An earlier report saw UK retailer Argos breaking the street date (i.e. official release date) of Halo 3. And after realizing their mistake, Argos is taking measures to prevent it from happening again, saying they won't be selling Halo 3 until the 26th (that's the UK's official release).

But, whether Microsoft will be banning people who Finish the Fight earlier than everyone else or not, here's what we do know now: they won't be punishing Argos for the accidental pre-release of Bungie Studios' hot title.

Neil Thompson, regional director for UK, told GamesIndustry that Argos' mistake was an honest one and not malicious to begin with. Yes, he's disappointed because this has raised a lot of arguments for all parties concerned, but he states that it's really pretty hard to micromanage every single detail in your supply chain and mistakes like these are bound to happen.

I don't think there was any malice on the part of Argos at all, it was just an honest mistake. Argos reacted incredibly quickly to the mistake, they issued us with a detailed summation of why the mistake happened - mistakes like that, we have to be somewhat flexible.

On a related note, Thompson uses the opportunity to state how the accidental early release of Halo 3 has affected the market. Upon talking about how some retailers would (willingly and consciously) take advantage of releasing games early for their own benefits, he manages to sneak in a personal comment on how Halo 3 justifies the anticipation for it.

Everyone will talk about the money, and stuff like that, because that's a headline-grabbing idea - that gaming is potentially going to be the biggest entertainment event that hits this country this year.  // If you over-hype something that doesn't deliver on the promise, then you run the risk of a backlash and that can work against you. I honestly don't believe that's the case with Halo 3.

Retailer Argos has just sent out word that it's now addressing the recent slip-up that allowed UK's gamers to make off with an early copy of Bungie Studios' Halo 3 for the Xbox 360. Argos also noted that the whole incident was due to an administrative error. Here reads the company's statement regarding the matter:

We are currently ensuring that there are no further sales of this product [Halo 3] in-store until the official release date, Wednesday 26 September. We have already taken steps to ensure that Halo 3 is unavailable on the Argos web site for reservation or purchase until the correct date.

In case you're wondering just how far-reaching this statement is, reader mjmaskrey noted in our previous article that Argos is now circulating a memo that seeks to prevent any more  Halo 3 pre-launch purchases. Now, in case you're among the lucky dudes who managed grab a copy, we still discourage you from running the game - lest you face the wrath of Microsoft's mighty Banhammer.

 

Thanks to a tip from MJMASKREY, we've just received word that the Halo 3 street date has been broken in the UK. Best of all, we've got a picture to prove it!

Apparently, Chinster, the gamer who managed to get his copy early, went to the Argos website and did a "reserve for store pick up" order. Afterwards, he took the number he got from the website, picked up his copy from the local store, and managed to pay through a human cashier who was none the wiser.

According to the forum report we found, it seems other people are trying their luck as well in their own stores. Now that word is spreading though, perhaps Argos and other shops will be more mindful of the street date for this and other games. In the meantime, feel free to tempt fate.

When it comes to Crackdown, it seems that updates come in bunches. During the time when the game was generally unknown yet, all news were about Halo 3 beta keys that come with the game. Then the demo came and people tried it.

Now, there's a lot of hoopla about retailers breaking the street date just to sell the game early. Here comes another one: UK catalogue retailer Argos made RealTime Worlds' Crackdown available in its check and reserve system one week before the official release date.

Rival retailers noticed this and reported Argos to gaming news site MCV. A spokesperson from Argos explained that the incident wasn't intentional:

On investigation, we have been made aware that there have been a small number of cases where Crackdown has already been sold. This is down to a genuine error and we are currently ensuring that there are no further sales of this product until Friday 23rd February.

The spokesperson further added that Argos doesn't endorse breaking street dates and that their company will take appropriate action actions to ensure that this doesn't happen again in the future.