By: Eddie Makuch

Gamers caught playing a pirated version of 343 Industries’ new shooter Halo 4 potentially face a permanent ban from Xbox Live. That’s according to one Reddit writer, who posted an email from Microsoft informing the user that “illegitimate prerelease title play” has yielded a permanent Xbox Live account suspension.

A Microsoft representative was not immediately available for comment.

Writing on the official Halo website, 343 Industries warned of Halo 4 leaks, and said it was “working closely” with security teams and law enforcement to address the situation. “

Piracy is illegal and we are taking vigorous action against it,” reads a line from the statement. “We have poured our blood, sweat, and tears into Halo 4, and we want you to have the best possible experience with our game, come November 6. If you’re interested in staying spoiler-free, we encourage you to exercise caution when visiting various websites, social networking services, and forums.”

Halo franchise director Frank O’Connor suggested to Polygon that the leak was not very surprising to begin with.

Halo 4 is due out worldwide November 6 exclusively for Xbox 360. It is the first numbered entry in the series developed outside of Bungie Studios and will not feature Kinect support for gameplay.

Source: GameSpot