Is a Rock Band-related Peripheral dangerous?

I usually don't talk about gaming on consecutive days, but this story seemed to demand rebroadcast to casual gamers who likely wouldn't be in a position to read this on a gaming-related blog, and because the site where it was originally posted is getting so much traffic that it is having

Anyway, long time reader and blogging friend Jim Squires had a little problem this weekend with his Rock Band 4-way USB hub for the Xbox 360... namely, it set on fire.



Now, this wasn't a piece of equipment that he just cobbled together or some hardware hack to do something that the hardware wasn't designed to do. It was a necessary component for the playing of the game, and it was part of the Rock Band package he bought.

And the thing the really freaks me out about this whole thing was it happened just 10 minutes after he turned it on. For those of you who have played this, think about how long your cooperative games have been and think about how short 10 minutes is in that context.

Now, I don't know if this is an isolated incident, or maybe the first instance of an ongoing problem with that particular peripheral, because after reading about this story, there have been other players coming forward with their own issues with that hub getting frightfully warm during their own play sessions.

The unofficial advice seems to involve buying a third-party hub to replace the one that came with the game, though I don't know about that. I think that until there are further details about this story, you should keep an eye on your hub while you are playing.

Tags: rock band, ea games, 4 way usn hub, fire hazard, jim squires, peripheral, safety issues