Despite leak, Halo 2 Breaks Records - 20.10.04

Bungie have broken "virtually every pre-order sales record" for a game with Halo 2:

With three weeks to go before the game hits store shelves, pre-orders for “Halo® 2” – the highly anticipated Xbox® exclusive from Microsoft Game Studios – have eclipsed the 1.5 million mark in the United States

Read more from the announcement

The scope of the record is huge - according to gameindustry.biz, it will generate more profit on it's first day of release than the opening day of any movie in history.

The breaking of the record comes in the same week as a version of the game leaked onto the Internet. Bungie & Microsoft vowed to come down hard on anyone partaking in the piracy: "Microsoft is currently engaged in a full scale investigation and to those foolish enough to partake in this piracy, you will soon witness the firepower of this fully operational battle station."

More info:
Official website
Halo 2 breaks records....before it's even (legally) released!
Halo beats the pirates
Bungie: DO NOT POST LEAK INFORMATION
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