So, you pre-reserved and locked in your Collector’s Edition of Splinter Cell Conviction for the Xbox 360. One thing that you might not have bargained for is “Defection USB Drive Roulette,” which will be a value-added feature of the Conviction Collector’s Edition. According to sources (which has now been confirmed by Ubisoft), many of the USB flash drives that are included in the Collector’s Edition of Splinter Cell Conviction are defective and simply don’t work.

Those that have spent $80 for the Collector’s Edition of Splinter Cell Conviction are not going to be happy with this development, thus Ubisoft has opted (apparently because they know that many of the USB drives are defective) to simply knock $10 off the price of the Collector’s Edition of Splinter Cell Conviction when you pick it up, rather than recall and replace the USB flash drives. If you happen to get one that works, all the better for you; and you are apparently one of the lucky ones.

We have to question Ubisoft’s strategy with Collector’s Edition of Splinter Cell Conviction with the defective USB flash drives. Sure, they are knocking $10 off of the price, but is that really the best solution? It might be the most cost effective solution, but we have to think that those that have pre-ordered that Collector’s Edition are going to be unhappy if they end up with a defective USB flash drive. There is still no word whether the content that was included on the USB flash drive will be made available to those that buy the Collector’s Edition of Splinter Cell Conviction and end up with a defective USB flash drive, but we suspect that they will be able to download the files at some point.

We also suspect that much of the issue in choosing not to replace the USB flash drives might have to do with the limited numbers of the Collector’s Edition of Splinter Cell Conviction that have been pre-ordered and have been produced. It just might not be worth it to deal with. Still, if we spent even $70, the loss of use of the flash drive and its content is a bit of a let down. Prior to this, it did look like a very good Collector’s Edition for fans of the game.