First Halo 3 copies in the wild

What's this? Linde's posting not one, but two stories 'bout Halo in a single afternoon? Truth is, the real Linde was brutally slain by one Dick "I Hate Fatties" McVengeance weeks ago. I am his replacement, the Lindetron 4000 -- the thinner, richer, more attractive model.

Anyhow, naughty Norwegian game shop Expert up and broke street date for Halo 3, selling at least two copies to the public, including the above-pictured bloke who looks just thrilled to have a copy. This probably ain't the first and is most likely not the last that we'll see this sort of thing happening in the eleven days leading up to the big release. The news comes to us by way of MaxConsole, which had this to say about the game's less-than-timely appearance in the hands of the unwashed masses:

In the past, premature street date breaks have resulted in competitors following suit, if this occurs, we could all be purchasing Halo 3 a lot earlier than we thought.

Sure, it'd be swell -- I'm the last dude you'll hear complaining about shattered street dates. It's what got our beloved BioShock review to you the week prior to official release, after all. But a release as big as Halo 3 -- arguably the biggest in gaming history, and most certainly Microsoft's largest marketing effort to date -- has already merited some pretty fierce punishment for those looking to slice the red tape like firings, castration, and the merciless slaughter of everyone they've ever loved.

But who knows. Maybe with enough careless error in the next eleven days, we'll all be playing Halo 3  a smidge earlier than expected. Or we'll all be dead.

[Via MaxConsole; thanks Mabec!]