You can buy but you can't play.

Halo 3 has been sitting in the back room of many stores for a couple weeks now, but as next week's street date approaches, more and more copies are finding their way into the hands of impatient gamers, largely due to an error on the part of European retailer, Argos.

UK-based game site PRO-G, one of the lucky ones to get their dirty mitts on a copy of the game through Argos, spoke to a Microsoft rep who informed them that anyone playing the game early will find themselves banned from Live. Simply playing offline won't cut it either as the next time you connect to Live they can see that the game has been played and will issue a ban just the same.

While I don't doubt that PRO-G was told this, I have trouble believing Microsoft would actually follow through with this threat.  Street dates exist to keep things fair between retailers, not to punish consumers. Can you really ban someone for playing a game they purchased legally? It sounds more to me like they are trying to scare people off from attempting to procure a copy for themselves. Tales of broken street dates only add to the excitement in the days leading up to a major release like Halo 3, banning your biggest fans for being excited about your product is probably not the wisest of moves.

Remember that Microsoft didn't even follow through with banning the thousands of Xbox Live users who gained access to the Call of Duty 4 Beta through willfully illicit means. If they gave those users a pass, can they really justify banning people who are doing nothing except playing a game they paid for legally?

PRO-G claims that Microsoft will be issuing a statement shortly in regards to this nonsense.

UPDATE:

PRO-G has been contacted by a second Microsoft rep, this one claiming that the banning applies only to Microsoft employees who play Halo 3 early. It's fair game for everyone else. Joystiq has also independently confirmed this with a Microsoft rep.

Now all you need to do is convince some poor sap at Wal-Mart to sell you one.

[Pro-G via Kotaku]