Halo 3 leaked, thousands download

Halo 3, the much anticipated next chapter in Bungie's best selling series has been leaked online, over a week before its official release date.

Uploaded a few days ago, the 6.14 GB ISO file has been making its way through P2P and torrents and downloads are in the thousands. The game of course will only play on modified Xbox 360 consoles.

Microsoft claims the game was being sold at High Street retailer Argos before the company corrected its mistake and took the game off shelves. But the damage had already been done.

Microsoft has told potential buyers of the game to avoid YouTube where the ending of the game has been readily available since the game was leaked.

Source:
GI.biz

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 21 Sep 2007 19:41

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40 comments

WierdName

Wow, that's kinda funny how this stuff has been happening quite frequently lately with movies, games, etc. Makes you wonder if the companies are starting to do this on purpose to gain publicity.

21.9.2007 20:32 #1

c.trigger

with all the preorders they can probably afford this

21.9.2007 21:36 #2

nintenut

Already beat the game, I'm damn thankful to those people. :P

21.9.2007 21:54 #3

chubbyInc

Well over 5000 people have downloaded it from a certain site in particular. I think Microsoft did this on purpose, not for publicity. Could it be possible to have tracking or even verification on these discs which were uploaded so Microsoft can ban accounts when the people try to play online. Might not be the case, but just seems unorthodox on Microsoft's part to allow this to happen.

21.9.2007 22:34 #4

kaosX

i thought the ISO was around 7.3 GB ?

21.9.2007 22:51 #5

Andrew691

Originally posted by chubbyInc: Well over 5000 people have downloaded it from a certain site in particular. I think Microsoft did this on purpose, not for publicity. Could it be possible to have tracking or even verification on these discs which were uploaded so Microsoft can ban accounts when the people try to play online. Might not be the case, but just seems unorthodox on Microsoft's part to allow this to happen.
They definitely wouldnt have done it on purpose but I wouldnt put it passed them to have some kind of verification embedded into it, such an important release and all.

22.9.2007 00:39 #6

Riotard

Yeah definatly somethings not right here, woudl ahve though M$ to do soemthign here to stop these downlaods, such as gettign everone in their company to downlaod the torrent and have no uplaoding, so that no one coudl downlaod it!

Its just tooo strange, somethigns up, personally i wouldn't downlaod it! wacth i recokn M$ will ban accounts if the acheievemnts ahve been acheived before the release date, but ppl who got the game sent to them by argos might have a mechanism to stop their accoutns being banned. It just seems too weird for my liking!

22.9.2007 01:40 #7

BIGnewb

umm why do you keep switching letters its really annoying^^^^.and my friend just downloaded the game.oh my god THIS GAME IS IDENTICAL TO HALO 2.i knew this game would be over hyped i knew it.so far i've only played the first level but its the same.

22.9.2007 03:52 #8

nintenut

Originally posted by BIGnewb: umm why do you keep switching letters its really annoying^^^^.and my friend just downloaded the game.oh my god THIS GAME IS IDENTICAL TO HALO 2.i knew this game would be over hyped i knew it.so far i've only played the first level but its the same.Similar? Yes.
Identical? No.
Try getting past the first few levels before drawing to conclusions.

22.9.2007 03:54 #9

ChromeMud

Originally posted by BIGnewb: umm why do you keep switching letters its really annoying^^^^.and my friend just downloaded the game.oh my god THIS GAME IS IDENTICAL TO HALO 2.i knew this game would be over hyped i knew it.so far i've only played the first level but its the same.Yeah...uhhh....buy a PS3....it rox!
You're just a tad predictable you know that.

22.9.2007 04:40 #10

wolf123

I am sorry for all you that play this First person shooters are so out of date and they are very lame.

22.9.2007 07:22 #11

RuPtUrE

This is whats going to happen. People will download this before release date just crackdown with the beta version. People will play the illegal copie before the release date. Microsoft will know you played it when your online playing on live before release date and ban your account. Any who signs into xbox live with this game before or after the release date will get banned. The game has a serial number embedded into it on pursose to ban anyone using the same serial number found on the illegal copy. How do i know that. My dumb brother got banned for using the illegal copy of crackdown....

22.9.2007 07:32 #12

F0KUL0VME

Originally posted by nintenut: Already beat the game, I'm damn thankful to those people. :P good shit i beat it on legendary its pretty sick.. yo wuts ur gamertag i wanna add some ppl to play wit since matchmaking is down...

22.9.2007 08:23 #13

F0KUL0VME

Quote:Originally posted by chubbyInc: Well over 5000 people have downloaded it from a certain site in particular. I think Microsoft did this on purpose, not for publicity. Could it be possible to have tracking or even verification on these discs which were uploaded so Microsoft can ban accounts when the people try to play online. Might not be the case, but just seems unorthodox on Microsoft's part to allow this to happen.
They definitely wouldnt have done it on purpose but I wouldnt put it passed them to have some kind of verification embedded into it, such an important release and all. Rarely rarely doubt that i got my copy from some newsgroups and the patch was separately done by another user who im sure doesn't work for m$ lmao.

22.9.2007 08:26 #14

venomX05

yeah, so who didn't see this coming...as a matter of fact, just this past monday on our local radio show "elliot in the morning" some guy called in and said that his friend just quit his job at the UPS, now, that isn't all that big of news, however...he also said that his friend found the shipment boxes of halo 3 and took like 6 of them...lol!

22.9.2007 09:49 #15

miraail28

I have a question. The people who did download this cracked game wouldn't they just play it on their modded version and then just buy the original and use that to play it online? I mean wouldn't that make perfect sense?

22.9.2007 10:11 #16

RuPtUrE

Yeah you would think so. But people dont want to spend money thats all.

22.9.2007 10:20 #17

SwordsG

probly is a trap to ban people.
But some people dont want to play online like a few of my mates so they would be fine i could play it earily lol.
But sadly im moving tomoro moring and wont beable to play it for around 3 weeks.

22.9.2007 11:28 #18

nintenut

Quote:Originally posted by nintenut: Already beat the game, I'm damn thankful to those people. :P good shit i beat it on legendary its pretty sick.. yo wuts ur gamertag i wanna add some ppl to play wit since matchmaking is down...I don't have Live, but I will soon.

22.9.2007 13:04 #19

scorpNZ

Originally posted by wolf123: I am sorry for all you that play this First person shooters are so out of date and they are very lame.Your not making much sense since all types of genre games have been around forever & by your own admission you've just said all games are out of date & lame...lmao

Back on topic: i've just seen the multiplayer video from bungie & how you can rewind the game & make the little movies from it as well as dropping vehicles on opponents...lol... what an unbelievable game it's going to be & shifting the enviromnt around aint a bad thing either,not sure if it includes making your own maps

http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?...nk=h3savedfilms

22.9.2007 13:54 #20

edsrouter

You know it really makes me wonder how big of a tax write-off M$ has after all of this. Games of the future won't even be played on a disc you can buy from a store, but more than likely played exclusively from a server. Enjoy this while it lasts guys.

22.9.2007 14:22 #21

Vicious88

To be fair, I think we all knew that Halo 3 was going to be over-hyped. And to be even more fair, its next to impossible for this to have leaked out without the company's okay.

Anyone here who reads the New York Times, will probably remember reading a few months back an article about "The Powers of Fanboy!" For those of you who are confused; the article was about how hollywood and game developers and whatnot are consistantly leaking out games and scripts early so as to establish a base demographic, as well as let extra hype surge out. With the base demorgaphic, they can see where the target intrest areas are and who their target audiance is. With Halo 3 there has been a lot of worry about the audiance being mostly preteen kids (which is bad for the company because preteen kids, generally speaking, have less money).

The extra hype surge comes forth from people who host Halo Parties and whatnot and unviel their "pre"Pre-Release copies of the game, or just from people who brag to friends. The one thing that is most true of human nature is the fact that if someone has something we don't - We want it! And come first opritunity to get it, we will... The reason this is a good move on Microsoft's part, is because they know that only a very small percent of X-Boxes are moded, and those that are will pirate the game as soon as possible anyway, so releasing it does not, in theory, cause any profit loss. In fact, because so many people without modded consoles will see friends with the game, they will be there, in store, cash in hand, waiting for the first copies to hit the shelves.

We've seen this time and time again. Not many people remember but this happened with GTA: San Andreas for the PS2. Maybe 8% of PS2 owners have a modded console, so the profit loss is nothing major, but that 8% will be doing a lot of free advertising (bragging) on RockStar's behalf, making sure that when it is released the other 92% of people will be waiting in lines.

22.9.2007 14:25 #22

DoomLight

lol this is a nightmare for Msoft. i personally dont care for halo. and i doubt it will hurt MSOFT much. really. the only people getting this game are the ones that dont think its worth paying for. there is plenty of fans out there that will pay for this game. i mean my friend that works at game stop. one store has over 2000 pre paid orders. so the scant percent playing downloaded copies. isn't a big enough dent. i think all companies should factor in the pirate loss in their over all tallies in any product made these days.

so they have a more realistic profit figure. they gotta get their head out the clouds. people will pirate anything. so they should at least factor a 5% loss in each product lol

22.9.2007 16:47 #23

F0KUL0VME

im sorry but i have one more thing to say.... HALO 3 IS DA SHIT!!! ...thank you

22.9.2007 17:17 #24

BIGnewb

after playing a couple of levels the game has changed and im starting to like it.the first xbox game that i like :D wow im pretty satisfied right about now.great game and worth buying.wow now i gotta buy 360 which i dont have the money for :@

22.9.2007 19:07 #25

jimmer

don't video game shops get these games early. maybe an employee at a game shop leaked it

22.9.2007 19:54 #26

Vicious88

I'll tell you who leaked in:
Some guy in MicroSoft's Advertising Deparment.

This is how company's gain hype. I commented all of this in my last post... Game Shops don't get it early: They get it on the release date. That's the way it is, and has always been. Yes, they may be able to take advanced orders that will release a week before the game actually hits the shelfs, but even then, they're getting the game on the same day as the customers - so odds are, the customer will be the one working to leak the game.

23.9.2007 11:01 #27

DoomLight

Originally posted by Vicious88: I'll tell you who leaked in:
Some guy in MicroSoft's Advertising Deparment.

This is how company's gain hype. I commented all of this in my last post... Game Shops don't get it early: They get it on the release date. That's the way it is, and has always been. Yes, they may be able to take advanced orders that will release a week before the game actually hits the shelfs, but even then, they're getting the game on the same day as the customers - so odds are, the customer will be the one working to leak the game.incorrect.

i know a few people that work at several game shops like GameStop. and they have had Halo sitting in the backroom locked up for the last 2 weeks. because they have over 500 preorders alone.

23.9.2007 20:07 #28

Vicious88

Quote:Originally posted by Vicious88: I'll tell you who leaked in:
Some guy in MicroSoft's Advertising Deparment.

This is how company's gain hype. I commented all of this in my last post... Game Shops don't get it early: They get it on the release date. That's the way it is, and has always been. Yes, they may be able to take advanced orders that will release a week before the game actually hits the shelfs, but even then, they're getting the game on the same day as the customers - so odds are, the customer will be the one working to leak the game.incorrect.

i know a few people that work at several game shops like GameStop. and they have had Halo sitting in the backroom locked up for the last 2 weeks. because they have over 500 preorders alone.*Sigh* You're new here, so I'll make this as simple as I can:
One of my employees (Davy) Weekends at the GameStop off of Highway 29, and the other (Josh) use to work at GameTrade. The reason I say all this is because even in the case of advanced orders: the game stores get the game no more than 24 hours before the customer. Yes, they get pre-release orders before the rest hit the shelves, but that is when 35% of the games are sold anyway. And even in the case of the pre-release orders, the game store STILL only gets it (AT MOST) 24 hours before the pre-release customers.

GameStore employees RARELY leak games, because frankly, they don't have them for too long before a customer does - then the customer uploads it for sharing. THIS LEAK WAS "LEAKED" BY NONE OTHER THAN MICROSOFT.

What evidence do I have? All of this and more:
1) I was "leaked" more than 5 days before any of the orders would have been shipped to the gamestores.
2) Microsoft's internal security in its game developement centers are TIGHT, and I mean D-A-M-N tight!
3) There is NO chance of the game being hacked from outside their building simply do to the size of the file and the massive ammounts of security their servers have, in addition to the fact that their server goes offline for about 10 hours of the night.
4) Speaking in terms of profit and loss, this is a far too strategic move to benefit sales. Consider it: Only a small percentage of people have modded consoles, but that percentage will do a lot of advertising. Most of the noobs without modded consoles, would rather wait the remaining week and get their copies (the ones they've already reserved and are waiting for at the store) than try and mod thier console (and risk in their noobish ways, destroying it).
5) Rather than stay quite about the "leak" or claim that it was a fake and loaded with some sort of 360 killing virus, Miscrosoft made it known as loudly as they could.
6) I've tracked it on a few different torrent sites, and each time, the tracker was uploaded by someone who had only recently made their account and only uploaded that one torrent. Additionally, the names on all the torrent sites (the one taking credit for uploading it) are similar. This leads me to believe it is the same person.
7) Consider how quickly this torrent boomed. Most torrents take a while to reach 10 people, because when you don't have very many seeds, your download sucks. Microsoft got around this by seeding from one of their T1 servers (which I pinned to Dallas Texas - which also happens to host some of the fastest T1 internet in the world) to ensure that their "leak" would get the best upload speed possible.
8) Microsoft had very recently cut their advertising budget for Halo 3, leaving only two commercials on air, both of which may air about 4 times a day (if you're looking for them). They made up for this loss of ad-time by "leaking" the game so we would do all the advertising for them.

This is to bloody convient and brilliant for business to have been an accident. Their is no such thing as a "leak" before the games are shipped out, there is only one company doing what it feels is the most brilliant move available. Microsoft has played you all, just like you played Halo. If this had been unwanted by Microsoft, they would have the power to stop it...

Piracy, illegal immigration, foriegn sweatshop labor, and outsourcing jobs - all crucial parts of American Business. Microsoft, and other companies have been "leaking" their own software for years. So unless you want to follow their advertising department around with a maxipad, there's nothing you can do except not agrue with me and perhapes read my previous posts before trying to contridict me.

Thank you all, and have a nice day. ^^

23.9.2007 21:32 #29

jimmer

yadda yadda whatever. there still some people outside of microsoft that could get the game. workers at the factory where they make/stamp the game. workers at the warehouse where they store the game. security guards, warehouse managers, truck drivers, etc. could easily snag a copy

23.9.2007 22:43 #30

Andrew691

@Vicious88
Can you not read?
Quote:Microsoft claims the game was being sold at High Street retailer Argos before the company
Other websites word it more definite, but that is essentially what happened. MS even went as far as to say they were going to ban people who went on LIVE before its release, before later revoking it.

From another site:
Quote:"Argos would like to make it clear that it does not endorse breaking street dates and continues to be committed to preventing pre-release sales through its stores and web site.

However, we are aware that a genuine administrative error has resulted in a small number of cases where Halo 3 has already been sold. We are currently ensuring that there are no further sales of this product in-store until the official release date, Wednesday 26 September
These are the people who leaked it(or rather one of the lucky purchasers), not MS.
Might wanna do some research before you make a claim like that. Also gameshops CAN get games anywhere up to a month before they are released, even video rental stores do.

Edit in BOLD

23.9.2007 23:33 #31

mododaz

Originally posted by jimmer: don't video game shops get these games early. maybe an employee at a game shop leaked itYes, i bought GTA SA one week early

24.9.2007 06:12 #32

Vicious88

I erge you to ask around to some of your local gameshops, and if you want, even some of your local video stores. Company's make the most money off of thier product during its first week (full prices and people are lined up).

Microsoft is going to blame anyone other than themselves, because taking the heat would be bad for thier publicity. Argos will deny action, just like Microsoft will, and it will become one person's word against the other. If anything, Argos would have acted on Microsofts orders... Now if anyone here believes Argos DID actually leak it, then the question remains, how could they have without Microsoft's approval? The GameShop thing is out of the question - its too simple and too convient, plus most people (and I do mean most) really don't know what kind of security is in place to prevent that. You can't take someone's word that the games are going to rest in a closet for a month before release at every gameshop in town. That's just stupid on the company's part.

I run a computer build and repair business, and I am partnered with Microsoft as an authorized distrubuter. I know first hand that if I order a windows key, it is overnighted to me and I have 1 week in which it is supposed to be activated if I want my "Shop Endorcement" Percentage refunded. Microsoft doesn't like their software collecting dust, because the longer it does that, the longer someone has the chance to pirate it, and believe me, Microsoft is no stranger to piracy and how to avoid making noobish mistakes with their software.

There is, and I rest assured in saying this, zero chance of the game leak resulting from a gameshop. And as far as "doing my research" goes, why don't you read my whole post and think about what I'm saying. I remarked about the person(s) who uploaded the trackers to different sites sharing virtually the same name, I ping one of the most powerfull seeds IP address over to a server in dallas texas, I actually have employees who work/worked in these gameshops in town.

I'm not a big fan of saying something unless I'm 99% sure what I'm talking about. Oh and one final thing:
Quote:Microsoft has told potential buyers of the game to avoid YouTube where the ending of the game has been readily available since the game was leaked.
You ever hear of manipulation? This is reverse psychology in its simplest forms. And as far as the ending being available for public view perhapes hurting sales (a laughable thought) - Shakespear opens many of his tragedies by telling us how they end, Romeo and Juliet for example. Microsoft wants us to go to youtube, microsoft wants us to drool over gameplay, microsoft wants us to want their game. Its really very simple when you consider all from a business perspective.

But truth be told I'm aware that the average user of this site is not going to be capable of thinking in a business perspective, and thus I am losing my will to try and make things clear. If I do as much research as I do, and make statements as boldly as I do, then there is most presumably a lot of truth in them. I'm not a big fan of misleading anyone, which is why I come in here and share what I have found to be true. But I'm out. Its irritating trying to help people who don't read everything or refuse to do a little bit of homework around their topic to release that they may be wrong about something. So if anyone else want's to fall victim into a way of thinking that is not factual, go ahead. But if anyone has actually bothered to read what I have posted in full, then go and use google, call you local gamming stores (speak with the managers), and find each of these torrents and the person who uploaded them.

Microsoft did everything they could to get this software out early, and then point us to places where we could see it, just in case we didn't know someone who had pirated it. This has all been great advertisment and too strategic to have not been a company move. Absolutely everything that has happened involving Halo 3 in the past 2 weeks has been wonderfully profitable for Microsoft.

So thats it, I'm out.

24.9.2007 06:14 #33

mododaz

Originally posted by jimmer: yadda yadda whatever. there still some people outside of microsoft that could get the game. workers at the factory where they make/stamp the game. workers at the warehouse where they store the game. security guards, warehouse managers, truck drivers, etc. could easily snag a copymostly machines do that work and why would he risk his job too play halo 1 week early

24.9.2007 06:18 #34

Andrew691

I am actually very close friends with a Video Rental store owner whom Im able to get games off before release date if I want to. I was offered a copy of Halo 3 2 days ago but declined as I have no 360, which they had none available of, and Im not really a fan of the HALO series. Different places, different arrival dates, they cant send them all on the one day and expect everywhere to have it the next day, its a worldwide release some countrys are going to be a higher priority than others.

Argos have already apologized for releasing it before its release date, but that cant undo the fact that an unknown amount of people already have their copy, and of course at least one of them is probably someone with a modded box so it makes sense that someone in this group has uploaded it. People do have legit discs, and are probably playing them as we speak. People have illegal copys of one of those legit discs and are playing them right now.

24.9.2007 15:24 #35

borhan9

It was only a matter of time.

28.9.2007 05:49 #36

emugamer

28.9.2007 08:26 #37

eLeCTR0n

Quote:Originally posted by F0KUL0VME:
Originally posted by nintenut: Already beat the game, I'm damn thankful to those people. :P

good shit i beat it on legendary its pretty sick.. yo wuts ur gamertag i wanna add some ppl to play wit since matchmaking is down... <br /> are you guys freakin serious?

28.9.2007 16:31 #38

SolarLava

Which website do you download it from?

7.1.2009 08:04 #39

emugamer

gamepiracyfornewbies.com

7.1.2009 09:40 #40

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