"Foul play, cheating and general harassment are things that most all of us have encountered at one point or another during our Halo 2 online adventures. While anyone who has played games online will tell you that these issues are nothing new, the sheer scope and volume of Halo 2 have amplified these problems into something that is affecting a much large number of players. To put it simply, the more people there are playing Halo 2 online, the greater the number of troublemakers to deal with. In addition, if you factor in some of the recent "soft mod" exploits and the ease in which they are implemented, it's easy to see why these scenarios are becoming more and more common. Yes, this sucks and we hate it as much as you do.

Everyone has a lot of questions about cheating – what's happening, what's being done about it, etc… This week we try to address the most common concerns and shed some light into what we've been doing and will be doing to continue addressing the problem of cheating in our online community."

They go on to say:

"Our team is aware of the types of activity taking place as well as the websites and individuals who are propagating these files through the community. Anyone who is found to be using hacked tags or modified game content will be PERMANENTLY banned from Halo 2 matchmaking. This is a serious issue and we will not be issuing any warnings. In addition, the Microsoft Legal Team is pursuing any websites or individuals found to be distributing Halo 2 game files or content."

It's not over because Halomods.com decided that they needed to take action too.

"As some of you may have read on Bungie's website lately, the cheating problem on Xbox Live has grown out of control. While our moderating team has been vigilant in eliminating any information about these cheats on HaloMods over the past month, I feel the time has come for me to take more drastic measures. Starting today, I have decided to temporarily close both the files forum and the main forum until Bungie releases their next auto-update. From what I hear, this will likely be in the next few weeks. I know this will disappoint many of you, but I think it is better for the long-term health of our community. You may remember a similar situation on the HBO forums when Halo 2 was leaked.

I believe the majority of our community despises what these XBL cheaters have done to ruin the Halo modder's reputation. Modding is supposed to be about being creative and adding new content to our favorite game. We will not tolerate their intrusion into our community.

During this time, the main HaloMods webpage will remain up, so please do your part to help Bungie out. If you see ANYONE using mods on live, please click the "report cheaters" button on the right side of this page. You need to have an account with the main site. In addition, if you find any links with step-by-step tutorials on how to mod and get on XBL, links for warezing the new maps, or cheat ppfs, send the link to cheaters-list@halomods.com. We will forward the information to Bungie so they can take appropriate action.

Even though the forums will be closed, you may still contribute stories to our main page. Our IRC channel will remain open. Again, sorry for the inconvenience this may cause many of you."

Lastly other sites have begun closing their forums as well. It appears that the cheating is not only becoming a headache but a real issue that may have legal ramifications. If I see more on this issue, I shall post. For those that are using and have these Halo mods, you might wish to visit Bungie.net and decide what you wish to do.

(Shark2th commentary:) As far as this place? Unlike other sites, we never offered any dedicated halo hacking forums, so we have nothing to close or apologise for.