That's not the point. It's like buying a new car only to have the windows fail to roll down, the windshield wipers stop working, the trunk stopping staying latched, and the starter not working half the time. Sure, it's still technically drivable, but it's still a broken mess despite paying for a new car that initially seemed like everything would be in good working order. Or imagine buying a refrigerator with a malfunctioning water and ice dispenser. Sure, you can still refrigerate your food, but you paid extra for that ice maker and water dispenser. Or imagine buying a stove where only half the burners worked, or a 5.1 stereo system that only outputs in stereo and can't pick up radio stations. When you pay good money for something, then the whole fucking thing needs to work. No ifs, ands, or buts. For major appliances and other electronics, those things typically have warranties to have them repaired or replaced. For entertainment products like discs, refunds can be offered or products replaced, or in the case of the MCC we're given an entire campaign, a new map, and one month free XBL Gold as compensation. When the original model of the 360 turned out to have a failure rate well in excess of the norm for consoles and other consumer electronics, MS extended the 360's warranty and offered free repairs, costing themselves hundreds of millions of dollars. But amends of some form are always in order if the consumer buys a product that is malfunctioning, broken, or otherwise not working as advertised.

: Campaign, customs, and forge have worked without issue for me since day
: one. Matchmaking is largely fixed, with the exception of an occasional,
: non end-of-the-world hiccup.

That's besides the point. The fact that it's working better doesn't mean it's actually fixed (not by a long shot), and the fact that it released in the condition it did was entirely inexcusable. Games should never ever ever release in such a condition as to where a substantial portion of the game content is almost entirely unplayable.

: (Incidentally, it sounds like you waited a
: similar amount of time for the replacement Ghost in a Shell DVD as we've
: waited for matchmaking to be fixed...so how is that so different?)

Because it was replaced with something that actually worked properly, in a timely manner. There's no telling how long it'll be until the MCC is actually fixed, meaning MM and parties work just as they do in other Halo titles. Another month or two at least. In fact, there's no guarantee that every issue will be fixed, and the game still has a lot of issues and things that need fixing.

: I agree that wasting time is no picnic. But if the game is frustrating as-is,
: is it really so hard to take a deep breath and put the controller down for
: a couple weeks?

Yes, because I didn't pay $410 just to watch a box collect dust. Fuck that shit. Consumers deserve products that work properly out of the box. The MCC, as well as several other major titles released in the past year, were released in various states of noticeable and unacceptable disrepair. Letting things like this slide only encourages developers and publishers to normalize this bullshit, and it should not be normalized. Publishers need to be put in their place and understand who pays their salaries. Whether it's recalls, refunds, free games, or substantial pieces of free content, publishers need to take a hit by offering compensation to the consumer. It is the only right thing to do.

: You're planning on using that system for other games at some point, I'd
: imagine?

Nope. I already had a Wii U and PS4, which covered everything else I cared out. The XBO was to serve as my "Halo Box." If the MCC's MP component isn't working — note that I can play the campaigns on my 360 anytime I want; the main attraction of the MCC was classic multiplayer, something HCEA lacked — then the box might as well be a brick. I didn't pay $410 for a brick. For the past month, I've been seriously contemplating selling my XBO. As we're being compensated, MS may possibly retain a customer. Had the MCC not been fixed, the Halo 5 beta not impressed me, and no compensation been offered, I would have washed my hands of Xbox and not given another single solitary red cent to MS. No more games, no renewing my XBL sub when that comes up in February, no nothing. My XBO would be listed on Amazon, and I would have recouped as much of my costs as possible and bought something else. I did give up several other games for other systems that I would have liked just to buy an XBO, games that I won't be able to get for months.

Halo is the only reason I ever invested in Xbox to begin with. I'm not even a fan of Xbox. The hardware never really impressed me a great deal, and the Xbox One in particular hasn't impressed me thanks to its dreadful UI, the loss of some features present on the 360, and a controller that isn't quite as good at the 360's (it's those bumpers, mainly). Had I never discovered Halo, I probably would have gotten a PS3 and never even paid the 360 any mind. But Halo ended up becoming one of my favorite game series ever (HCE is my third favorite game ever, behind only SMB3 and SM64), and the fact that it's Xbox-exclusive is the only reason I even bothered considering getting an XBO. In fact, I'd love it if MS Studios went third-party so I could play Halo on Nintendo or PlayStation, which would save me several hundred dollars each generation if the series really does end up lasting as long as Mario has. It's not like Xbox is really profitable for MS, anyway, and unlike Sony and especially Nintendo, it's not like they rely on their game hardware as a significant source of income.

But I'm going off on a tangent here. In any case, I still like Halo, I want it to continue being something I enjoy, but 343i, and by extension MS Studios, has to earn my trust as a consumer, and if they can't do that, then they don't deserve my patronage. I can always take my money elsewhere to other companies I like and have a solid track record of releasing quality products. There's a reason I'm still doing business with Nintendo after all these years. They actually deserve it.