A Chicago man who bought Microsoft's new Xbox 360 has sued the software maker, saying the new video game console has a design flaw that causes it to overheat and freeze up.

The proposed class action suit 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 central processing unit in the Xbox 360 overheat, affecting heat-sensitive chips and causing the console to lock up.

Complaints about the problem surfaced quickly on game enthusiast Web sites after the Xbox 360 debuted on Nov. 22.

Console owners reported that some systems had crashed during regular use, as well as during online gameplay 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 declined to say how many reports Microsoft had received and said 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 Xbox 360 game consoles.

Microsoft representatives were not immediately available for comment on Monday.

I heard recently of a guy who tried to break into a store. He injured himself while trying to break a window. He sued the store.

There's such a simple and fault-proof solution to the ridiculously litigious society we live in -- the loser pays for the other parties' legal expenses.

If you sue me, and you lose, you pay my lawyer, you pay all the court fees, and any other money that was wasted on the lawsuit. Oh I GUARANTEE you that we wouldn't have any more idiotic morons suing left and right for the most ridiculous reasons.

I'm going to play the devil's advocate for a minute with this, though. What if it could be proven that Microsoft did rush the 360 to market, knowing that it had issues that might cause consoles to be defective? This appears to be the foundation of the charge -- Microsoft's drive to be the first to deliver, no matter what.

I'd say it's highly unlikely that, with Microsoft's reputation, it would choose to release such a highly-anticipated system that it knows is flawed.

I have no opinion until I find out some percentages of consoles having the problem, I probably never will but without a hard fact I have no opinion.

There's such a simple and fault-proof solution to the ridiculously litigious society we live in -- the loser pays for the other parties' legal expenses.

If you sue me, and you lose, you pay my lawyer, you pay all the court fees, and any other money that was wasted on the lawsuit. Oh I GUARANTEE you that we wouldn't have any more idiotic morons suing left and right for the most ridiculous reasons.

I have heard similar cases to that when someone broke into a house and cut themselves on a knife.

Microsoft came out after the launch and said that under 3% of the 360s were malfunctioning. It's not an independant study, but something I thought I should add.