UPDATE: Redbox has issued a statement to Consumerist explaining why they are only renting out the first half of the game.

From Redbox:

Redbox kiosks are only equipped to rent out one disc per rental fee. Since customer feedback has told us that many of our game customers like to test out titles before they buy them, we’ve decided to offer Disc 1 of Max Payne 3 for Xbox 360 so that renters can try it out for a low daily rate. Disc 1 contains the entire online multiplayer mode and the first half of the extremely substantial single-player game. We think that’s a great deal for just a couple of dollars a day, and we’re excited to offer it! We’ve added a message on the website and on kiosk screens to let renters know about the limited game-playing.

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Going back to the days of video stores, renting items on multiple discs or tapes has always presented a slight hassle. And for a company like Redbox where everything is handled through automated kiosks, it’s got to be even more complicated. But Redbox’s apparent solution for the upcoming video game Max Payne 3 just doesn’t make any sense to us.

This has apparently been kicking around some gaming forums for a couple weeks, but several readers have just now pointed us to the preview page for the game on Redbox.com, where it warns customers at the very top:

ONLY DISC 1 AVAILABLE. DISC 1 INCLUDES THE FIRST HALF OF SINGLE PLAYER GAME AND THE MULTIPLAYER PORTION OF THE GAME.

Which is all well and good if you only want to access the multiplayer portion of the game. But while we have no idea if this particular entry into the Max Payne canon has a great story, we imagine that people renting the game would at least want the chance to find out for themselves, rather than get halfway through it.

And as much as Redbox sticks that warning on the top of the page, we expect to receive more than a few complaints when the game is released May 15.

PlayStation 3 owners will take this moment to celebrate as the PS3 version of the game only requires one disc.

A quick search at Redbox for some other multi-disc Xbox 360 games either came up empty or available for PS3 only. So why would the company choose to release this particular game in such a half-baked manner?

We’ve asked Redbox for an explanation and will put it right here if and when they choose to reply.

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