[ Outline ] · Standard · Linear+ Halo 2 Leak, Microsoft has statement

Ironically, almost a year after a malicious hacker invaded Valve's network, stole Half-Life 2 source code, and leaked it on the net, hackers are at it again.

Last night the full version of Bungie's sci-fi first-person shooter Halo 2 was leaked and is available on various peer-to-peer (bittorrent) networks, Usenet groups or ftp sites.

The warezed Halo 2 game is a PAL version, with French speech and English subtitles, so it would be rather safe to assume that it originates from Europe.

The download weighs in at a whopping 3 gigs, but the size doesn't seem to be a deterrent, as a brief check of one known bittorrent stream showed that it was already being downloaded by 25,000 people.

Microsoft is already aware of this situation and is downplaying its significance by saying that even though it is the final version, the leaked Halo 2 will not allow people to access Xbox Live.

Here is the Microsoft official comment :

Malicious hacker (in the case) = Some dude/dudet at a DVD copying plant.

The source couldn't be leaked because the plant only gets the DVD of the game sent to them for mass production, not all the dev crap.

The game is in french (subtitles only in movies scenes) though so I won't be taking part in this. I'll wait for the english version or the version on the shelf here in the US of A. I'm too uncultured for my own good

MS is funny. Everyone already knows you can't play a modded box over xbox live without getting your EEPROM banned, but you can still use tunneling software like XBOX Connect and Kai.

They really have nothing to bitch about, they only sold over 1.5million PRE-ORDERS