Gamers eagerly awaiting their chance to enter the beta for Gears of War 3 may find the servers a little less crowded when the beta goes live for those with Bulletstorm-based access codes on April 18th. Gamers hungry to access the beta either before the public release date, or without having to enter an access code at all, found an exploit to enjoy the beta without the required credentials to legitimately do so. According to a post on the Epic Games forums, an Australian user claims to have been able to circumvent the restrictions placed upon the beta (which was intended to be restricted to journalists and gaming press until April 18th), in order to play the game early.
The thread"s original poster had his message altered, to read the following:
I was up till 5am last night in Australia trying to get a code. Massive dissapointment
I know a lot of hardcore fans are on here....and they are the ones that are DYING to get the code.
I found a way to get on, me and 4 friends just tried, its easy as. All you need is a spare USB stick!
I won"t post the details here, but email I"m really stupid at gmail.com
And I will email anyone back the details as soon as i can
Even more surprisingly, the thread creator was not content with speaking of his exploit, he also handed out an email address and offers to teach others how to do the same thing. Fittingly, the thread poster has been banned from the Epic Games forums, and his post has been edited to remove any information that could prove beneficial to those intending to follow in his footsteps. It is interesting to note quite how far some Xbox LIVE gamers are willing to go in order to acquire a beta, even if it is for one of the most publicized titles for the Xbox 360. Epic Games" community coordinator, Flak, took note of this thread"s existence, and left anyone considering using the exploit with a firm explanation of what would happen should they attempt to do so. He closed the thread with these words of warning:
They"ll get banned, not only from the beta, but possibly Gears of War 3.
The entire thread, though locked, can be read here. Gears of War 3 releases on the Xbox 360 exclusively, on September 20th 2011 (in Europe and North America), and on the 22nd September 2011 (in Australia and Asia).