Halo 2 leaked onto the internet
Halo 2 leaked onto the internet:
A version of the eagerly awaited Xbox game, Halo 2, has appeared on net piracy sites and newsgroups, almost a month before making it into the shops and <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/games/default.aspx">Microsoft</a> has said it is trying to track down the people behind the pirated copy.
In a statement reported on BBC News today, Microsoft said it was investigating the leak, adding that it was "aggressively pursuing the source of this illegal act". The copy in circulation is reported to be a European version of the game on DVD, which is almost three gigabytes in size.
"We consider downloading this code or making it available for others to download as theft," said the company in a statement. "We are currently investigating the source of this leak with the appropriate authorities. Microsoft takes the integrity of its intellectual property extremely seriously."
Halo 2, due to go on sale worldwide in the second week of November, is expected to sell millions of copies. At the start of the week, the game's makers Bungie Studios, which is owned by Microsoft, said work on the title was complete and the game was ready to go into production.
