DigitMemo.com

Shoddy Halo 3 packaging leads to scratched game discs.

A lot of people will be buying shiny, new copies of Halo 3 this week, but some of them will get home to find scratched discs straight out of the box.

Early reports from lucky early owners of the Halo 3 Limited Edition on gaming forum NeoGAF found that the game discs have broken free from the hubs that were supposed to secure the discs into place.

“A friend just opened 3 copies of Halo 3 Limited Edition and with all three copies both disc were loose inside of the package and scratched to death,” explained the original poster of the thread. “This Limited Edition has a piss poor plastic nub and foam pad disc holding design that is a major flaw and the discs pop off with ease.”

“I picked up 2 collectors tins today at work, and they both felt like the disc came loose in them. This is a horrible sign,” said one store employee.

The same conditions may also apply to the game in other territories. “I saw a few PAL copies yesterday … and they were all the same. Every LE had two loose discs in the box, both badly scratched. The one we tested seemed to play ok but they’re getting sent back as faulty anyway. It’s not like they could be sold in that condition,” reported another store worker from overseas.

So far, reports of scratched discs apply only to the $69.99 Limited Edition, but not to the $59.99 Standard Edition or the $129.99 Legendary Edition.