Lucky kid, im going to send my ps3 with some random artwork, and ill cry... maybe i'll get something from sony.. :P

Oh MY.

I Wished I had like a few scribbles of Game Characters and signatures on my 360 before I sent it in.

oh man, there was a guy who called this would happen in the original post, he should get 100 internet points for being right.

At least they're doing something, I made the ol' "face of disappointment" when I heard about the arse who decided to scrub it. Seriously, what a horrible person.

glad to hear it, but also freakin jelous

Bet it'll involve Recon.

What a headline.

While I'm happy for the guy that Bungie coming to the rescue , I'd much like to see Microsoft PR bend over backwards for this.

@gamadaya: Agreed. From the headline, I assumed that the staff at Bungie had just discovered previously latent divine powers. And I was like, "That's freaking awesome. I want to work THERE."

what if he wiped it of himeself .... question mark

Good. It's nice to see that they care for their fans.

@TalKeaton: Game Design Major: Read the old headline from the original post, it'll make more sense

@Luke Plunkett: To be fair... I read the original post and my first thought was that the entire staff had gone scientologist and thought they had mental powers or something.

@Dakobah: I really don't think sites like the Consumerist would go that far. Not that I mind a site that treats the consumer as innocent till proven guilty (if even) but I take everything I hear with a grain of salt. Either way, I think this is a nice gesture by Bungie but I fear the ugliness in people will rare its ugly head because of this.

The IGN Three Red Lights podcast had to retire the reading of the weeks red-ring incidents when they found out people were fraudulently claiming their 360s died to get their names on air (amongst other reasons I'm sure). People are just opportunistic creatures and will pray on publics will to criminalize everything corporations do. Corporations are run by people as well so the vicious circle continues :(

@Dakobah:
A blind man could have called it, to be honest.

*tear rolls down cheek*

In a word. Awesome. You don't expect this from a bunch of people who oh so stereotypically are known to be people who enjoy virtual killing. But as a community. We are gamers seem to take care of our own.

I'm eagerly awaiting what comes of this. For the image will be my desktop background for atleast a month.

@okenny :): yah i don't think he really did that i just threw out a jokester statement, although that would really break my heart if it was a publicity stunt.

anyway its nice to know you listen to TRL, at least we know where the 5th lister is, lol.

Let this be a lesson if you want cool signatures do not do it on something as disposable as a Xbox360. Hopefully the sign faceplates so he can remove it when he sends it in for more repairs.

@Luke Plunkett: @Touy:

So there we go. Microsoft vs. Bungie, the master vs. the recently split offspring, with opposite powers.

Shweet.

I still wanna work there, LOL.

Good going bungie.

Haha wow the picture and the article title had me think for a second that Bungie was helping a kid who had amnesia or something.

Nobody else seems to be rooting for the possible sadistic bastard who did this, I'd like to. He might have had a bad day.

Or somebody didn't like an obnoxious Masterchief picture on a should be clean box, and just taking that would have been doing half a job.

Maybe I'm just mean.

@Dakobah: LOL... nice ;)

@Starplate: Exactly, why does "the other guy" have to help. MS is to blame, why shouldn't they be held accountable?

Yeah, to be fair this is something MS should have taken care of. Instead they gave him a big F.U. Maybe because they thought it was more about him complaining about the RROD (and them ignoring it) than it was about the art and the personal belongs on the side of the Xbox.

@Narynan: I doubt it was done out of malice but I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to make a red ring reference... say I had hemorrhoids the other day and....

@Luis: I doubt MS is to blame, They outsource the work, there is a place around here that does it for sony, I bet some tech thoguht it looked cool so he took that dudes case home, replaed the serial number, and then made it look like someone wiped the marker off. Seriously why would they clean his 360? They probably get paid commision based on how many units they go through in a day.

I'd really like to see them go all-out on this one: A new Halo 3 edition system signed by the Bungie team and re-signed by the original signers of his old console, plus Bungie staff artwork (Mr. Chief included) AND Recon.

It'd be proof positive that gamers aren't all mindless, soulless killing machines.

@RedRaptor: No it would be proof positive that some gamers are nerdy retards. And some are stuiped enough to send a collectors item to a place filled with other nerds that will rip it off. If i was him i woudl have purchased a new console, and kept that one on a shelf as a collectors item.

Ridiculous that Bungie can pick a random 360 laying around their offices, spend 5 minutes getting people this kid doesn't even know sign it and look like freaking angels within the gaming community. The kid did something stupid and he learned a tough lesson and that should be that.

@JDK: I was waiting for the inevitable cynical response. There we are now.

@JDK: Just what is your problem?

I love how Bungie is stepping in to fix someone else's mistake. Show's that they really do care for their fans.

Lucky guy. I'm turning green.

@JDK:

If anyone on this website had the guts to tear out a kids heart and stab it to death, it sounds like it would be you.

When I heard about this story initially, I died on the inside a little. And so did my friend, who brought it up later that day.
Im glad Bungie is doing something to help make things right.
Whoever erased his artwork should be fired. Immediately.

I hate this article for the same reason people hate seeing Paris Hilton as a news story... because it isn't. Bungie has flipped this event on the naive gaming public as some kind of tragedy. Get out of here... if Bungie cared for the fans, Halo would be free. Make the kid accountable for his actions or else he will not learn ANYTHING from his situation. Now he'll think "jeez, if I just keep screwing up some more, I'll keep getting gifts". Nice.

Bungie, I and many others stand and give a round of applause to you gentlemen.
Truly warms me to the core to know that there are people out there that realy just care about the consumer as opposed to the get him in, get his money, get him out attitude that companies seem to be taking today.
@JDK - It is for that reason exactly that they are angels --> They DID something
And while every corporation does have the time and money to spare to do something, Bungie is actually spending the time to do it! (And also, if it was just a signed 360 from around the office then there wouldnt be any need to, as read from the article from the link, hide details.
Once again Bungie, a round of applause, you truly care.

@JDK: But if Halo was free, then there wouldn't be any Halo, because I product like that takes professionals to create. You can care about your customers while still charging them for your product. Don't be a dick.

@ JDK also dude, Bungie doesn't have the power to make it free, it's a subscription to XBOX(aka Microsoft) Live that is required, not some magical subscription to Bungieland...
And i hardly think he screwed up either, he had a broken 360, tok normal protocol to send it in, made a special request not to have his artwork damaged, put a courteous letter in with the console so the lowly worker who didnt recieve the message from the phone rep knew what not to do, and still the damage occurred.
And finally, it is your sir, who i believe would take advantage of people's goodwill as you accuse this person of doing.

I never said I hated the kid in any way. He did something stupid... kids do stupid things every second of every day. When they do something stupid, they should learn the proper precautions to not do that stupid thing.

Bungie ignores this and instead spins the story so that not only is this kid a cash cow for future Bungie products in the future, now they have everyone in the community believing that they CARE for each and every one of them. That is just plain awful.

When has Bungie CARED for its fans besides this little moment? Insignificant contests? Message board interactivity? Map packs? UNICEF cares for people, OK? So let's all just sit back and think what caring actually means.

@JDK but you believe what you will and life goes on, and now that I think about it, it sounds to me like you're a little jealous of the lad heh heh...

@JDK: It's truly a sad statement when someone expresses so much anger over a good deed.

@Psychotic173: I never said this wasn't an act of goodwill... it's the underlying intentions behind it that gets me riled up.

You can't put in special little requests when you get your XBOX fixed. It's a little messed up they erased his pictures, but it was way more than wishful thinking that the system would turn out right... everyone agrees to that. So, if it was wishful thinking, then the resulting act wasn't unheard of. Is it still wrong? Probably... but the lesson today is "Don't send priceless items to people who don't care about your system."

@JDK: What do you define as "caring for their fans"? What does a company have to do to "care" for anyone other than pad their own pockets? Bungie donates a lot of money to charities through auctions of Bungie merchandise. I think it's fair to say they "care" about a lot of things other than just making money.

@NPlace: Don't take the free stuff literally. My point is this: what exactly has Bungie done to care for me? A lot of people have just said in this very article that Bungie cares for it's fans... so give me an example besides this one! If it's one act of kindness to one person, that's not caring for everybody!

@JDK: And how exactly is it "stupid" for a kid to customize his Xbox with his own personal artwork? What about the guy who customized his Wii with a No More Heroes motif that Kotaku posted about a few months back? Is he stupid because he did it, or would he only be stupid if the Wii broke and he had to send it in?

Ridiculous. Your arguments make no sense, and you just come off sounding like a dick.

@Captain Impulse: Dude, nearly every single business out there does these things. Charities... foundations... Coca-Cola donates stuff all the time as well.. but all they've done is sell me soda. McDonald's have their Ronald McDonald Houses... but still offer fatty foods to kids. My point is that this is called a "spin"... don't get trapped.

@Captain Impulse: I never said his actual Xbox was stupid... so why don't you go re-read my comments.

@JDK: I'd agree if the signatures and stuff had been on there in a reasonably easily cleaned-off material, but this was permanent marker and the staff would have had to actually /try/ to wipe it off, and put a lot of effort into doing so. And I can't see any justification for them doing that, really - it wasn't exactly going to affect the performance of the console, and it was pretty clearly not just a random kid's scribblings.
Not commenting on whether or not Bungie is actually made up of a series of Mother Teresa clones or whatever, but the fact is that the original problem is still pretty messed up.

@JDK: He did something stupid... kids do stupid things every second of every day.

Your quote. He did something stupid. What exactly did he do that was stupid?

And you still haven't answered my question: what does a company have to do to prove it "cares" for it's fans? Send you flowers?

@JDK: It's a sad world you live in where every good deed is just a "spin" for positive press.