AFTER FANS queued for hours in the rain, snow, and occasional lightning strike to buy Halo 3, some of them are back in the shop complaining of scratched disks.
Apparently special limited-edition packaging is scratching the video game disks, making Halo 3 fanboys incandescent with rage.
Microsoft, which owns the studio that makes "Halo 3" has set up a replacement program on its Xbox Web site.
Luckless punters fill out a form and send in their scratched limited-edition disks for a free exchange. Of course it will mean that they will be without the game for a while.
Richard Mitchell, the lead writer of the Xbox 360 Fanboy blog, said one of the disks was scratched but didn't stop game play.
More here. µ
How stupid must you be to complain about a scratched but still playable disk. 1000000 scratches that do not inhibit play, do not matter. If you can't play, then it's okay to complain. But from what i've read, everyone is freaking out about nothing.
Why is everone sooooooo worked up about a problem that doesn't even effect them directly. Yea Microsoft made a mistake that should have been thought about while designing the cases, but why are people acting like it's the end of the world? Give Microsoft a break because they are still trying to work the demand for Halo 3 and they are doing the best they can. If you really feel like you need the fixed copy of the game, then go to the Xbox 360 website, fill out the form, and send in your game but expect atleast a weeks wait due to the large number of games being replaced already by Microsoft.
How can you say that. If you bought a new car with a massive scratch down the driver door, you saying you wouldnt complain? Or how about the back of a brand new iphone? if it was destroyed in scratches you'd just accept it? The scratches wouldnt affect your ability to drive the car/use the iphone, so by your logic, there would be no problem with this. Shop owners must love to see you walking in the door!
Yes, I bought a limited edition disk. After opening it at around 1 in the morning after waiting I found it was scratched. Needless to say I was very mad. It doesn't matter if it still works! The point of the matter is I paid for something and it came in a non new condition. When you buy a car if it has a few scrathes on it do you still buy it? Heck no!! Well why not, it still runs? That theory is just wrong!! If you buy it new it should come new!!! 

Dang, waiting several weeks for MS to get me a new disk is a bunch of crap!!!
"It still runs" isn't the only significant fact for a car. As most people admit--either by their spoken admiration for a good-looking car or their paying tons for a good-looking car--a car's appearance is probably even more important than how it runs. 

A game disc isn't meant to be seen. Even if you were a huge nerd and wanted to frame it or something, you wouldn't do so data-side-out.

But terrible analogies aside, yeah, it would annoy me too. For a little while.
In my situation, I was lucky, disks are perfect. Had they been scratched, I would have been pretty mad. Would I exchange them? Not really, as long as it booted...

But then, how will you know if your 1000000 scratch disk won't quit playing at the last level? You know, I don't think the disk actually checks its condition, top to bottom, each time it boots.

What if the really bad scratch affects a file read only near the end of the disk?

When you pay with your hard earned currency for something that is supposed to be brand spanking new, then its condition should reflect it so, should it not?