If you're one of the many who grabbed a Gears of War 2 Gold Lancer when it was made available to the non-Collector's-Edition-buying public yesterday, then you better play with it for as long as you can right now.

A Microsoft rep has said that the public availability of the Gold Lancer was an error. Everyone who got the exclusive item from the Xbox.com marketplace yesterday will get their Gold Lancers removed in an upcoming fix:

We're currently attempting a fix that will expire all codes that were unexpectedly released in error through Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

Those who bought the Gears of War 2 Collector's Edition and got the Gold Lancer the conventional way will still get to keep theirs, of course, but Microsoft has yet to reveal how they plan to implement the fix.

Still, this begs the question: how in the name of Cliff Bleszinski did this happen? It's kinda hard to imagine how a mistake of this magnitude slips through Microsoft, especially considering that it concerns a very popular exclusive item. A conspiracy theorist would probably put it down as a marketing gimmick to get more people to log on, but I don't know. It really boggles my mind.

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