Halo Modder Tries to Blackmail Microsoft With Halo Wars 2 Leak, Gets Banned

Popular Halo modder and streamer Gamecheat has had a bad week. After discovering a loophole in the Windows 10 store that allowed him to download a test build of Halo Wars 2, the industrious internet celebrity decided to use it to gain a little more notoriety. He uploaded a leak of the game's soundtrack, hoping it would help him rack in the views. It did, but it also gained him a heavy handed response from Microsoft in response, who banned his Xbox Live accounts.

The gamer then went on to make it worse by threatening to leak the game's story mode, and then to sell copies of the beta build he had obtained. Microsoft's response was to ban his Xbox One from Live and threaten legal action, and Gamecheat is not happy about it. He took to Twitter to post a whinge about his predicament, and offer a half-hearted apology in a vain attempt to get his account back:

"Regarding Halo Wars 2 Leaks + My Xbox Ban Situation
So very recently you all saw that my Xbox Live accounts (Gamecheat13YT, DLC DANK. y00, BLAM ENGINE) and Xbox One console was permanently banned from Xbox Live. Now I can’t boot any of my Xbox One digital purchases, games I paid money for and should rightfully own. People suggested I setup donations, but I just don’t like asking for money.

The reason Xbox Live Enforcement stated was "illegitimate prerelease title play". But the thing is I never downloaded or played Halo Wars 2 with any of my main accounts. In fact, I didn't even have to make an Xbox Live account to download from the Windows 10 Store and I don't need to boot the build to rip files from it. They didn't even use an encrypted appx container. Though that didn't matter because when I tried to appeal my decisions they basically said the same thing.

I don't really understand what my Xbox One has to do with ripping files from a PC game but alright. This all started on December 27th of 2016, a day after the soundtrack video. So, it was clear they did all that because of the video. I only expected the video to get a copyright strike. Anyways jump to right now when I just threaten to sell copies of the build if Microsoft didn't refund me for the games I bought on my account.

I was just going to explain what happened in a video and accept my losses, but once I started explaining what happen and totaled the amount I spent, it kind of snowballed. I was ready for the legal action because I just didn't care in the heat of the moment. It wouldn't be my first Cease & Desist that’s for sure. It just sucks so much to grind so hard at a game like Halo 5 then just to have all of it just taken away.

Not to mention all my hard-earned money wasted on a system I can’t use anymore. Probably the worst feeling you get is that sense of powerlessness that eats at you. They give you one chance to appeal the ban and if they deny it then that’s it. You can’t message them and customer support can’t either. They don't care about what you must say or what happened. That's your end with Xbox, thanks for spending money but now you get none of what you bought. So, legal action is bad but I’m more so worried about ruining it for the community. Back when I first posted the leaks of the soundtrack I promised I wouldn't leak any story related material. Then later one I posted that copyright strike and ask Microsoft if they wanted the story ruined. That could be threatening in hindsight but it did do a good job testing the waters. Everyone got pretty upset over the idea of leaking it and some even got angry, understandably so.

So, with that in mind the last few days vie been basically just thinking about how to construct a video explaining all this and just moving on with the situation. For some reason, I just couldn't keep quiet about it anymore and after starting to explain it I became more annoyed. Clearly trying to blackmail a billion-dollar corporation isn't gonna happen, but I felt like if I just did nothing then it would be over for sure. So, with everyone caught up I’m basically here to say that I’m not going to be selling anything and there still won’t be any story leaks for Halo Wars 2. I’m sorry to everyone for this roller-coaster including everyone at 343i, CA, and MS.

This clearly wont accomplish anything and was the product was blind rage and confusion. I won’t be posting anymore leaks of Halo Wars 2 and if Microsoft wants me to delete any backups they can reach out to me.

Sorry again to everyone, I didn't mean for it to get this crazy." (sic)

Clearly, the former Xbox player has learnt an important lesson about extortion; namely that it's probably not a good idea. The loophole has since been closed so anybody wanting to play Halo Wars 2 is just going to have to wait patiently until it's ready later this year. Unless you personally know Gamecheat, who has claimed he will be keeping multiple "backups" of the game files.