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Who Leaked “Halo”?

By Seth Jayson (TMF Bent)
October 18, 2004

I’m tired of letting the bloggers have all the fun, so I figured I’d better come up with my own conspiracy theory to explain the much-discussed but mostly meaningless Internet leakage of Microsoft’s (Nasdaq: MSFT) “Halo 2″ for the Xbox.

Let’s get the basic facts out of the way: The game’s predecessor sold more than 4 million copies. A French version appears to have been leaked from a disc-stamping foundry a full month before the official launch. Yada yada yada. Now, on to the conspiracy.

You ready for this? Get your ear right up to the monitor. Microsoft did it.

Yeah, you heard me. Elementary detective work, Jackson. Ask yourself: Who benefits from this leak?

Certainly not the miniscule number of gamers out there who 1) have modified their Xboxes and flashed the system with an illegal, karma-wrecking, copyright-avoiding BIOS, and 2) managed to find and complete the 3-gig download before all heck broke loose, and 3) read French.

Jayson offers some surprising new insight into the Halo leak. I’m tempted to believe him, as it is all VERY convincing. He offers his argument, and also adds some insightful advice.

Just for fun. Hamstring the leaked version in new and interesting ways. In the French version, have the characters drop their plasma rifles at the first sign of trouble! (Hey, I’m just kidding, France. You’re all right.)

Just kidding :)

The point is, with a bit of creativity, the leak culture can be made into an asset. The future of game marketing would be a lot more interesting.

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