It happens every time a big game comes out, but when it’s a game as big as Bungie’s final Halo title, Microsoft sits up and takes notice. Released on the internet far in advance of its September 14 street date, a Microsoft representative tells Kotaku that the source of the leak is under investigation.
“We are aware that an unauthorized copy of “Halo: Reach” has leaked. We are aggressively investigating the matter. We have no further details to share at this time.”
So where does that leave folks who can’t resist the lure of early Halo: Reach? Even if you have every intention of picking up a retail copy, we’d suggest you wait, lest Microsoft come after you.
“We are aggressively pursuing the violators. Microsoft’s commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the 25 million members of the Xbox LIVE community remains a top priority. All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and modifying their Xbox 360 console violates the Xbox LIVE terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox LIVE.”
Naytan
Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 8:27 AMI know I’ll sound naive here but…how/why do big games get leaked?
Hackers wreaking havoc as usual?
Or internal employees being sneaky? If it IS the internal employees, what do they get out of it?
veddermandan
Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 10:50 AMSome people want to get a name for themselves online. Others get paid to release games and movies. Even though you can download the games free from most sites they still make money from all the advertising. The more hits on the site more money from advertising.
Mr Waffle
Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 10:57 AMUsually it’s someone in the industry, usually on the distribution side. Like someone from the company that prints the discs ‘borrows’ a copy (the game discs are pressed weeks in advance so distribution can begin). Same happens in movies and music land, all it takes is a few minutes to rip the disc and away it goes.
706-2
Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 12:29 PMYeah I’ve seen bootleg movies that have stamps on them saying that this advanced copy is solely for classification purposes and should not be shown to anybody. I would still like to hear how this happened though.
The Cracks
Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 3:53 PMIn this case, the game code was put on Xbox Live so that the press could download it with a special code for test/review purposes. Someone managed to trick XBL into thinking he could download the game, and this person seems to have disseminated the information somehow.
Naytan
Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 6:09 PMCheers for info everyone. That’s given me quite a bit of perspective.
Christopher Colless
Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 8:30 AMWhy does this happen every time?
WiseHacker
Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 11:19 AMThe really pushes the bounds human stupidity. This is up there with getting a pirated copy of the game and then calling Tech Support of the publisher for advice on how to get it to work.
Pirates used Halo 3 on XBL and got banned. Pirates used GTA4 on XBL and got banned.
One would think that by now, others would learn that if you pirate a game, you would not connect it to a network where the publishers/developers would easily find out.
brent3000
Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 1:06 PMLooks like its released to reviewers… So if they find the source of the leak its going to be big fines if the review copies were marked some way…
The releases seem to be JTAG only…
Denaz
Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 2:01 PMI would have thought they’d be banning any pirate out there. Whether the game is a big title or not.
Jay
Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 6:09 PMJust another random ‘thought’ as to how this happens.
Sometimes I think companies do this, not just for video games. Building buzz etc… but also some people will think “Crap I ain’t touching that, they’re gonna be stalking everyone, I’m just gonna buy it”.
I dunno, another guess. Anything is possible and companies have a lot of weird theories when it comes to marketing.