In what seems to be a case of inadequate testing, Telltale Games has announced that it has discovered a problem with the retail version of The Walking Dead for Xbox 360 that affects only 4GB consoles not fitted with an internal hard disk drive. Apparently, the game has problems with severe “hitching” on these consoles, i.e. the game will be “interrupted by unacceptable freezing or stuttering”.
Of course, the first suggestion from the team is to upgrade your console by buying and installing a compatible internal hard disk drive. But the Telltale rep writing the forum post admits that not everyone will be able to get hold of a new hard disk drive – not everyone can afford one, for one thing – and offers a more agreeable solution:
“If you are unable to acquire and install an internal hard disk drive for your Xbox 360 4GB, we will supply you with codes to download season one (5 episodes) of The Walking Dead from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace at no charge as outlined in the associated Claim Redemption Form”
That Claim Redemption Form gives a lot of capitalised instructions about how to prove your claim for a free digital copy of the game is valid, but it's actually not a difficult process: find the screen on your 360 that shows its serial number, take a picture of your boxed game in front of that screen, and send that off along with a copy of the receipt and the filled-in form. Naturally, the form has no way of asking you to prove that you don't have the means to buy an internal hard disk drive, so I guess even those who do have one could just remove it and claim a free game too, if that's your kind of thing.
Have you experienced this issue? And if so, are you happy with Telltale's response?
