Robin Hoods Playground

Microsoft Investigating Halo 3: ODST Distribution Breach
By Tom Ivan

Microsoft is investigating “a very small breach” in its Halo 3: ODST distribution process that has resulted in a number of French gamers receiving the title almost a month ahead of its release.

Videos of consumers unwrapping the highly anticipated shooter cropped up on the internet before being pulled, and Microsoft has warned that it will “take action” against those who it feels have procured the game illegitimately. The exact number of copies that have been released into the wild hasn’t been specified, but it’s thought to be over 100.

"We are investigating a very small breach in our distribution process around the early delivery of Halo 3: ODST units,” a Microsoft spokesman told CVG.

"We are also investigating Xbox Live accounts that show activity related to Halo 3: ODST and will take action against those we believe have procured copies of the game illegitimately.”

In an update on his Twitter site, Stephen Toulouse, who heads up Xbox Live policy at Microsoft's Live Services Group, said that the company “will not be banning legitimate customers from Xbox Live who play early.”

ODST, which is likely to be developer Bungie’s penultimate Halo title, is set for a worldwide release on September 22. The game is one of the highlights of Microsoft’s second half Xbox 360 line-up. Research firm Nielsen said that it was the leading title in terms of "consumer purchase interest" following E3 last month, ahead of the likes of God Of War III, Wii Sports Resort and Guitar Hero 5.

i wonder how they will determine the people who bought it from the people who got it illegitimately

They are probably going to interview them. and I think that only the french go their hands on the game

Backslash wrote:i wonder how they will determine the people who bought it from the people who got it illegitimately

My best guess would be that they will be monitoring the games played, and if 2 of the exact physical game are played at the same time, they will look into it... Maybe also anyone that plays outside of France will be monitored closely?

CoFree wrote:Microsoft Investigating Halo 3: ODST Distribution Breach
“will not be banning legitimate customers from Xbox Live who play early.”

when halo 3 came out i had the game 1 month early and was playing online co-op.
this was a physical disc i had purchased from a GS employee.

do you think they will do the same thing again releasing this into the public and try to catch the people doing so....
M$ is sneeeeeaakkkky i tend to think.

i think there is going to be the biggest BAN wave ever when ODST is released

HaGGardSmurf wrote: My best guess would be that they will be monitoring the games played, and if 2 of the exact physical game are played at the same time, they will look into it... Maybe also anyone that plays outside of France will be monitored closely?

No man they cant tell the game data apart, all they look at is the stealth files, which is random, all the stealth has to do is send back good response, doesnt matter what ID of the files are.

Hmm, well I dont know then :O I guess it will be interesting how they figure it out...

is it possible there may a new "FOURTH" wave of games with indevidual id's....

xx0warrig0xx wrote:is it possible there may a new "FOURTH" wave of games with indevidual id's....

no good lord dont get that started

they are just pissed that it got released early

No but it would make sense for a fourth wave because of the avatar update and they have to include it in the disk so hey mght of threw ids in I mean would you disagree with my assumption?

If wave 4 was released, wouldn't you see it on the ODST release?

Not necessarily, it might've been in production already.

moonknight wrote:If wave 4 was released, wouldn't you see it on the ODST release?

It works on Ixtreme 1.6

cainhunpi wrote:

moonknight wrote:If wave 4 was released, wouldn't you see it on the ODST release?

It works on Ixtreme 1.6

yea but it could be hidden coding

kinda like the failed 0800 firmware for 1.6 b4 they made the 0800 1.6

no need for wave4 because the NXE has the avatars and shit

and

cainhunpi wrote:

moonknight wrote:If wave 4 was released, wouldn't you see it on the ODST release?

It works on Ixtreme 1.6

what works on ixtreme 1.6?


After reading through all of the information on different sites, they could ban you for playing early as they stated because if you played a copy of that game which was leaked, they could tell because it was missing information "files" the retail game included.

"a bad backup persay"