Nah Argos didn't ship early microsoft shipped _*******_ LATE!

I however don't have any of these ----ty current gen consoles so I don't particularly care.

Has it got a nice boat in it though?

I wonder if MS will ban the people if they go on Live with this?

Don't play your Argos early edition, as you will get your XBox Live account banned FOR LIFE!

Nice one Argos/Microsoft. Stick it to the consumer.

Who says you will be banned?

Microsoft have already released a statement saying that due to Argos' error, they will not be banning any live consoles that are used to play the Genuine copies...

Otherwise there would be a few people trying to take argos/M$ to court over there 'un-live' 360's

These are false, there is no banning please ignore post above

I'm a good lad, I've had my copy on order with GAME since August 2005! 2 years later and still waiting, hopefully the in game characters will be better at hitting targets than the makers.

From what I read elsewhere, MS have already said if anyone tries to play Halo 3 online before the official release they will have their Live accounts disabled.

You wont get banned by playing it online, just ignore the trolls.

I've played this and many other games on live before their release dates without issue. Microsoft wont punish you for something that's not particularly your fault - at worst they'll ask where you got your copy earlier but in all likelihood they already know who is shipping early anyway.

The penalties for breaking release dates hit the supplier not the buyer. There's nothing illegal about a shop shipping early however it's like a code of honour for shops and suppliers in that if you do ship early, whilst you can't be sued you may find publishers/suppliers blocking access to releases in a timely fashion to you.

i.e. An illegal cartel fixing release schedules.

Competition watchdog, where art thou?

PS, If I bought an entirely legal version of a game and Microsoft banned me from Live, I'd sue. Oh wait, I refuse to buy a 360 in the first place because of rubbish like that.

To the posters above; I think you need to give the "Stick to the man" attitude a rest. Argos made the goof, not MS. MS have made the relese date very clear to the retailers and it doesn't afect them either way whether it come out this week or next week - the release date it ensure fair play from all retailers so no-one gets a copy before anyone else. so the lucky blighters who got it early most certainly won't be in trouble from MS (or banned from Live!).

Argos probably released it early to get their sales moving forwards, so THEY are the cheeky fella's. GAME did the same when they put FFXI on sale two days early.

In short, MS are not related to this error

And who exactly would they play with? The other 5 people who managed to get their mitts on the game I guess.

You wont be banned, there's nothing MS can do. They have to take the problem up with Argos.

MS have very sensibly backed down their banhammer threats, initially claiming they were only for MS employees being naughty with office copies, then dropping even that bit. Apparently.

Personally, I'm more interested in the new Sega Rally than Halo 3, but I don't like FPS games much.

I was gonna buy from Argos but went with play.com instead..... bollocks! :(

Cock-up, my ass! (tee-hee). This is just a cunning stunt to generate buzz for the XXXBox.

...it's still not as good as Counterstrike & you've been able to play that for free on t'internet for nearly 10 years - almost as long as some of you seem to have been queuing for Halo the turd...

;)