With news of a leaked version of Halo 4 that is running rampant on torrent sites everywhere comes news that Microsoft is less than happy that the leaked version is so widespread. If you happen to be playing or thinking about playing this torrent-acquired leaked version of Halo 4, we suggest that you think again if you value your Xbox Live account.

Sources tell us that Microsoft is swinging the ban hammer with a vengeance to deal with those who have chosen to break the rules and download and play Halo 4. The Microsoft Xbox Live Enforcement team is aggressively issuing permanent ban notifications to offenders, citing “pre-release title play” as the reason for the permanent ban from Xbox Live.

When a permanent ban is issued by the Microsoft Xbox Live enforcement team, your Xbox Live privileges will not be reinstated and, of course, you also lose all of your gamer scores. According to sources, Microsoft isn’t playing around here; and when you get caught, you are going to be banned for life and that’s it. No word on how many have been banned for pre-release title play, but we suspect the numbers are pretty large considering how easy it is to acquire Halo 4 from the torrents.