The game's final testing copy before its gold release—codenamed "Epsilon" and confirmed by Bungie to be almost complete—was leaked to the Internet months before the game's release date. Microsoft reacted to this leak by having the Xbox Live accounts of gamers caught playing the leaked copy banned until the year 9999. Retail copies of the game, complete with photographs of the open game box, started to appear on the internet auction site eBay weeks before release, followed by UK catalog retailer Argos accidentally releasing some of their copies a week early. Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division were quoted as being "disappointed" that the Argos leak happened, but stated they had no intention for punishing them for an "honest mistake". The retail copy was also leaked online over a week before release, with the 6.14 gigabyte file of the game ripped from a disc and downloaded by thousands of people within 24 hours. Videos of the ending of Halo 3, obtained from the leaked copy, were captured and posted on video sharing sites.
