Halo 3 hits retail in September / Beta starts April 27th

US, March 15, 2007 - Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie Studios aim to ship Halo 3 in September, well before the biggest holiday rush begins, IGN learned last week from two independent sources who asked to remain anonymous.

A big-name publisher and well-established development house separately revealed to IGN that Microsoft intends on beating this year' s stacked holiday rush with a September release, rather than the assumed November timeframe.

When phoned, a Microsoft representative said it has only publicly confirmed a fall release, with no specific day or month slated.

The developer, which is close with Bungie, said by getting Halo 3 out early it will sell more systems faster and give Microsoft a head start on its competition, which is likely to ship games in the more traditional months of October and November. Halo 3' s popularity makes it the perfect killer app and system seller to give Microsoft an edge over Sony' s and Nintendo' s hefty set of games coming this fall.

The original Halo shipped with the launch of the first Xbox in November 2001. The sequel, Halo 2, shipped in November 2004. With both games, Microsoft' s strategy was to give Bungie as much time as possible to hone and polish their title before reaching QA and the finalization process. But this time, Bungie is on schedule and aims to surprise the world by shipping two months earlier than assumed. IGN was told that was the goal, at least. With all development processes, nothing is certain, both added. Halo 3 could need another month or two, pushing it to October or the assumed November slot if necessary.

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Early?

EDIT: Halo 3 themed 12 month LIVE card, possibly connected to the Beta?

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Hmm thats nice. I not a big fan of Halo but bought it anyways simply because everyone else would have it and I needed somthign to do on Xbox Live til the fad wore thing...

Probably do the same with this one...

Its a nice game and all, but I lean more towards the tatical type of games rather the then run and guns latly.

holy crap! i havnt reserved yet! its gonna be like crackdown all over again and im not gonna have one till a week after it releases

I' ve secured an invite Via-Crackdown, so I' m all good.

Got my invite via Crackdown and via Rewiredmind.com.

BTW is it sad that I have pre ordered 2 copies of H3 one is the extreme version in the Spartan helmet (Not to be opened.) and the other is the bog standard version (to be used.)

BTW is it sad that I have pre ordered 2 copies of H3 one is the extreme version in the Spartan helmet (Not to be opened.) and the other is the bog standard version (to be used.)

why didnt you spring for the extra 10 bucks and get the collectors edition. Now its going to keep you up at night and your going to open the box and look at the dvds and attempt to try on the helmet

I' m putting the helmet on my cat.

I was gonna do that to my dog

Sorry but the only way I am going to wear the Helmet is if my better half decides to play school teacher and naughty spartan with me!!!

ORIGINAL: alijay034

Sorry but the only way I am going to wear the Helmet is if my better half decides to play school teacher and naughty spartan with me!!!

Oh, matron!!!