I have included the two stories about the piracy leak, because each has important information within...

HALO 2 LEAKS OUT...

Je suis un Master Chief?

10:36 According to reports from the US, complete code for Halo 2, the most important Xbox launch of the year, has leaked out onto the net, with just under a month to go before it' s released in Europe on November 11.
The reported release is said to be a complete PAL version of the game with French dialogue and is thought to be being distributed via file sharing networks and newsgroups.

Je suis un Master Chief? Oui, but non bien.

If true, this will be extremely irritating for the Washington, Redmond giant which has taken great pains to conceal the single-player portion of the Master Chief' s latest adventure from the paying public.

While it' s understandable that demand for Halo 2 is huge, surely having waited this long, it' s worth waiting a few more weeks for a complete and unexpurgated version of the Master Chief' s adventure, exactly as Bungie intended you to play it?

Also, reports state that the code is only playable on chipped/modified Xbox consoles, and that the Live portion of Halo 2 isn' t accessible at all.

Microsoft' s official response to the news was as follows: " Microsoft has learned that a version of Halo 2 has been posted to various newsgroups and web sites. 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. Pending the result of our investigation, we do not have further comment. Microsoft takes the integrity of its intellectual property extremely seriously, and we are aggressively pursuing the source of this illegal act.

" The launch of Halo 2 worldwide remains unaffected.

" We' re asking anyone with information on the source of this leak to contact Microsoft at 1-800-RULEGIT or send email to piracy@microsoft.com."

John Houlihan


Pirates release Halo 2 - Gamespot

Microsoft' s biggest Xbox release for 2004 has been leaked onto the Internet.
Late last night, 27 days before its officially scheduled retail release, an allegedly complete version of Microsoft' s upcoming first-person shooter, Halo 2, was leaked onto the Internet. The pirated release, said to be a PAL version of the game with French-language dialogue, is currently making its way around various Usenet newsgroups and peer-to-peer networks. There has been no word on where, or how the game originally surfaced at this time. It should be noted that players who download the game illegally could face a maximum penalty of $100,000 per infringement for copyright violations.

Halo 2, which continues the adventures of Master Chief with an all-new single-player adventure, as well as Xbox Live support for Internet-based multiplayer, is scheduled to hit retail shelves on November 9. We' ll have more on this story as it develops.

By Staff -- GameSpot