Halo 2 has been leaked.

[Eco-Logic]

Just thought you all would like to know...

 :shock:

[Destructor]

No way...

*looks*

Way.

Personally, I'm not surprised. Hopefully the pirates got ahold of a non-US edition or something.

But even so...wow. The pirates strike again and this time get their hands on something bigger than the Half Life 2 source code leak.

And before anybody thinks about saying anything - I have a presell for the collector's edition that I'm buying the day it comes out.

[Dimmona]

I really, really hope that whomever leaked it was sure to attach a nasty virus/keystroke logger to it so that the idiot warez crowd gets what they deserve.

I know this stuff happens all the time, but as a developer it really pisses me off everytime I see it... :evil:  :evil:  :evil:  :evil:  :evil:

[Eco-Logic]

I also have it pre-ordered, fully paid.

 :shock:  

[Eco-Logic]

It is the PAL version by the way.

[-Lord Ebonstone-]

I'm not surprised at all.

[Thin_J]

I couldn't honestly care any less as long as the game still hits stores here when it's supposed to.

[Pharaoh]

Its the French version of the game. Best guess is the dashboard can be set to english, and movies are out of people playing on Live against eachother.

26 days early they got it. Its amazing how fast they word these days. Hopefully this is confirmed by Microsoft ASAP and they ship the copies they have now to stores and can the worldwide release thing.

[ATB]

What is PAL?

ALso, how is a console game leaked?/Pirated?

PC games I can see...but how a console game?

[Pharaoh]

Basically take a gold master of the game, or steal a copy from the warehouse, rip the DvD, figure out what file structure it uses, then just divide it up into neat little files for usenet and all that crap. it takes a modded xbox to play.

Gamespot confirmed it...lets see what we go from here

[Purge]

What this means is.... nothing.


The people who CAN play it are pirates; they wouldn't buy the game to begin with. <shrug> unless you've got yourself a PAL system it's not going to matter much anyways.

They'd best be *really* secure with the NTSC version. I've stopped reading reviews and "all abouts" as I don't need them.

I'm going to play Halo2 on November 9th at approx 12:15am and that's it.

[Eco-Logic]

What this means is.... nothing.


The people who CAN play it are pirates; they wouldn't buy the game to begin with. <shrug> unless you've got yourself a PAL system it's not going to matter much anyways.

They'd best be *really* secure with the NTSC version. I've stopped reading reviews and "all abouts" as I don't need them.

I'm going to play Halo2 on November 9th at approx 12:15am and that's it.

Not being a jerk but that isn't true.   Anyone who has an Xbox capable of playing copied games, can play games regardless if their PAL or NTSC.  

Just an FYI

And I'm sure I'll play this version once or twice before I pick up my copy from Software Etc., on Nov. 9th.

[Elenkis]

The people who CAN play it are pirates; they wouldn't buy the game to begin with. <shrug> unless you've got yourself a PAL system it's not going to matter much anyways.

Anyone who can play pirated Xbox games (in other words has a mod chip) can also change their system from NTSC to PAL (or vice versa) with a couple of button presses.

Edit: Beaten to it

[ElijahPrice]

Yeah, I was kinda pissed to hear this too.  Bungie is making a great product and I wouldn't want to play it before their release.  How many people do you think are actually going to try and get this?

I thought you guys might want the links to the reports, I saw them here:

BD Gamer Post

http://www.bdgamer.net/

 
Microsoft’s Response

http://www.gamestyle.net/news.php?newsid=1064

[Punisher]

Another link
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/14/halo_2_leak/

Looks like Live is not enabled either, which makes sense since the only people who can play the pirated version are people with a mod chip that is activated and if you have a mod chip that is activated, you can't play on Live anyway...

Any videos of multiplayer must be LAN, which I "think" you can do with a mod chip.

Also MS says that the release will go as scheduled, which means NOT moving up the release.

[Eco-Logic]

Yeah, I was kinda pissed to hear this too.  Bungie is making a great product and I wouldn't want to play it before their release.  How many people do you think are actually going to try and get this?

The work is already done.  Getting it is the easy part.

[farley2k]

I saw one comment of Evil Avatar that was "First Doom 3 now this..."

I couldn't help but laugh.  Do they really think Doom 3 was the first big release pirated before?  Hell there was leaked version of Bungie's "Oni" 6 months before the release!  And it was the complete version!  

Every game gets pirated these days.  The only thing that stops people is respect for the developers/publisher.

[Laner]

The game, a key title for MS' console in the run up to Christmas, is believed to have surfaced on Usenet and the web last night, possibly in the form of a localised French version, according to early reports.

French version?  

There's a joke in there somewhere about every button causes Master Chief to drop his weapons...

[Eco-Logic]

I saw one comment of Evil Avatar that was "First Doom 3 now this..."

I couldn't help but laugh.  Do they really think Doom 3 was the first big release pirated before?  Hell there was leaked version of Bungie's "Oni" 6 months before the release!  And it was the complete version!  

Every game gets pirated these days.  The only thing that stops people is respect for the developers/publisher.

Oni wasn't close to being as big a release as Doom 3.  

I agree with your main point though.  

Kingdom Under Fire has been available for like 4 months.

[Eco-Logic]

The game, a key title for MS' console in the run up to Christmas, is believed to have surfaced on Usenet and the web last night, possibly in the form of a localised French version, according to early reports.

French version?  

There's a joke in there somewhere about every button causes Master Chief to drop his weapons...

LOL :lol:

[Elenkis]

Any videos of multiplayer must be LAN, which I "think" you can do with a mod chip.

With a mod chip and a program like XBConnect you can play system-link games online, which is what they're doing. Basically it's system-linking Xboxes over the internet.

[ElijahPrice]

Understandably it is pirated but what I want to know is what is the demand for the pirated version?  Does it really effect anything?

[Devil]

Dammit, Laner!!

You beat me to it...

Its the French version of the game.

MC surrenders! :wink:

[-Lord Ebonstone-]

Every game gets pirated these days.  The only thing that stops people is respect for the developers/publisher.

Actually, I'd say the MORE respected a developer is, the SOONER it'll get pirated.

[dangerballs]

Bungie should have learned to not use these instead of the cheap brand...

[Jason Donati]

The game, a key title for MS' console in the run up to Christmas, is believed to have surfaced on Usenet and the web last night, possibly in the form of a localised French version, according to early reports.

French version?  

There's a joke in there somewhere about every button causes Master Chief to drop his weapons...

Nice!  

[farley2k]

Question -

Do you think reporting about this is a good thing?  I mean people who didn't know are being told by every news site.  It is obviously news but at the same time doesn't this just make the problem worse?

[yeyeman9]

Well they reported if people could help, there will be around 50% of the people helping and 50% of the people downloading. The 50% helping will win because it is easier to track people down rather than download it and risk yourself. In my opinion, offcourse.

[Punisher]

I believe they are asking for help mostly to find the people responible for releasing it, not the people downloading it, in which case, there won't be a 50% helping population.

As for reporting it, I doubt that reporting it as news creates a much larger base of people downloading it. At most it just makes most people who would download it aware a litle sooner that it is out. A release this big would have word of mouth through the hacking channels spread pretty quick anyway.

[-Lord Ebonstone-]

I wouldn't report it.  Who knows what wacky things Microsoft might do if there's a crackdown.

[yeyeman9]

I believe they are asking for help mostly to find the people responible for releasing it, not the people downloading it, in which case, there won't be a 50% helping population.

As for reporting it, I doubt that reporting it as news creates a much larger base of people downloading it. At most it just makes most people who would download it aware a litle sooner that it is out. A release this big would have word of mouth through the hacking channels spread pretty quick anyway.

Actually they said they see downloaders and releasers, both, as a theif. And I quote: "We consider downloading this code or making it available for others to download as theft."

[Punisher]

I believe they are asking for help mostly to find the people responible for releasing it, not the people downloading it, in which case, there won't be a 50% helping population.

As for reporting it, I doubt that reporting it as news creates a much larger base of people downloading it. At most it just makes most people who would download it aware a litle sooner that it is out. A release this big would have word of mouth through the hacking channels spread pretty quick anyway.

Actually they said they see downloaders and releasers, both, as a theif. And I quote: "We consider downloading this code or making it available for others to download as theft."

Yes, I agree, but I said "mostly" (like mostly dead). They will want information for all theft related things, but I think they are mostly interested in who was originally responsible for this.

[Destructor]

Ripped straight from our main page, from Bungie themselves:

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.

Yup - blame the French. They started everything.  :wink:  :roll:

[ChaoZ]

I think this theft has minimal impact at best.  As somebody already said, people getting the stolen version either:

a) never planned to buy Halo 2
b) Already preordered / will buy and just want to see it sooner

Nobody but the French want to be stuck with foreign dialogue anyway.


As for Bungie/Microsoft and other publishers, maybe they should have a shorter Gold to Release period.

[Chrisoc13]

Yeah, I really doubt this will affect it much. The people who have it must have a mod chip which means they are pirates (generalization I know). So they would have just pirated it when it came out. They just og it early.

And also, as someone said, what american (Halo's largest market) is going to want french?

No matter what the pirates are going to steal it.

MS anf bungie are still going to rake in the dough on this one.

[Napoleon]

Well, the whole "foreign language" point is somewhat moot...as soon as the English Halo 2 hits retailers, it'll be pirated within the day as well.

[Chrisoc13]

Of course, but we are talking about now, before it is released in the states.

It will be pirated shortly, its just a matter of if it is after the release or before it.

But for now, the foreign language is not moot before the english release.