MS offers free replacements for scratched Halo 3 discs

by Kyle Orland { Sep 25th 2007 at 11:30PM }

Well that was fast. Microsoft is already offering free replacement for Halo 3 discs scratched by shoddy limited edition packaging. Consumers who send in their damaged discs along with a disc replacement form by Dec. 31 will receive pristine new discs within two weeks, according to Xbox.com. The Halo 3 limited edition replacement waives the usual $20 fee charged to replace other scratched, Microsoft-published discs under a program started back in April.

"We have identified that there are some instances of blemishes on discs as a result of the packaging," Microsoft spokesman David Dennis told an AP reporter. "This is a small fraction of the total number of Halo 3 games shipped and sold, and is a limited production version of the game."

In most cases reported so far the scratches appear to be cosmetic and don't impact regular functioning of the game. Still, premium edition purchasers can rightly expect an unblemished disc for their extra money and it's nice of Microsoft to recognize this. Then again, that two week wait could be a killer for gamers who have already waited so long for some Halo 3 action. Reminds us a bit of another time-consuming Microsoft problem.

Read - Xbox disc replacement program
Read - AP story on the problem

Tags: breakingnews, halo3, microsoft, replacement, scratch

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

flameofdoom666 @ Sep 25th 2007 11:34PM

2 weeks isn't bad. They could have done nothing about it. Props to Microsoft!

Bootes @ Sep 26th 2007 12:56AM

They could have done nothing, but that would have been very bad customer service.

They should be replacing these discs for free, I don't see this as a reason to compliment MS. There shouldn't have been problems to begin with, and now that there are they didn't really have any choice.

I don't like how this article makes it seem as if MS is doing users a favor. They released a badly designed package and should be fixing their mistake, they aren't offering people anything other than what they should have been recieving from the beginning.

Jon @ Sep 26th 2007 8:13AM

No, they are legally obligated to replace a defective product. Its a manufacturer error not some kid who fed the disc to their dog.

Cash @ Sep 26th 2007 7:05PM

There is no way in H E L L they could have not done something about it. This is obviously a design flaw in the packaging, and everyone I have spoken to that purchased the collectors edition like me has had the same scratches. When it is this widespread on such a visible title, not doing this would have been a headshot to the positive hype they've spent millions on by this point. Besides, why waste money on lawyers and upset more loyal fans when they already know this is exactly what they will wind up doing after the resulting class action lawsuit is settled? It took them long enough, but I think they finally learned their lesson after the whole RRoD issue.

As has been already pointed out though, while everyone I know with this version has reported scratches, those scratches vary between cosmetic and game crashing. For my copy, I was awesome right up until the the end of the level third to last level. The game crashed to the 'disc is dirty' error message in the middle of the end of level cutscene. After reloading, I was able to continue on to the next level but I didn't get the achievement points for completely the level. This happened again during the final cutscene, and I had to replay the entire last section of that level all over again. On the Halo 3 launch FAQ over on Bungie.net, the answer to the "why didn't I get the achievement after beating such and such level?" was "Make sure you see the Achievement notice pop up on the screen before switching off your console." Uh... yeah I didn't exactly have a choice boys, thanks for rubbing salt in the wound.

Fox318 @ Sep 25th 2007 11:35PM

I think this is why my limited edition from amazon was delayed from coming in or something. Anyway I have to wait 5-8 days to play me some Halo 3 :[

LiasonAngel08 @ Sep 25th 2007 11:35PM

Thats good on MS part.

Matt B (SDF ) @ Sep 26th 2007 11:07AM

What I think is hilarious is that a bungie forum poster claimed the scratched disks were a rumor started by the SDF to bring halo down.http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=13117795

Of course the post has been deleted and the topic is locked. But if drill through the comments, beyond the waves of hatred toward Sony, you can tell people were deliberately misled until it was finally debunked, deleted, and locked.

Truly PATHETIC!!!

Crono (NDF - French Taunting from Holy Grail Ring) @ Sep 26th 2007 11:21AM

Wait. Matt, you're suprised that a forum poster, probably a total fanboy in the age bracked of 12-16, made a stupid claim on the internet?

Matt B (SDF ) @ Sep 26th 2007 11:40AM

I'm thinking it was a mod or someone on the staff. Looking through his comments, there are multiple occasions where he says "our forums".

andrej @ Sep 26th 2007 8:32PM

i went through 16 copies of the limited edition before i even got to an unscratched disk. luckily the people at futureshop were nice enough to let me open them there on the spot to check if it was unscratched or not. heres a pic of the first 7 that were opened...

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/1285/image014editedur6.jpg

blooh (CDF - Ass Ring) @ Sep 25th 2007 11:47PM

sucks you still have to pay to ship it there

but if your game works, DONT SEND IT IN YET

MS will do this until the year's end, send it in in another month or 2 if it's still working

blooh (CDF - Ass Ring) @ Sep 25th 2007 11:49PM

oh yeah, in before ps3 defense force

Alex @ Sep 25th 2007 11:57PM

ur an idiot

the scratch disc shouldnt have happened in the first place, but its good to know that MS notice the problem and is willing to fix it in time

blooh (CDF - Ass Ring) @ Sep 26th 2007 12:03AM

yeah i know it shouldn't've happened. sucky QC. just thought i'd throw that out, since they were in force wailing about rrod in yesterday's thread about these scratches

anybody else watching The War? this is a good documentary. it's on pbs

RedJoggingSuit(MSDF-Battle Angel) @ Sep 25th 2007 11:51PM

It happened to me, but idc for now. I'll probably mail it in on Dec. 30th when I think I'd have soaked everything in.

Badboy1979 @ Sep 26th 2007 8:22AM

Yeah i got a limited edition and a regular edition and the limited was a little scuffed... but I have yet to run into anybody (including myself) that couldn't still play the disc. I just finished the campaign (fantastic) yesterday so the disc looks to still be all good.

Still would have been nice to not be worried when i firsted opened the LE case that it wouldn't play. I don't think I'll be sending mine in unless it stops working by the deadline.

BTW, I love the homeage they payed to Halo 1 in the final mission. That's all I'm going to say.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Sep 25th 2007 11:53PM

A notice of what to do appeared on MS' repair line (1-800-4MY-XBOX) at about 5:18PM (PDT) today. I know this because I called in at 5:15PM to check on my broken Xbox and it was there, then when MS accidentally (I guess) somehow transferred me to Sprint's (the phone people) billing department, I called back and there was a new announcement on there about it right up front.

It's sad that I'm on a first-name basis with Max (the automated, !!EXTREME!! phone call system at 1-800-4MY-XBOX), enough so that I noticed that this new announcement isn't really in Max's voice, but someone trying to sound like him.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Sep 26th 2007 12:02AM

Oh crap, it WASN'T there the first time I called in, was the 2nd.

colin @ Sep 25th 2007 11:55PM

if you have any discs that are scratched (other than ones that are replaced for free), take them to your locally owned music/video shop. they will usually resurface them for a nominal fee. i had a copy of ddr that got the textbook scratch ring from my 360 ... $1.78 later i had a flawless disc. it's so easy a caveman could do it.

blooh (CDF - Ass Ring) @ Sep 25th 2007 11:58PM

i had a scratched gears of war, tried that, and it still kept freezing at one part

so no, that doesn't always work

Ska Oreo @ Sep 25th 2007 11:58PM

Caveman: Excuse me?

colin @ Sep 26th 2007 12:02AM

i didn't say it always works, the scratch can't encroach the actual information layer on the disc.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Sep 26th 2007 12:03AM

I have the same setup that record stores use to resurface CDs/DVDs, and it did nothing to my GRAW disc that a 360 gouged. The scratch was very deep, probably too deep to buff out without making the disc unreadable anyway due to loss of material.

colin @ Sep 26th 2007 4:27AM

i'm not talking about a little cd spinner with some spray and a cloth, this thing was big ... like a 50 disc cd changer and it sounded like a dishwasher when he turned it on.

BPM (FDF - Hypno-Toad) @ Sep 28th 2007 4:50PM

As an official member of the FDF, here's your official FDF avatar. Wear it with pride!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v348/BPMdotEXE/Avatars/PaperThatGuy.png

(This message was sent as a reply to this so that you'll hopefully receive an email about it)

Nincodedo @ Sep 26th 2007 12:01AM

What, you can't just download a patch for it? :P

Rubang B (NDF - Heart) @ Sep 26th 2007 12:10AM

RRoD joke, wrist strap joke, duct tape joke, scratched Halo disc joke, massive damage massive damage real-time enemy crab change, uh.. where was I?

Oh... Kudos to Microsoft. They must've had the replacements ready in ADVANCE so they could make a tiny mistake on purpose and handle it quickly and beautifully for good PR! Aha!

colin @ Sep 26th 2007 4:29AM

tis not that hard to press dvd's. if it was a flaw with the helmet tho, they would take a big loss.

Vainglory @ Sep 26th 2007 12:17AM

Meh. I feel it's the same situation as the RRoD. It shouldn't have happened. But now that it *has* happened, at least they're acknowledging it and doing something about it.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Sep 26th 2007 4:14AM

Not sure why people give MS credit for the RRoD issue.

The first time they said they "had this fixed" was in mid-2006 when 2005-era 360s were dying rapidly. MS said they'd extend the warranty on 2005 units, but there was no problem otherwise. That didn't fix anything, so then MS extended the warranty to 1 year for all consoles, saying that "repairs were well within the expected ranges for the industry" but they were extending the warranty as a courtesy. I got the email about the extended warranty while my 360 was in the shop, and it was useless to me because the 1 year warranty was actually already expired (since I got mine the first day and the email went out about 53 weeks after launch).

Six months later, the sh*t REALLY hit the fan and MS again said "we'll extend the warranty to three years, but really, we've got it fixed now."

So my 360 is in the shop again, after it broke the first time and MS assured us they had it nailed. If they had it nailed then, why did they send out more bad units? Oh sure, they say they have it nailed now, so the newly fixed and made units should be fine, right?

If so, why does Crecente receive a "repaired" 360 from MS that is RRoD right out of the box? That indicates the GPU broke lose during shipping, which indicates MS still doesn't know how to attach it properly.

Why do we see Elites RRoDing, when they are all made in the "we got this under control now really" period?

There's one answer, and it's pretty simple. MS will say anything (like "we've got it fixed now") to keep people buying 360s, whether they actually have a fix or not. They want to ensure they build a customer base, at any cost.

Surely, MS must at LEAST have the repair process down pat, right? They've processed so many units! Nope. I've tried to monitor the progress of my 360 being fixed every day since I sent it off. The problem is that MS has broken their repair site 4 times in this 16 day period. I've had to reattach my repair order to my account (Live ID, essentially) 3 times (plus the original) in the last 16 days. And as of late this afternoon, even that doesn't work. If you log into the repair.xbox.com site, it just kicks you to the front page of xbox.com (showing a Halo 3 ad) and doesn't log you in. Their repair site is COMPLETELY broken right now, and has been for 12 hours.

The status of my repair hasn't updated since MS received my 360 6 days ago. It just says "no repair scheduled". I called MS today about it, to try to get some real info. After they disconnected me trying to transfer me, I got to a person and he had no real info. He just gave me the same tracking number I got days ago when I sent my console in. He couldn't say if or when they will fix my 360, just that they got it 6 days ago.

So now my 360 has been sitting at MS (in Mc Allen, TX), for 6 days of the 16 my since I called them. 6 days, BTW, is more time than total time my PS3 was gone (including shipping) when I sent it in to be fixed.

Nope. MS hasn't done anything to deserve kudos here from what I can tell. Their stuff is still breaking down (even "repaired" units), they're still giving dubious info and they're taking a long time to do repairs.

I've learned a lot about the console market from this generation. For one thing, quality isn't what it used to be. Even my PS3, which is mostly a tank, came from the factory with a video-playing flaw in it. 360 is by any measure far worse in terms of reliability, and yet 360 is kicking PS3's ass in the market. Clearly, selection of games (which 360 has) resounds a lot more with the customer than build quality (which PS3 has more of). I've also learned I guess that modern consoles are so complex (I don't include Wii in any of this here, it's last gen hardware) that the level of initial quality may never be what it was with the simpler consoles of yesteryear.

Cal @ Sep 26th 2007 4:44AM

I think this warrants a tl;dr.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Sep 26th 2007 11:34AM

Pardon me, I meant Ashcraft above where I said Crecente.

Vainglory @ Sep 26th 2007 1:40PM

What... the *hell*?

It was an offhand comment, certainly not justifying that freakin' *novella*.

Why do people give credit for Microsoft over RRoD? Because they admitted there was a problem and are trying to fix it. I'm not so naive to think they would have done it out of the kindness of their hearts if there hadn't been a massive consumer outcry, but it's still more than Sony did for my Disc Read Error.

Pikachief @ Sep 26th 2007 12:20AM

jeeze! Mine is so scratched that I can only play 2 Multi player maps! i cant even play single player! Luckily I have a nice gamestopa nd I called them and told them that my disc is unplayable and they said that even though i ordered it online I can still get a free replacement if i bring in the reciept!

FREE replacement in 1 day sounds better to me microsoft ;) but thanks for noticing for those who dont get deals like this :)

SoulBlade @ Sep 26th 2007 12:26AM

at least its not another billion dollars.

phattie @ Sep 26th 2007 12:32AM

f*ck yea

CH1LLR34P3R @ Sep 26th 2007 3:39AM

That's good to hear, man it would just suck if you got a scratched disc damn..

russtophiles @ Sep 26th 2007 8:27AM

Yeah I see no reason to compliment Microsoft on trying to cover their asses for their own incompetance. I actually opened my LE game at the counter when I bought it at EB and pointed out the disc (thankfully just the extras disc although both were loose) and they refused to exchange it. While on one hand I understand that with a game with so many preorders and so much demand they can't just swap me copies until I find one that's not a dud, this is a really sick joke. Replacing the discs is the absolute bare minimum they could do. If they had any class like 2K they'd offer to send you a free mailer so you don't have to pay shipping.

Microsoft is in a unique position right now as they have what is currently the most robust and most worth owning next gen console yet their continual utter incompentance and general apathy towards their customers is the embarrassment of the industry. Can you imagine this shit happening when a DVD movie is released? Or music? Or anything? I'm not saying it's the only case in history but this is a prime example of the garbage standards for customer service in this industry.

Kyle Miller @ Sep 26th 2007 8:29AM

Still can't make anything other than a decent Office app huh M$?

SoulBlade @ Sep 26th 2007 10:03AM

Not sure about even that. Excel 2007 has issues w/ the number 65535 and writes it out as 100000 or something.

http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/archive/2007/09/25/calculation-issue-update.aspx

La li lu le lo @ Sep 26th 2007 10:04AM

"This is a small fraction of the total number of Halo 3 games shipped and sold, and is a limited production version of the game."

Last night I seen in person that this is actually a widespread problem that might effect all of the Halo3 LE as the customer service cashier told me that all of the LE versions people bought there were getting returned right back to them. I found some 10% off coupons and went to purchase two Halo3 LE but after opening up 4 Limited Edition cases and confirming all the CD's were scratched, I settled for the regular version. I noticed a row of about 20 Halo 3 LE on the side wall of the customer service area so I asked if those were the LE's that people had returned. She said yes. While I was at the register, some dude rolled up with his LE version with scratched disks. I brought him up to speed with the problem after he seen the 4 LE's that I opened up laying on the counter and asked me if they were scratched. The reasoning I can come up with for this catastrophic blunder to happen to MS is gotta be that God has to be punishing them. I mean, how does a multi-billion dollar company find a way to eff up the Limited Edition version of their flagship title, their system seller, their XBL backbone, when they have buildings full of people with Bachelors and Masters Degrees working for them. Truly amazing.

vinny @ Sep 26th 2007 10:08AM

i picked up my limited edition last night, i shook the case and of course i heard a loose disc, went to my car, opened up the case. it looked like a DEEP scratch was on the disc and i almost flipped out, but then i blew on it and it was a piece of fuzz or something, so my disc was perfect. yay

on a side note, the nub that holds the dvd in the case feels pretty sturdy enough, people must have been playing basketball with the boxes

Pikachief @ Sep 26th 2007 10:26AM

they must've because my box cracked when i opened it O.o

Kunal Verma @ Sep 26th 2007 10:51AM

Yeah, I got a scratched disc with my Limited Edition. Lucky for me I had an extra Legendary Edition sitting around. Go figure!

meledeo @ Sep 26th 2007 11:11AM

I see why this is necessary, but no one who is posting here today has any right to complain. Joystiq posted an article regarding this issue PRIOR to release (http://www.joystiq.com/2007/09/24/consumer-check-halo-3-limited-edition-may-have-scratched-discs/). When I went to buy my copy, I shook it and it sounded loose. The lady behind the counter said they all sounded kind of loose and it was probably just the additional materials. I took it to my car, opened it up, found both discs loose and scratched to hell, and promptly took it right back in for an exchange. The new one had both discs still attached and held firm.

What's the problem? Deal with it up front.