XBox Woes Roundup: Scratched Discs, EBay, Best Buy Bundling. It's A Console Rodeo!

Think back to the XBox 360 launch. The smell of hype was in the air. The world was changing. And Best Buy was advertising basic systems and many people found all they had for sale was expensive bundles. Well, a few weeks later, Best Buy says "Oops! Tee hee!" and now you can return everything. In other words, "Thanks for the interest-free loan of your money for several weeks, would you like an extended warranty?" Meanwhile, if you were silly enough to pay several hundred dollars for an untested console only to find it is eating and scratching your discs, you'll undoubtedly be delighted to know Microsoft says "No" to replacing them, though you can get Perfect Dark Zero. Though judging by the fanboy rush when we got PDZ in the office, I'm guessing everyone with a 360 already has it. And if you're wondering why you can't find the unit anywhere, it's because they're all on Ebay. Remember, if your kids are crying on Christmas morning, blame The Internet. It makes me cry daily.

You know, not only do I feel better about my decision to wait with every passing day, I also realized that this is what happens when you make a game console a glorified PC. All the problems of PC gaming AND all the problems of a launch console. Why, exactly, didn't these expert elite gamers who are supposedly so cynical figure out there were going to be problems like this? What is it about Microsoft that says "There will be a trouble-free launch from day one?" Cripes, this is why I cut back on the PC games. Console games are supposed to just work.