Microsoft Responds to the Leak

"Microsoft has launched an investigation into the leak of a version of Bungie\'s forthcoming Xbox title Halo 2, which has made its way onto Internet piracy sites and newsgroups almost a month before the title is due to launch.

The pirate copy of the game, which is thought to have begun circulating last night, claims to be a PAL version with French text, suggesting that it may have been leaked during the localisation process for the hugely anticipated game.

"Microsoft has learned that a version of Halo 2 has been posted to various newsgroups and web sites," the company said in a statement this morning. "We consider downloading this code or making it available for others to download as theft."

"We are currently investigating the source of this leak with the appropriate authorities," the statement continued. "Microsoft takes the integrity of its intellectual property extremely seriously, and we are aggressively pursuing the source of this illegal act."

However, perhaps mindful of the debacle last year where Valve appeared to blame the leak of Half-Life 2 source code and materials onto the Internet for a major delay to the game, Microsoft has also moved to reassure customers that the game will still arrive on November 9th to 11th worldwide - saying simply that "the launch of Halo 2 worldwide remains unaffected."

While the leak of the game is certainly embarrassing for Microsoft, the huge size of the file - almost three gigabytes - and the fact that it won\'t be possible to play the pirate version on Xbox Live mean that it\'s unlikely to seriously impact sales of Halo 2, which remains on track to become one of the biggest-selling titles of the year."

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And Bungie speculates as to how it happened...

As the gaming world comes to terms with Halo 2\'s dramatic leak nearly a month ahead of release, developer Bungie has quietly responded by way of an updated warning on its community forum, which promises to ban gamers who posted leaked information or spoilers, and even ban certain Xbox Live gamertags from the game\'s online component.

Responding to news of the leaked version - which has been circulating in various illegal channels since yesterday - the developer said, "It would seem that the French PAL version of the game has surfaced on the Internet." As for its origins: "This is almost positively the work of some jerk in the manufacturing plant who pocketed the game as it is being printed in mass for world release on the 9th of November," the update concluded.

And the developer plans to come down hard on anybody who tries to spoil the experience for others - or even references leaked material. "A link or offer to give out a link via private media on the forums will get you banned permanently," the update emphasised. "The same goes for any kind of leak-related spoiler information. Further, you risk having you Xbox Live account\'s ability to play Halo 2 crippled as we can and will ban gamertags from access to vital parts of Halo 2\'s online experience. We are NOT kidding around here. There will be no warning, no appeal, you\'ll just be gone."

Whether this is a reference to the way that modified Xbox consoles can be identified - and blocked - as they log on to Xbox Live, or a promise to ban users based on their behaviour on the forums alone, is unclear, but it\'s plain nonetheless that Bungie is taking the leak very seriously and plans to do its utmost to safeguard the surprises it has in store.

As for the fate of those behind the leak: "There\'s no doubt in my mind that Microsoft has people tracking down whoever was responsible for this," the update opines. "I hope whoever it was thought that leaking the game was worth his job, I hear the Microsoft legal team employ some very effective ninja."

Microsoft yesterday slammed the "thieves" behind the piracy and vowed to track them down and pursue them to the fullest extent of the law. The publisher also said that plans for the game\'s release on November 9th in the US, and on the 10th and 11th across the rest of the world, will be unaffected by the controversy.

Meanwhile, in slightly more positive news, music label Sumthing Else has confirmed the track listing for the Halo 2 soundtrack CD, which is due out alongside the game. You\'re unlikely to regard the track names as spoilers, but we guess it\'s a possibility, so you might want to avoid this link if you\'re particularly concerned.

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Whoever leaked this is going to be damaged for life after MS is through with them.

I don\'t support piracy. I don\'t have a modded Xbox, but even if I did, I wouldn\'t have even considered downloading HALO 2.

With that said, I\'m glad it happened. There\'s a lot of shit about Single Player Campaign that Bungie simply was not going to tell us until we put down our $50 on November 9th. Based on what I\'ve heard, the game is excellent, no doubt, but it is not the game Bungie lead us to believe it would be 2 years ago.

I mean,  at least Peter Molyneux(sp?) \'n\' co. told us what was axed before Fable was released,what changes the game would undergo, etcetera... Am I right? Bungie basically said "F*ck you" to the fans and decided to leave us oblivious to some serious changes.

I hope the guy who was responsible for the leak gets what he deserves(especially the cat who really made this public. The guys who visit GA should know who I\'m talking about), but for the most part, I\'m glad it happened. If I had just discovered all of this stuff one by one when I purchased the game on Nov. 9th, I honestly feel like I would\'ve returned it the next day.

Again, still looks like it\'s going to be a great game. Just not nearly as great as it should\'ve been. Bungie\'s lost a couple of points. Sucks that I had to find all of this out through a few disgruntled hardcore HALO fans, right before launch.

they should be happy

perhaps more people will buy there consoles then.

wait, they lose money on every one sold even after all these years

What negatives are you referring to Nu?

Just to name a few:

• There is no strategic use of the game\'s dynamic light and shadow, the stealth elements of the game that we were told about 3 ****in\' years ago are non-existant. Enemies do not have flashlights, they do not seek you out in darkness you can no longer hide yourself in ala Splinter Cell.
  
• Melee Combos, Sprinting, Peeking-- all that shit\'s been axed. Why weren\'t we just told this months ago? Why keep us in the dark about it until the game releases?

I\'d just like to mention real quick that the two points above-- those were the things that Bungie was going ON AND ON about since the game was revealed at X02. Ain\'t that a B? :rolleyes:

• System-Link Co-op and LIVE Co-op are not in the game. It apparently takes advantage of widescreen televisions quite well for Co-op play(and luckily, I have a nice big one), but still...
  
• Destructable and interactive enviroments are very inconsistent. Do any of you remember the comparision Bungie made to the "Lobby scene" in The Matrix? Bullshit.
  
• Story inconsistencies, and not fleshed out well enough. Characters are introduced, and events just happen out of nowhere with no explantion. The cinematic presentation is there. But from what I\'ve been told it just doesn\'t have the involving storytelling that Bungie told us it would have.

That\'s all I\'ll touch on right now. There are other things, but honestly they\'re not really all that serious. Even with all this said, the game still looks great, it\'s just... Wow. I didn\'t expect this from Bungie.

Now that you mention it I do remember them talking about the sprinting, melee combos, and peeking.  I don\'t remember the destructible environments being compared to the Matrix scene but I\'m going to take your word for it since you\'ve been keeping up on all things Halo.

I\'m surprised to see live co-op being axed.  I thought it was confirmed to have been in there just recently.

[Bobs_Hardware]

Originally posted by Nu
I mean,  at least Peter Molyneux(sp?) \'n\' co. told us what was axed before Fable was released,what changes the game would undergo, etcetera... Am I right?

Well.. not really. There\'s quite a few major, and minor details that they omitted that they never said a word about. Remember how we were supposed to be competing against other heroes?

Well, I\'ll put it this way: They told us a shitload more than Bungie did.

Ginko:

It was never confirmed. Neither was System-Link Co-op but everybody assumed it would be in there because it\'s not something that\'s exactly difficult to implement(my knowledge is limited on this kinda thing, but I think Split-Screen would be even harder than System-Link).

I can understand LIVE Co-op not being in(though it is disappointing). It\'s not just 16 players being accounted for. Much, much more than that.

I\'m glad they axed peeking and sneaking--I\'m not interesed in splinter cell.  

The sprinting is a let down, I was looking forward to that.  

Live coop, I\'m glad they cut, there will already be too many games with ridiculous MP settings out there, coop would dilute available games even more (read: I\'m not interested in live coop).

No sys link coop really stinks.  Really stinks.

Not concerned with the story--don\'t think the story is all that great and I don\'t care about the destructable environments much either.  When it comes down to it, it\'s just window dressing.

I will say one thing though, no games can live up to the hype this game is getting.  There are going to be tears all over xboxville.

no link co-op?

:rpissed:

I just played the leaked version today at a friends house.  All I\'ll say is it\'s different, very much so in comparison to Halo 1.  The guns, how you walk, the setup of multiplayer levels, and how the co op plays out is all very different.  

Even with subtitles it\'s hard to follow whats going on when sometimes you only hear french voices

We played like five 4 player deathmatches then a friend and I played thru a decent amount of the game on co op.  I\'m not really sure if I like it as much as the first from what I\'ve seen so far, but it\'s too early to judge.

Also, the energy sword owns all.

[Living-In-Clip]

So, bascailly, Bungie made promises, then kept quiet and now that has been leaked, it turns out the game is not all that and a bag of chips, which means people may not jump onto it after all.

Go figure.

Maybe the people that "stole" it can fix its Frame rate while they are at it .

It runs more smooth than the original, and dont\' quote me on saying it\'s not all that great.  You must understand I played the hell out of the original and it\'s just different.

[Bobs_Hardware]

Ahh, it\'s Burnout all over again. Not that Burnout 3 is all that bad, but I played the hell out of the second one, so the impact of the third one was lost somewhat, particularly with how differently you have to race. Overall, due to the fact that everything wasn\'t completely new, but played somewhat unexpectedly, it took some time for me to realise that the game was better than Burnout 2.

...what?

... it\'s a valid comparison!

...large breasted women going down on a bowl of spaghetti?