Skyrim is an amazing game and so I played it often. By taking the disk in and out of the xbox case repeatedly the center ring, that contains the disk authorization information, broke. It cracked just enough that the xbox is unable to authenticate the validity of the disk. The game now fails to play at all or for longer than a minute or so. The disk is now useless. Bethesda was contacted to provide a replacement and they are able to do so but only after me paying a sizeable replacement fee (just under half the full price I paid). Naturally I won't do that, despite my love for the game and so my time with Skyrim has concluded (as is any potential purchase of add-on software).

Note: Installing the game does on to your xbox does not allow you to bypass the disk-only authentication...it only speeds up disk-load times. You still need a working disk in the xbox tray to play the game.

Beware - unless you want to pay more money to continue playing after breaking your disk by simplying storing it in the intended case...becareful with your disk handling.

If you registered the game with Bethesda, you may be able to get a replacement disk for a small fee. Contact customer support at Bethesda and ask them.