Much ahead of scheduled 6th March release, gamers got a glimpse of Mass Effect 3 ‘beta’; thanks to a Microsoft faux pas. Before Microsoft managed to cover up the leak, a lot of our fellow gamers got a good shot at the ‘beta.’

'Costly Leak !' But who's complaining?

Mass Effect 3: Costly leak to give us insights

It all started last Friday, when Xbox live started to offer Mass Effect 3 beta to the gamers—offering a never seen before insight into both single and multiplayer variants of the game. The most surprising was for a company like Bioware, this type of leak; that too with so many days left to have the final version of the game ready—was not only unprecedented but quite unexpected.
Well, Bioware did acknowledge the leak later terming it as an accidental leak by an Microsoft staff while checking out the offerings to users who have already signed up to their latest Xbox Live dashboard update.

Mass Effect 3: Bioware doing everything to negate the leak

Jesse Houston, producer Bioware expressed his grief about the leak, emphasizing on the fact that with much early in the fine-tuning of the game, the leaked version was just a crude version and promises to deliver a much improved and sophisticated version of the galactic warfare in coming March. He also expressed his desire to offer a much improved gaming experience both storyline wise always the combat element.

Mass Effect 3 leak: Microsoft not ‘much bothered’

Microsoft was prompt on their part; they made all the related threads on Mass effect 3 on Xbox Live to be deleted at the earliest.

Microsoft issued a cease and desist order on the NeoGAF thread that actually led to the leak, which eventually led to EviLore, the board owner withdrawing the thread. Now, it remains to be seen how long Microsoft take this cease-and-desist forward, whether the take up action against the ‘individual’ whose action lead to the leak or whether they carry on with an intellectual property right violation over the issue.
Bioware is looking to release the beta officially in next January, months ahead of the full and final release.