taken from www.gamespy.com
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 :
"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
[email protected]"
