Halo 4 beta leaked via vhs? (viral marketing?)

"NeoGAF has found a video on YouTube this morning from user Skid Kid, which shows him putting a VHS tape into a TV that is sitting on a hay bale while he blasts obnoxious music in the background. You really can't make this stuff up. The strangest part is that the video appears to be playing footage of Halo 4, which is appropriately grainy and hard to see for a VHS tape. At the very least, it's definitely not Halo 3 or Halo: Reach, so there's that. Microsoft had this to say to Kotaku about the video:

We are conducting an internal beta test of Halo 4 which is a standard development practice for most video games. We have no plans for a public multiplayer beta forHalo 4.
​

That would indicate that this video is of Halo 4, and the fact that the video has still not been taken down would indicate that someone wants it to be up. Of course, with E3 so close, many people are speculating that this is a viral marketing stunt by either 343 Industries or Microsoft themselves. The video description also links to this Twitter user, making the whole thing just that much stranger. I'm still trying to imagine that if this wasn't done by someone internally, this guy somehow managed to sneak off with a damn VHS tape of Halo 4. Even if it's fake, it's still humorous all the same."


http://www.destructoid.com/apparent-beta-footage-of-halo-4-leaked-via-a-vhs-tape-228131.phtml




My thought is, 343 released this on purpose, but either way it does contain what appears to be beta footage so, enjoy.

 

God bless the mute button

 

I love Goromacida style!

 

I like how the old me would have vigorously scanned every second of this video, but now I watch 10 seconds of it and wish I didn't even bother. Even if you are interested in the next Halo, nobody should be interested in this.

 

It's 343 just making fun of all the leaks of Halo that hit YouTube. And FYI, they picked that song because of a Halo 3 Internal Beta leak.

 

Why would anyone think that 343i or Microsoft released this?

The credits are at the beginning, I'm not sure where the confusion is.

-Doom

 

Video has been removed due to copyright violation.

 

It's still on Vimeo. Are we sure it's not Halo2:Vista? I think that had an exclusive map or two. Might be what we're seeing here.

 

Why would "Microsoft" have the video removed if it was from an old and obsolete game?

 

me thinks it's an E3 tease from 343, otherwise this is a bit too ridiculous.

 

Well, the MSFT copyright enforcement people are probably middle-aged suit and tie type people who don't know anything about Halo other than it's making their company loads of money. They probably took it down because it seemed plausibly true and they didn't know any better.

-OR-

They know its not Halo4. They know it's older Halo gameplay. But they had it taken down so that people wouldn't think, “omg, Halo 4 is exactly the same! Lame!” and not buy it.

Besides, if you're trying to leak game content before release, aren't you gonna show off the cool new features? This didn't really show any weapons aside from the BR/DMR and pistol. Idk, I could be wrong. But mainly I think this is just a troll. Whether it was an attempt at viral marketing, or an attempt to leak game content, I'd just expect it to be better. Especially considering how awesome the viral marketing was for earlier Halo games. I still love bees.

 

Do you have a link, I can't find it anywhere. Damn Microsoft and their enforcement teams.

 

Sure. Here ya go: http://vimeo.com/43081933

 

More footage appeared:

But it was taken down too, I'm looking for it to see if it was downloaded and re-upped anywhere.

 

I'm at work so I can't watch the video you embedded. If more videos surface this will become more credible. And let's face it. Halo4 *is* being played somewhere. I'm sure it's been played and test around the clock at 343i. One of those guys could record footage as he plays, but I don't think anybody would be dumb enough to risk their job over leaking game footage early. Especially such low quality video.

Don't take this post as me flip-flopping on the issue. I still don't believe this authentic. I'm simply saying it's possible.

 

A deliberately low quality VHS cassette tape being played in what appears to be a farmyard setting? This might end up being a genuine Halo 4 viral clip (including a possible hint at playable locations) - after all, the following recent teaser for Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 is quite strange as well...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNPJMk2fgJU

 

Well, FPS Russia did get his start through COD, if I remember the story properly and he has advertised COD things before; so that kind makes sense.

 

What's odd about that, is it's real Halo 4 footage. I didn't even know VHS tapes were still made.

 

videos are down, link?

 

Old Bump much? hehehe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POconAHU3aE

PS: This build known as the Network Test has officially been leaked online.