So, I have a 4gb 360 slim, and I started to notice some cracks forming from the inner circle, and it's starting to expand. I guess I'll have to hold Skyrim off until I buy a bigger hard drive to install it. Pretty lame though, that I can't play it without my 360 cracking it.

It's probably the case, not the xbox. The new cases are notorious for doing that.

The case? How would the case break it? I mean, I do get the feeling like Im gonna shatter the disc every time I pop it out of its case, but I didn't think it would actually damage it.

Yes my CD has also started to crack, seems to be the case's fault, not the 360's.

I wonder how much they saved with these chinese CDs & cases. Not only the software but the hardware is rather low on quality if you ask me lol.

Could be a manufacturing defect. See if the store will exchange it. Also, if you registered the game with Bethesda, they may replace it for a small fee. Contact them at customer support. I don't know if these avenues are possible to you, but you can try.

Trust me I've been there. You should try switching cases with an older game's case, and swap the game's cover. I've lost many games that way, and there's no refund for cracks, only scratches.

Not saying this is your issue but some cases are a pain in the [censored] in terms of getting the disk out. Some of the cases I have to literally bend it to force the disk out which is why I use aftermarket sleeves.

Disc has worked fine for me. I have the same, but I'll probably install it to a separate HD soon.

I don't know. Me and my brother both own our own Skyrim game, and before I got my own, I used his, and I also noticed cracks from the inner circle. I couldn't tell if I had caused it or if he had.

bump, wanna see if more people are having the same problem, so I can know if it's safe to continue playing it on my slim, lol.

How about instead of changing the case push down the button type thing the disc is pushed into rather than pulling it out...

The disc drive can cause cracks too, remember the disc in the CD/DVD spins several THOUSAND times a minute. Ive acually seen a disc literally disintegrate in a disc drove before. When you stress an item like that micro cracks can for and eventually full cracks can happen, usually you can install to the HD to save on wear and tear on the drive and the disc itself

Most of my game cases have the 'push button' to get them out but i have a copy of ACR which literally needs to be bent to take it out, going to swap cases with an old game now! My Skrim case already has a push button.

First: Try keeping the disc out of the cover and see if it still happens
Second: Check your temperature sources - do you put the disc from a warm source (the Xbox) to a much colder atmosphere? temperature weakens the top layer of discs.
Third: Never put the disc in its cover with a turning motion.
Fourth: Clean the DVD tray of your Xbox with some pressured air.. there might be cooked-on dust particles that are harming your disc while rotating (especially if this also happens to other game discs..)

Good luck mate

Trust him and me on this. I had a gears of war 2 disk once that I played it so much that the case an disk drive took out the middle plastic ring in the middle of the disk an my data was spreading really bad.

Skyrim isn't even that hard on discs. It reads a bunch of data when you first start up the game and stores in the hard drive cache and barely uses the disc at all once the cache is full.

it loads textures and what not to the cache but not everything

Just to tell you guys, I do press the button in the middle of the case to pop Skyrim out. I don't just violently pull it out of its case without pressing it, lol.

Go buy a cheep $4 box of 100 CD, DVD sleeves and put the disk in the sleeve and tuck it in under the clamps holding the game manual and you'll find you wont have no more problem once you stop using the case push button hub.

I think people are referring to the collectors edition case, least im guessing that. The normal Skyrim comes out just as easy as any other game from those green cases, but the collectors edition, even with pressing down on that center part you still feel like you have to pry the disc free, its a really snug fit. I have both, but giving the normal one (in the green case) to my eldest sis. I honestly don't like the collector edition case hold but it goes with the rest of the collector edition pieces. I'm thinking about taking a piece of fine sand paper and sanding down the center part a little to give it a looser fit. But I do agree that that case plastic is pretty stiff and doesn't like to let go of the disc, the cracks are most likely from the case on those ones then the xbox itself.