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360 Disc Scratching Serious Problem
Though Microsoft has previously stated that a reported problem where Xbox 360s may be scratching game discs was relatively rare, it's apparently common enough that rental agency GameFly has an official policy on the problem. From Gamasutra: "We have received reports that certain XBOX 360 consoles have caused damage to GameFly videogames. Unfortunately, we have been notified that you recently returned a damaged XBOX 360 game. As a precaution, we have removed all XBOX 360 games from your GameQ. Please contact Microsoft at 1-800-4MY-XBOX. Please do not rent XBOX 360 games until you have resolved this issue. In the future, should GameFly receive XBOX 360 games from you that have been damaged, you will be charged a replacement fee."
Charge replacement fees for scratched disks, then rebuff/polish the scratched disks instead of replacing them.
"This kind of blows a big hole in the *AA's argument that all this copy protection BS is really about preventing piracy. It seems to me that more and more, it's about getting the customer to buy multiple copies of the same content. "
No it's not, but keep repeating that and *boom* like magic it will become true.
"This point is even more obvious when you look at the way the Blue-ray copy protection works. If you get even the tiniest scratch on the ROM MARK on the disc, the disc is UNUSABLE. Doesn't matter if the rest of the surface of the disc is pristine, your $30 movie is now worthless. (yes, $30, you know they're going to charge 2x or 3x what a normal DVD costs). "
And that's different from these new high-density Hard Drives how?
"That spells it out pretty clearly. The future is downloaded movies. And music. and games. And no, I'm not talking about DRM'ed ones that you pay for."
Well seeing as how we don't have Blue-Ray or HD-DVD (yet) this whole discussion is rather moot.
This kind of blows a big hole in the *AA's argument that all this copy protection BS is really about preventing piracy. It seems to me that more and more, it's about getting the customer to buy multiple copies of the same content.
Most software makers, and movie makers for that matter, will replace your media if you damage it. Sometimes a small fee applies, but it's generally a token amount. None of them rely or hope for customers to get pissed off because of damaged media.
And there's the interesting thing - Most of us never, ever damage our media. I can count on one hand the number of movies, software, or music discs that has gotten scratched, largely because I'm not a dumbass about them. Hell, even Blockbuster discs - rentals that people treat terribly - have been remarkably free of user-caused defects.
Of course, I don't manufacture fear mongering stories about self-scratching discs to justify my piracy. Blu-ray, with the super scratchable section (which virtually any media has), is going to have an ultra-hard coating that is largely impervious to scratching, and if you are sloppy with it they'll happily replace the media.
Whether or not the Xbox360 damages discs is an interesting question. Rental places inevitably are going to get discs back from inconsiderate douche-bags, and invariably those people are going to blame some external actor for their own carelessness. Maybe the 360 does scratch discs, but it could just as easily be a coded statement "SURE your xbox360 scratched it...anyways we're not going to rent games to you anymore..."
BTW: Most DVD movies are currently less expensive than VHS movies ever were.