Microsoft invests in Bungie as developer of the Halo games because "they spend more time polishing gameplay" than any other studio.

That's according to Alex Cutting, producer on Halo 3: ODST from Microsoft Game Studios.

He said: "Bungie is an awesome partner. They say this a lot, and I believe it, they make the games they want to play.

"What's cool about Halo games is, you can be a year out from their actual street date, and the game's playable. People are actually playing the game at that point. We can watch people play, and we can get 60 people's feedback on just one experience in that game and polish that thing and hone it until it's triple A quality."
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Sep 8, 2009

LIVE Activity for week of Aug. 31st

360 News from N4G | Halo 3

360 - Halo 3 - LIVE Activity for week of Aug. 31st

These lists are based on global unique users connected to Xbox Live or in the case of Arcade and Community Games, full versions purchased during the week.

Xbox 360 Top LIVE Titles (based on UU's):
1 Call of Duty: WaW
2 Halo 3
3 Call of Duty 4
4 Gears of War 2
5 Madden NFL 10 (Download the demo)
6 GTA IV
7 Batman: Arkham Asylum (Download the demo)
8 FIFA 09
9 Left 4 Dead
10 Trials HD (Download the demo)

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased):
1 Trials HD
2 Shadow Complex
3 Defense Grid: The Awakening
4 Battlefield 1943
5 NBA 2K10 Draft Combine
6 Castle Crashers
7 Marvel vs. Capcom 2
8 Turtles in Time Re-Shelled
9 Splosion Man
10 Hasbro Family Game Night **
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Sep 5, 2009

Bungie Weekly Update: 09/04/09

360 News from N4G | Halo 3

360 - Halo 3 - Bungie Weekly Update: 09/04/09

Bungie writes:

"'Calling all cars. Calling all cars. 417 in progress. Kirkland Way and 6th. Repeat, suspect is armed and dangerous. All cars. Shoot to kill.

People paying attention to our webcams on Wednesday were treated to some footage of Kirkland's finest dishing out a little dose of serve and protect right inside the confines of our studio. Turns out it's not such a great idea to go for a leisurely stroll down Kirkland Way with an anti-materiel rifle in tow, even if it is just a prop. Maybe being surrounded by fake guns desensitized us to the obvious fact that our Halo facsimiles do, in fact, look pretty damn real. We shouldn't have to tell you that Weta Workshop does amazingly realistic work. The Kirkland Police Department was convinced."
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Sep 4, 2009

Halo RC Vehicles Coming This Month

360 News from N4G | Halo 3

360 - Halo 3 - Halo RC Vehicles Coming This Month

The wait for Halo 3: ODST is very nearly over -- unless you're one of about 100 French guys who scored advance copies, in which case it's already old news. Either way, toy manufacturer NKOK is working on something that's probably right up your alley: Halo RC vehicles.

Three varieties are on the way, along with tiny Spartan action figures that will accompany the land vehicles. Their radio-controlled M12 Warthog LRV moves at a top speed of approximately seven miles per hour, and is currently available for an MSRP of $24.99. Later this September they'll also be releasing RC versions of Halo's M274 Mongoose ATV and the AV-14 Hornet helicopter, which will retail for $24.99 and $34.99, respectively. No Covenant vehicles were announced, so you'll have to hold off on your plans for reenacting the Hornet/Banshee dogfights from Halo 3's campaign.
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Sep 1, 2009

LIVE Activity for week of Aug. 24th

360 News from N4G | Halo 3

360 - Halo 3 - LIVE Activity for week of Aug. 24th

These lists are based on global unique users connected to Xbox Live or in the case of Arcade and Community Games, full versions purchased during the week.

Xbox 360 Top LIVE Titles (based on UU's):
1 Call of Duty: WaW
2 Halo 3
3 Call of Duty 4
4 Gears of War 2
5 Madden NFL 10
6 GTA IV
7 FIFA 09
8 WET Demo
9 DiRT 2 Demo
10 Batman: Arkham Asylum

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased):
1 Shadow Complex
2 Trials HD
3 NBA 2K10 Draft Combine
4 Battlefield 1943
5 Castle Crashers
6 Marvel vs. Capcom 2
7 Turtles in Time Re-Shelled
8 Splosion Man
9 Worms 2: Armageddon
10 Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers
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Sep 1, 2009

Bungie.net: Return of the New Hotness

360 News from N4G | Halo 3

360 - Halo 3 - Bungie.net: Return of the New Hotness

Bungie writes:

It's no secret that we love to share. Our web team tells us that from October 2008 to present – less than one full year – our stats database server alone has handled 1.4 quadrillion bytes of disk I/O. What's a quadrillion?

It's one thousand million million and it looks like this: 1,000,000,000,000,000. To put it in perspective, if you had enough means, money, and time you could create a cube out of a quadrillion pennies and the sucker would be more than half a mile tall, wide, and deep. That's a whole mess of pennies.

And of course, with the release of Halo 3: ODST, we're once again upping the Bungie.net ante.
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Aug 29, 2009

Bungie Weekly Update: 08/28/09

360 News from N4G | Halo 3

360 - Halo 3 - Bungie Weekly Update: 08/28/09

Bungie writes:

"Twenty-five days out from launch, every engine in the studio powering the Halo 3: ODST machine is running at peak performance. As mentioned last week, you're more than welcome to sit shotgun alongside us as we speed towards 9/22, but if you're looking to go into ODST with fresh eyes, armed only with your own swelling anticipation, this mile marker is where you might want to just shut your eyes, hang on tight, and wait until we arrive at our final destination.

If you do decide to take in the scenery, don't blame us if you see some stuff that skirts the edges of Spoiler Country."
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Aug 27, 2009

Guy Busted for Stealing WiFi at NYC Library - to Play Halo

360 News from N4G | Halo 3

360 - Halo 3 - Guy Busted for Stealing WiFi at NYC Library - to Play Halo

Kotaku writes.....In a public library, a dude sitting at a monitor with his hands in his lap, covered by a newspaper, implicitly means bad things. Fear not, he's only sneaked in an Xbox to steal the free WiFi and play Halo.

The tumbelog teendrama picked this up - the writer's pal spied the multiplayer shenanigans in the New York Public Library. The guy above brought in a monitor, Xbox, wireless router, what looks like a Turtle Beach Ear Force gaming headset (I have one), and an external hard drive. His controller is concealed by yesterday's New York Post.
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Aug 26, 2009

7-Eleven Cuts Game Prices - Stopping Game Sales?

360 News from N4G | Halo 3

360 - Halo 3 - 7-Eleven Cuts Game Prices - Stopping Game Sales?

Gamervision reports: 7-Eleven's gaming experience started with Halo 3, where they staged midnight openings all around the United States and forced gallons of Slurpees into unsuspecting fans' bellies (needed to get those collector's cups!). Since then, they've remained on the scene, breaking occasional street dates thanks to employees who don't give a damn about gaming. Thanks for that copy of Gears of War 2, guys. Well, the saga might be coming to an end... or ramping up for a big holiday push. We're not sure. All we know is that the 7-Eleven near us, and many others around the country, are cutting game prices to 50% off, as the awesome camera phone shot above confirms.
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Aug 25, 2009

Bungie: Maybe our next game is Halo, maybe it's not

360 News from N4G | Halo 3

360 - Halo 3 - Bungie: Maybe our next game is Halo, maybe it's not

Halo fans disappointed to hear that Halo: Reach will be Bungie's final Halo game should take heart in comments made by the studio during gamescom last week - they just don't know at this point.
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Aug 25, 2009

Bungie.net's Halo 3: ODST map 'Heretic' In-Depth

360 News from N4G | Halo 3

360 - Halo 3 - Bungie.net's Halo 3: ODST map 'Heretic' In-Depth

Bungie.net writes: "You and this map are probably already well acquainted. Intimate, even. And though you might know the middle of this ship like the back of your Battle Rifle wielding hand, you should spend a few minutes to get yourself back up to speed. The Pious Inquisitor has been a long time coming to the Halo 3 multiplayer space. To help us slip back into her luxurious appointments we've recruited designer, Dan Miller, environment artist, Jason Keith, and art director, Justin Hayward to show off the space now known as Heretic."
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Aug 23, 2009

Rumor: Discount Xbox 360 Elite Halo 3 bundle coming to Canada

360 News from N4G | Halo 3

360 - Halo 3 - Rumor: Discount Xbox 360 Elite Halo 3 bundle coming to Canada

Another day, another Xbox 360 Elite price cut rumor. This time, said gossip comes to us in the form of a tipster (who wishes to remain anonymous), whose unnamed Canadian retail outlet is adding a new SKU to its store shelves -- a $349.99 Xbox 360 Elite bundle which includes a copy of Halo 3 and a network adapter. Considering both of those items still carry fairly hefty price tags, that's one heck of a deal.
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Aug 22, 2009

Bungie Weekly Update: 08/21/09

360 News from N4G | Halo 3

360 - Halo 3 - Bungie Weekly Update: 08/21/09

Bungie writes:

"If this is the first time you've dropped into Bungie.net this week to check out what's going on, take a second to get yourself up to speed. We dropped a pair of Rally Point screenshots from ODST's Firefight and a trio of In-Depth articles into the mix. The latter dig into the second half of the Mythic Map Pack for Halo 3 and actually aren't quite a trio just yet. Heretic is still on approach. Less speed, more luxury.

The two Mythic Map Pack articles we linked to were missing a pretty key element: overhead shots. We didn't have them prepped when the rest of the content ready to go, so we decided to run them and pop back in later with some updated assets. These top down takes include weapon, equipment, and vehicle layout on each map. And while Heretic's write-up has yet to materialize, we do have the overhead ready for inspection."
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Aug 17, 2009

Here's a ridiculously expensive Master Chief ring

360 News from N4G | Halo 3

360 - Halo 3 - Here's a ridiculously expensive Master Chief ring

Destructoid's own Conrad Zimmerman reports: Ask yourself the following question: Do I love Master Chief? Have an answer yet? Good. Now, if you answered yes, I want you to think really hard about exactly how much you love Master Chief. Is it enough to wear a ring bearing his likeness? Do you need your Halo bling?

More after the jump.
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Aug 15, 2009

Bungie Weekly Update: 08/14/09

360 News from N4G | Halo 3

360 - Halo 3 - Bungie Weekly Update: 08/14/09

It feels great to finally drop some substantial Heretic, Citadel, and Longshore lovin' out into the mix. They say good things come to those who wait, but man, that stretch felt a bit like forever didn't it? Hopefully, you're feeling pretty good after getting your first really detailed look too.
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Aug 14, 2009

Microsoft didn't want Halo as flagship title

360 News from N4G | Halo 3

360 - Halo 3 - Microsoft didn't want Halo as flagship title

Microsoft never planned for Halo to become its flagship title, according to Microsoft VP of game publishing Ed Fries.

"We didn't know what was going be our biggest title," Fries admits. "There was a lot of negativity around Halo, actually, mostly coming from the games press. We showed it several times publicly, and we got pretty negative feedback."
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Aug 14, 2009

Halo 3 Still Popular

360 News from N4G | Halo 3

IGN writes...... Ever wonder what it takes to be the most popular Xbox 360 game?

Halo 3 was released back in September of 2007. Since then, it has battled a pair of Call of Duty games to be the most played Xbox 360 game. While Microsoft's Xbox community manager Major Nelson gives out weekly updates as to what games are being played the most, no numbers regarding how many people are actually playing those games are ever offered.
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Aug 13, 2009

See the new Halo 3 maps in action

360 News from N4G | Halo 3

360 - Halo 3 - See the new Halo 3 maps in action

Joystiq writes..... Well, they're not technically "in action," we suppose -- more like action's going on around and within them. So, more accurately, you can see the Halo 3 maps that will ship with Halo 3: ODST (Citadel, Heretic, and Longshore) in the general vicinity of action after the break.ce and Games on Demand to Xbox.com.
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Aug 13, 2009

Halo 3 sells 10 million copies worldwide

360 News from N4G | Halo 3

360 - Halo 3 - Halo 3 sells 10 million copies worldwide

Halo 3 has become the first Xbox title (on either the original or 360) to break 10 million copies worldwide as of the 8th August 2009 according to VGChartz research. This makes the title only the 35th game ever to reach this mark, the full list can be found here.

After launching to an astonishing 3.8 million copies in it's first week (a record which still stands) and with an average critic score of 9.6, long-term success for Halo 3 was assured. Nearly two years after launch, the game is still a regular in the worldwide weekly top 30 selling around 30,000 copies per week. In fact, the only reason why Halo 3 is likely to drop out of the top 30 in the coming months is due to the release of Halo 3: ODST - a side quest focusing on the Orbital Drop Shock Trooper. Preorders for that title are already well over a million in the US alone so it looks like Bungie will have another huge hit on their hands.
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Aug 11, 2009

LIVE Activity for week of Aug. 3rd

360 News from N4G | Halo 3

360 - Halo 3 - LIVE Activity for week of Aug. 3rd

These lists are based on global unique users connected to Xbox Live or in the case of Arcade and Community Games, full versions purchased during the week.

Xbox 360 Top LIVE Titles (based on UU's)
1 Halo 3
2 Call of Duty: WaW
3 Call of Duty 4
4 Gears of War 2
5 GTA IV
6 Battlefield 1943
7 FIFA 09
8 1 vs 100
9 Marvel vs. Capcom 2
10 Fallout 3

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased)
1 Turtles in Time Re-Shelled
2 Marvel vs. Capcom 2
3 Battlefield 1943
4 Splosion Man
5 Castle Crashers
6 Worms 2: Armageddon
7 Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers
8 The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition
9 R-Type Dimensions
10 UNO
» Read More