Halo 3, out of the barn

Halo 3, Microsoft's long awaited sequel to the Halo franchise is officially released next week. In the last few days the net has seen game spoilers, early releases by a few retailers in the UK and now a few torrents... The hacker group Paradogs has released full hacks of the game to the torrent networks.

With all the efforts being spent to stop piracy and reduce copyright abuse how damaging will these releases be to Microsoft? Does the fact that Halo is available for illegal download prevent the enthusiasts from standing in line to get one of the first copies?

Ebay was carrying the leaked copies starting at $200. Amazon has pre-sold over 1 million copies of the game making it the fast and largest pre-sold game of all time. While I advocate fair use and copy protection, this cat and mouse game between publishers and hackers creates story that can only serve to increase the hype and ultimately result in more game sales. Any press is good press, right?