.
Destructoid's team maintains they didn't move the new one much, but they raise a key point: how less likely now are Xbox 360s to remain untouched once Kinect motion detector accessories are plugged in and kids start leaping around in front of the console? ®
Thanks to reader Mark for the tip.
COMMENTS
Still
At least it doesn't set itself alight and burn your house down any more.
Audio CDs
With very rare exceptions, all audio cd players run at the same speeds they did when they first came out. There's only 700 MB of data on them at most and the corresponding music has a playtime of about 74 minutes. You don't need to spin very fast to draw a little under 10 MB a minute.
Your xbox 360 on the other hand is dealing with a disc with 4.5 GB on it, and at that same rate of transfer it'd take about 7.5 hours to finish reading that dis, which you'd find rather unacceptable. There are some differences in read methods for dvds which account for some of this transfer difference, but a lot of it comes down to rotating the disc substantially faster.
In short it's one hell of a lot easier to control something going relatively slowly than something going very very fast.
How long with Microsoft take to get it right?
They have claimed to have fixed the heat/noise/disc scratching problems in every revision of Xbox, and it never transpires to be true.
How long can they continue to fool gamers?
How long will it take to get it right? (is 5 years not enough?)
How long before they give up trying to make hardware, and stick to what they know?
new 360 scratches
well it dont suprise me at all all of the 360s have always had scratching issues the white one black one and now this new shiny black one. lets see how long it takes before somone who buys this new console gets a rrod. not only that but ends up with scratched disks as a result microsoft just cant get it right maybe they should stick to operating systems and not games consoles i had a rrod in the first 11 months when i bought it and mines the elite console which i didnt expect would get it. what will happen is if microsoft doesnt sort thease problems out il be moving back to sony end of.
