A leak of Gears of War: Judgement found its way online last night, and Microsoft is none too pleased. You know what that means: the banhammer cometh. Or “vigorous action,” officially. Any way you slice it, Microsoft ain’t playin’ when it comes to their money.
The official MS statement on the leak warns:
We are aware of isolated cases in which Gears of War: Judgment content has been propped on the Web and are working closely with our security teams and law enforcement to address the situation immediately. Consumers should be aware that piracy is illegal and we take vigorous action against illegal activity related to our products and services. Playing pirated copies of games, such as Gears of War: Judgment, is a violation of the Xbox Live Terms of Use and will result in enforcement action, such as account and console bans.
This mirrors last year’s mass banning in the wake of Halo 4‘s leak. As pirated copies surfaced before the official release, more and more people were denied access to XBox Live. But heck, Microsoft was banning just for the fun of it, after a while.
Related to the leak or not, Microsoft’s stock did drop by a whole 21 cents this morning, but quickly recovered.
