Halo fan banned until 9999

Microsoft and Bungie have reportedly banned a Halo 3 fan from Xbox Live for more than 7,000 years after he got his hands on the Halo 3 Epsilon test build.

Neither company has officially confirmed it, but we've spoken to sources close to both and they didn't refute it.

The subject of this story, as GameSpot reports, is a chap who goes by the name "Scar" - a dedicated Xbox fan who says that he was given the Epsilon build by a friend.

Having "played it for maybe six hours or so all alone", he was then booted off every time he tried to load it up. When he tried to go online the next day, he discovered he had been banned until 31st December, 9999.

Which is quite a lot of time to get banned for, and it sounds like he isn't alone, having said publicly that other people who'd experienced the mega-ban had contacted Microsoft support "and had no luck".

He says he's not going to appeal the ban.