From TomsGuide.com By Jane McEntegart
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Hackers have stolen Halo: Reach and the game has now been leaked online.

You might have heard over the weekend that Microsoft very recently made Halo: Reach available to reviewers on Xbox Live. The game isn’t due out until mid-September, but Microsoft decided to offer reviewers the chance to download and play the game for the low-low price of 99,999 points, or $1,250.

Not too long after Microsoft offered it to reviewers in a concealed area of the online marketplace, the team over at GameTuts learned that it was being made available to certain people and began work on a plan to access it. The team of hackers was successful, and bragged about it on their forums.

“So after a lot of .xex cracking etc., [m]e and my team finally did it, we got Halo: Reach!” moderator Joakim said, according to PC World, adding that they had no plans to release it to the public.

Another GameTuts team member backed Joakim’s comments and said the team had agreed not to leak or distribute the game to another site.

“The words among the team came to agreement that Halo: Reach will not be leaked, given, or distributed to any site,” moderator Toxic wrote.

However, the game was leaked, apparently by GameTuts users who were allowed access to the game. According to PC World, the team didn’t release it to outside sites, but did release it to their forum members, who probably didn’t come to the same agreement about sharing it outside the GameTuts circle.

Microsoft told Joystiq it is investigating the breach, but did not elaborate on how users running the game will be punished if they’re caught.

“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.”