Chicago (IL) – Microsoft and Bungie pulled of what appears to be a successful launch of the third installment of Halo. However, by noon today, reports about scratched game discs were surfacing. Retailers confirmed the damaged DVDs to be a "known problem."

One of our readers pointed us to what appears to a slowly but surely developing issue for the first batch of Halo 3 copies: Some buyers of the Limited Edition silver tin box of Halo 3 are complaining about game disks that were scratched enough to prevent the game from loading. Pictures of the damaged disc have been posted on NeoGAF.

Three stores of three major retail chains confirmed to TG Daily that there in fact is a "known problem" with "damaged discs." As we were told, the DVDs are not mounted correctly inside the box, which causes the disc to "slide around" and scratch. The store managers declined to comment how widespread the problem is, but one employee told us that there in fact a "good portion" of all Limited Edition Halo 3 disks "is not functional".

All three stores said they are allowing buyers to open the tin box before a purchase to make sure the game disk is not damaged.

Microsoft confirmed the problems with the Limited Edition box and posted information about a replacement program on its Xbox website. The program covers the the Halo 3 Limited Edition disc and Essentials Disc until December 31 of this year.

In a statement sent to TG Daily, the company said that only "a small fraction of the total number of Halo 3 games shipped and sold" is affected by the problem. A spokesperson wrote: "We are currently investigating the scope of this situation and notwithstanding the outcome of the investigation,  we have implemented a plan to address it. We encourage anyone experiencing these issues to go to xbox.com/support and click on the Halo 3 Limited Edition disc replacement link. We will be replacing these discs and apologize for the inconvenience."
 

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