Continuing in the sad tradition of Halo 2 and 3 before it, Halo: Reach has apparently been leaked. Modders at Game-Tut.com found a way to trick Microsoft's servers, which are currently hosting the full game download. The download is intended for select media and only accessible with a code -- well, until Game-Tut apparently cracked that security measure. The site has yet to openly leak the files to the general public.

It appears that the game is leaking other places as well. At least one video released shows off a tour of Forge in the game's Firefight mode, and spoilers for the game can be found everywhere from Bungie's official forums to NeoGAF (if you really want to see them, you can find them yourself).

While Microsoft and Bungie will be hosting the usual slate of Halo review events around the world in the coming weeks, it appeared as though the companies were relaxing around the usually tightly-controlled media access to the series by uploading the game to Xbox Live. Unfortunately, the system proved vulnerable to the insatiable demand for Halo, which facilitated another early game leak for this high profile franchise.

Update: A Microsoft spokesperson told Joystiq, "We are aware of claims being made regarding a security exploit related to Halo: Reach and are aggressively investigating the matter. We have no further details to share at this time."

Source

Doubt it will harm the overall sales tho. But I have never heard this review method before.

Some facts from gamesradar

Halo 2 leaked: Mid October, 2004
Halo 2 release date: November 11, 2004

Halo 3 leaked: Early September, 2007
Halo 3 release date: September 21, 2007

Halo Reach leaked: Mid August, 2010
Halo Reach release date: September 14, 2010

i fucking hate pirates

Down with them I say!

Wasn't ODST leaked as well?

Regardless, this is the great Halo tradition. It doesn't seem to have a big impact in overall sales. I mean Halo 3 is one of the best selling games this gen.

sure but it could have had even higher without these

all pirated games could have higher sales

Of course, but we can't presume every copy pirated is a sale lost. I think many people have pirated games, music, and movies they would have never paid for.

Also, compared to the PS3. The 360 generally performs better in software sales even with piracy problems and very high fail rates in the past. Basically, I'm just saying piracy may be greatly exagerated on the 360.

I thought it was an idiotic idea as soon as I saw MS put Reach up for download and with how much attention it was getting in news stories.  It was like an invitation to pirates saying "Hey guys here's an awesome challenge let's see if you can manage to hack our stuff and get infamous on the internet!" 

Lol, if this is some sort of trick that M$ has put out it would be hilarious.  Everyone who downloads it and plays it online gets banned from live and then they have to purchase that new 360 slim.  

I think there is another thing associated with Halo, and that would be the bans people receive for playing online with a hacked copy.  I bet there will be another round of bannings coming shortly it always happens this after a big release.  If I did hack the damnd thing, I certainly wouldn't risk losing my live access by playing it online.

yes we cannot assume every copy pirated as a sales

piracy is not exxagerated.i hardly see people talk about it