Halo: Reach PC test 'illegally distributed online', 343 prepared to ban players

The first PC test for Halo: The Master Chief Collection is limited to fewer than 1,000 Halo Insiders, and some fans that didn't make the cut are now attempting to join illegally. The test has been "illegally distributed online", according to developer 343 Industries, which says it can ban anyone involved.

"If you download or play this illegal copy, we have the right to ban all associated accounts and remove you from all current or future 343 programs," it said in a forum post, providing a link to the Microsoft Service Agreement.

The test launched on Friday and ends tomorrow. It contains the Halo: Reach campaign Tip of the Spear, and is designed to both test the rollout of builds onto Steam and to "get player feedback on the current state of mouse and keyboard controls". It's an updated version of the demo that impressed James at E3.

In other Halo: The Master Chief Collection news, 343 has revealed that Halo: Reach will not include the Forge level editor or the Theater replay modes at launch.

Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.