My RB3 Disc Is Broken!!! X360 Game Cases Are A Piece Of S***...

Yes, I may chastise today's gaming industry to the brink of hysteria, but chalk up another complaint for the laundry list--Xbox 360 game boxes.  EDIT: Ok, so this article may be a bit extreme, but it was annoying enough to warrant an entry.

I've owned a hard copy of Rock Band 3 for the Xbox 360 for seven months.  I purchases it back in October '10.  Now I like to take good care of my CD's; I store them in boxes when not in use and not let them get scratched up.  Not bad, you think I'd have no complaints there.

But here's what happened to my RB3 disc today.  The inside part of the CD cracked.  The part that comes in contact with that little push-down holder in the game box.  See here:

 This is the RB3 CD in question.

The red "circle" detonates where the crack is.  The Xbox 360 won't even detect it anymore.

Take a look at the inner-most clear piece surrounded by the shiny Xbox 360 ribbon--it's all chipped to pieces from putting the CD in and out of the damn game box.

That's how my RB3 CD broke.  Because the push-down button in the game box is so damn terrible that wear and tear starts to chip away at the CD.  Eventually the RB3 CD gave way and broke.  The same thing also happened to my RB2 CD but I was fortunate enough to own more than one copy at the time.

And to make things worse, I have RB3 installed to my 360's hard drive.  Yet because the 360 can't detect that I have the RB3 CD in there, I can't play it.  What the f'n hell man; son of a b**** man.  I HAVE THE FULL GAME ON THE HARD DRIVE AND I CAN'T PLAY IT, WHAT HAS THE WORLD COME TO THESE DAYS???

Here, to illustrate how poor these Xbox 360 game boxes are, I'm gonna pull a random game off my shelf.  This is Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing:

Take a look at the plus-shaped centerpiece.  The one with eight hatches touching the CD.  The one that makes putting the game in and out a pain in the ass.  Every time I push down on that button (and I have to push down HARD on it), I'm afraid I'm going to crack the CD.  It's terrible and I hate it so much.  EDIT: Ok, if you push down the button as far as it'll go and hold it, moving the CD is much easier but still, some game cases are more stubborn than others (so I think my RB3 case was).

Now let's go take a look at a PS3 game container; Lego Indiana Jones 2.

THE TRIANGLE CENTERPIECE--MY GOD THE TRIANGLE CENTERPIECE!!  IT IS SO EASY TO TAKE OUT AND PUT IN THE CD.  I HAVE NO PROBLEMS WITH IT.  GOD BLESS YOU, SONY!!!  SHAME ON YOU, MICROSOFT!!!

Also, let's go back one gen to the PS2.  Grabbing another random game off my shelf, this is Tony Hawk's Underground...

See, the same-old triangle centerpiece.  NO PROBLEMS HERE.  Pulling and putting the CD in is EASY.  I've never had to worried about damaged CD's ever back in the PS2 era.

I can understand what these Xbox 360 devs were thinking--games were coming loose inside the boxes so they decided to tighten the grip of the centerpieces so that they stayed in place...but what they've done is help to increase the amount of wear-and-tear on the games as well as my extreme frustration.  And I've only had ONE PS2 CD become loose inside the box and that was on a damaged box that had a piece of the exterior chipped off...  Basically, the only PS2 box that "lost" the CD was one that was already damaged.  Makes sense, right.

Thankfully, when I bought the game from GameStop, I got the $3 one-year warranty so HOPEFULLY I will bring home a new game today.  EDIT: Got the new RB3 disc, everything's fine.  Funny thing is that the GameStop I originally bought RB3 from was closed up but I was able to trade it in at another GameStop just fine :)

Screw game designers, screw Microsoft, screw Xbox 360, screw you pieces of plastic.  Oh, and my 360 wired controller stops working now...great, another faulty Microsoft product!!  Eh, no more questions...