Following reports of the strikingly early leak of hotly anticipated Xbox 360 exclusive Halo 4 over the weekend, Polygon has fielded comments from both developer 343 Industries, and publisher Microsoft on the matter:

Frank O'Connor, Halo franchise director, said that Microsoft was aware of the apparent torrents of the game that are now online and of the videos showing the campaign.

...O'Connor said the leaks of the game and footage won't have any impact on how the game is released or marketed, including today's planned talk on the game at Comic Con.

..."This is how surprised I am about this," O'Connor said as he shrugged slightly, adding that piracy of high-profile games is sort of inevitable

If those obtaining the illicit title (which would require either a glitch-modded console, or a firmware-modded optical drive) are absent-minded enough to attempt to play the game online via the Xbox LIVE service, their infringement won't go unnoticed:

"Consumers should be aware that piracy is illegal and we take vigorous action against illegal activity related to our products and services. Playing pirated copies of games, such as Halo 4, is a violation of the Xbox LIVE Terms of Use and will result in enforcement action, such as account and console bans."

Halo 4 is due for release on November 6th 2012.