Hackers Claim to Have Grabbed Halo: Reach From Microsoft Site

[Treblaine]

PC gaming is dying... all the best games get pirated even before launch.

... wait.

Edit: If Bungie can't keep this under wraps but this unheard of group can, well I severely doubt it. Expect torrents of this within days.

Lies, Piracy is why Warcraft (maybe WoW thanks to private servers) and star craft are so big, If you didnt know Warcraft has a 75% piracy rating thats why its so big and private servers for WoW serve as a free trial.

And even blizzard relessed a patch to remove all DRM from warcraft 3, they know whats good for them

Sorry, I was being sarcastic when I said "piracy = PC gaming dying". Thought that was clear with the

"... wait."

bit.

My point is the consoles are almost as inundated with piracy as PC. Publicly we know 1 million Xbox consoles were kicked from live for modding but that's just the consoles kicked from live, they are still out there able to play pirate games. I think that is only the tip of the iceberg. And PS3 has just been opened up to an even more devastating exploit with no soldering required.

But that shouldn't matter, though certain developers have scorned and spurned PC releases for paranoia over piracy I remember hearing from an app developer for the iPhone who praised the success of releasing your software free with support and reliable distribution networks with 95% functionality then charge for an almost identical version. He bemoaned the old model of charging for every single copy, became irrelevant as there were so many middle men taking a cut they could sell millions of a very good (and expensive) program and make a loss while every middle man made profit.

Releasing free was self-advertising. By making tens of millions of people love your product, Millions bought the app out of recognition who'd never bought it before.

This is not pie in the sky "wouldn't it be nice" this is ACTUALLY WORKING!

The same people who say "yeah I like the game but I'll pirate it, wont bother paying" are the same type of people who ALWAYS buy pre-owned. Prejudiced minds will filter out all other opinions and focus on these dissenters as reason to abandon previous PC commitments (thanks cliff with Gears 2), you won't get a single dollar from them on console either, only gamestop will profit on the re-sale.

It says something about those certain developers when they seem deaf and blind to the ardent fanbase eager to pay, yet with only ears for childish trolls on 4chan. Mind you, in the case of Gears of War 2 Microsoft didn't have a single exclusive shooter for that year... who wants to bet they vetoed the PC release just to generate artificial exclusivity?

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Maybe Microsoft's servers would be more secure if they ran Linux. They wouldn't have these problems then.

Big companies getting hacked (re: leaking) games isnt anything new. Its' this or pay a bunch of reviewers to give a good score to it. Either way they get good publicty about a product.

 

[Phoenixlight]

How is this even possible? Microsoft are one of the richest most powerful transnational corporations in the world with a massive budget and they practically invented computers yet they can't protect themselves against some random hackers

 

[The_Emperor]

Just a reminder of who's boss really. Everything they make for millions can be ripped down for nothing. Ironically Microsoft made it easy, invented most of the tools and the platform that gets used for hacking the most.

 

[4fromK]

"other evidence"? elaboration plz?

 

[DazBurger]

I'll bet the modders only got the game so they could see if they liked it enough to buy it. that is how pirates work right? Micro$oft just can't stand it when someone supports there games enough to steal them before they come out. Shameful Micro$oft, really.

These guys are prolly hardcore Halo fans, so I guess they pirated it... Because they could.

And sadly, the friends I have who pirates, dont just do it to "check it out".
One of them havent even bought an honest game for years :/

 

[akmarksman]

yeah..because without my bungie.net forum membership..my internet would die. /sarcasm

fuck you bungie..

and shame on you Microsoft if you left it where someone could get to it.

 

[Danpascooch]

I have no problem with these hackers, it's funny, and I give them props on the hack.

Why do they not piss me off? Two reasons

1.) They did no (reported) damage to the servers
2.) They are not going to distribute it

As long as they don't change their plan and start distributing it, Microsoft really suffers no damage from this, in fact, it's free publicity, so it's probably a bit of a positive event for them.

Plus, I get to read a "dream story" much in the same way that someone with an oppressive job loves stories about people quitting in an extravagant manner, I love stories about hackers doing amazing things.

 

[THAC0]

I'll bet the modders only got the game so they could see if they liked it enough to buy it. that is how pirates work right? Micro$oft just can't stand it when someone supports there games enough to steal them before they come out. Shameful Micro$oft, really.

These guys are prolly hardcore Halo fans, so I guess they pirated it... Because they could.

And sadly, the friends I have who pirates, dont just do it to "check it out".
One of them havent even bought an honest game for years :/

yeah. i got a friend who is into that too. I personally get tired of hearing the all the ways she justifies it, and gets mad when someone suggests that what she's doing might actually be wrong.

She got super pissed when she found out that microsoft doesn't like people using modded xbox's.

 

[bojac6]

I'll bet the modders only got the game so they could see if they liked it enough to buy it. that is how pirates work right? Micro$oft just can't stand it when someone supports there games enough to steal them before they come out. Shameful Micro$oft, really.

These guys are prolly hardcore Halo fans, so I guess they pirated it... Because they could.

And sadly, the friends I have who pirates, dont just do it to "check it out".
One of them havent even bought an honest game for years :/

He was making a joke about a common justification for piracy. The "I'm just checking it out and if it's worth my money I'll buy a real copy" ploy. This quickly becomes the sentiments, "this game is terrible, but since I already have it Might as well finish the single player. And play as much multiplayer as my pirated copy allows because I have become completely addicted to this amazing game. But it isn't worth buying, oh no. This game sucks."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is one of many piracy justifications.

 

[Alandoril]

They should hire the people responsible. It's what I'd do. No sense in letting such talent go to waste.

 

[Arachon]

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you here, but... how do you know?

I have a semi-interest in information security and hacker culture, and whilst I'm nowhere near being a hacker myself, I do know a few of them. And I think (unless I'm delusional) that I know enough about hacker culture to realize that once you get past the script kiddies trying to outscream eacother, there's an entire different business behind it.

 

[Jared]

Take it away, House :

Couldn't say it any better. Oh well, as long as they keep it to themselves...

Totally agreed. As long as it isnt coming to everybody, suppose thats cool

 

[AstylahAthrys]

For some reason I really don't believe this happened. I'm skeptical of the legitimacy of this claim and since there is a lack of proof, I am inclined to believe this story is filled with BS. Proof or it didn't happen.

 

[Awexsome]

Argh... damn your inferior security Microsoft...

For anyone wondering the whole copy of the game was up on the marketplace for reviewers to download and play through so there could be reviews up on IGN and stuff by release. So the hackers somehow got around that wall. Since it's 360 pirated versions won't hurt as bad since modded consoles are required to play pirated games and that results in a permanent console ban from Xbox LIVE.

No doubt they'll initiate a sweep soon after the official release to ban anyone who played Reach while connected to the internet.

but 3+ weeks and it's already completely leaked? C'mon Microsoft... I could understand some Gamestop employee with sticky fingers a week or so before launch but that long? Fail. I am one of the Bungie.net denizens severly considering going dark. But Sept 14 is a long time to go without message boards...