In an alternate universe, these story leaks wouldn't matter; the game would be nearly out.

If you’re hoping to learn how Mass Effect 3 unfolds when it finally arrives early next year, be careful on these here Internets over the next few days.

Some Xbox 360 owners have been playing with a near-final version of the updated dashboard (expected to be released later this month), and somehow a beta version of Mass Effect 3 showed up on the dashboard.

“Microsoft has advised us that through human error at their end, content which was meant for internal beta testing was flagged incorrectly and released to individuals who had signed up for the beta of the Xbox Live dashboard update,” said producer Jesse Houston on the official forums.

The file has since been taken down, but not before users starting mining it for information, including BioWare’s decision to give players three new options to customize their playstyle: Action Mode, Story Mode, RPG Mode. The specifics of each are still being tweaked, revealed Houston, but as it stands, Action Mode removes conversation options, Story Mode makes combat very easy, and RPG Mode is what we’ve all been playing all along.

“We want to stress that these features are still in the early stages of development and will receive considerable iteration and refinement,” said Houston. “These modes are designed to give players an even finer degree of control over their game experience than ever before.”

The beta also allowed users to pull up critical story details about how Mass Effect 3 plays out, and while some details are old or not final, there’s enough out there that you should be wary about it.

“We urge fans not to read them if they want to experience the purest form of the story in Mass Effect 3,” said Houston.

If BioWare follows past patterns regarding leaks, we should have more official details on all of this in the coming weeks.