December 5^th, 2005 (6:42pm) - A Chicago man who purchased Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 has sued the world’s largest software maker, saying the new console has a design flaw that causes it to overheat and freeze up.

The proposed class action claims that in Microsoft’s bid to gain share in the $25 billion global video game market, the company was so intent on releasing the Xbox 360 before competing next-generation machines from Sony and Nintendo that it sold a "defectively designed" product.

Robert Byers, who brought the suit, said the power supply and CPU in the Xbox 360 overheat, affecting heat-sensitive chips and causing the console to reset as a preventative safety measure.

Complaints about the problem popped up quickly on gaming sites after the Xbox 360 debuted on November 22.

Console owners reported that some systems had crashed during regular use as well as during online game play using the Xbox Live service. Problems included screens going black and the appearance of a variety of error messages.

At the time, a Microsoft spokeswoman told Reuters: "We have received a few isolated reports of consoles not working as expected."

She went on to say that calls reporting the issue to the company represented a "very, very small fraction" of units sold.

The lawsuit, filed on Friday in federal court in Illinois, seeks unspecified damages and litigation-related expenses, as well as the replacement or recall of all Xbox 360 game consoles.

Microsoft representatives were not available for comment as of this writing.