And this is before the machine's even had a chance to stratch it, yet.

Halo 3 is up to scratch.

Now where did I leave my coat.

... but if i bought a game where the disk was scratched when i got it, i'd take it straight back to the shop i got it from and demand a replacement, not post it off to microsoft in the hope that they send another sometime before the end of the year.

with the stupid software licencing now all game disks should be freely replaceable through the point of sale, not relying on posting it to the publisher and and paying a fee (i realise its free in this case, but only until december)

they are selling you a product that they know to be faulty and yet you can only get a fee-free replacement until december... that sounds a little wrong to me... presumably by then you will only be able to buy perfect copies of this disc.

Yep my disc is scatched to buggery. And it's the game disc itself not second one with all the extras on it. Just hope it plays ok so I can have ago before I send it back to MicroSoft.

So not only am I annoyed that SendIt didn't get my pre-order to me by the release date, I can now look forward to it not working when it does arrive.

With any luck I might get to play it by Christmas.

Except for the postage charges of course. If mine was working, last thing I'd want to do is post it off to be replaced.

I'd be marching to the desk at the retailer. Surely they have a responsibility as the retailer to replace defective goods?

I was pleasantly surprised to find my copy of Halo 3 on my doorstep when I got back home today, imagine my surprise to lift the box and hear stuff moving around inside, never a good thing. So I opened it and surprise surprise, the disc had fallen out of its holder and was well scratched up. Both of my 360-owning friends said their copies arrived scratched too. Yay.

So a call to Microsoft to complain and I was told to return it to the retailer which I did, although for a refund because I was cheesed off enough to not want to play the game now.

If you actually look at the disc holder, it has to be the most pathetically feeble disc retaining mechanism I have ever come across. Whoever designed it must not have done very well in their engineering degree. So Microsoft can stick their Halo 3, I've had enough already, and thats before i even played the sodding thing.

Let your heart go out to me, another game released today... on the same day, will not be stocked by any major stockists until friday...

I smell the ever so familiar scent of a microsoft back hander to retailers to ensure that the game of the year "ENEMY TERRITORY: Quake Wars" will not be out until friday, or otherwise mar their tumbleweed launch with hoards of people queuing for a different game.

"with the stupid software licencing now all game disks should be freely replaceable through the point of sale, not relying on posting it to the publisher and and paying a fee (i realise its free in this case, but only until december)"

They are, there's nothing to stop you getting it swapped in store, however Microsoft provide these services with the idea being that you don't have to go back to the store, or in the case that you bought it online it may be quicker and easier than dealing with the store. It's more of a courtesy thing however of course it's valid to accept that it's a courtesy thing that shouldn't even need to exist in an ideal world.

For what it's worth though, my Halo 3 arrived fine a day early yesterday from GAME for £29.99 after finally bothering to use up reward points I've built up over the past year so no complaints here ;)

Or shop or wherever you bought it won't really help if they're all scratched.

I agree that you should be able to replace faulty media at your POS, but the point here is that whoever Microsoft got to produce the disks has buggered up the whole production run.

Whether that was at the packaging stage with the flimsy disk holder or an actual fault in the disk manufacturing process, it shouts cheap bastards trying to squeeze every last penny of profit out of the thing.

Test runs in the manufacturing process are, after all, just money out the window - especially when all that's at risk is having to issue free replacements on a couple million DVDs.

The physical product is faulty. It's like buying a book that hasn't been bound properly and the pages fall out, or a cassette with a broken tape. The content doesn't matter and the licence is irrelevant. You're entitled to a full refund from the retailer under sale of goods legislation. If you bought online or by mail order, the retailer is also obliged to pay the cost of postage under distance selling regulations (page 27 of http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/general/oft698.pdf).

What they then do with the faulty games is their problem.

MS aren't really having much luck with the XBox 360, are they?

Overheating, scratching discs, updates that brick the device... And now they are shipping pre-scratched discs.

Note to MS... The bigger you hype it up, the harder you fall flat on your face when there are problems (or a general disinterest).

When Forza 2 came out it bricked my 360, great. Lets be realistic, MS build quality is (to politely put it) poor. I dont know anyone that hasn't owned at least 2 360's. The point is the software is good, Forza 2 was good, halo 3 is good, if you're put off by a few manufacturing issues..... I'm prepared to overlook the poor manufacturing to play good games!