"An Xbox Live technical issue wiped all Halo Wars Xbox Live Leaderboards earlier today," Microsoft has confirmed.

A statement explains: "This includes all singleplayer, multiplayer and Trueskill leaderboards, as well as all matchmaking data. At this time it's unknown if the data can be restored, resulting in the Halo Wars Leaderboards being reset to original Launch Day status."

The team is said to be investigating the cause, and will provide an update "as soon as possible."

"We at Robot Entertainment apologize for the Live technical issue and any frustration players have experienced in having their statistics disappear from the Leaderboards."

Now that's a bad start to the day right there. But can you imagine the panic a Halo 3 wipe out would cause. Sends a shiver down the spine...