Neocrisis.com writes: "Great Britain is the third largest video games market (behind the USA and Japan), and as revealed by the recent hardware sales the Xbox 360 has a strangehold of the market, even outselling the Wii and DS so far in 2009. Although the recent software sales chart shows that Nintendo still have some fight left in them, it seems Sonys massively popular shooter 'Killzone 2'is being outsold by Microsofts equally massive 'Halo 3'. The real kicker, however, is that Halo 3 is nearing it's second birthday, whereas Killzone 2 is barely six months old. Halo Wars aswell, which launched in the same time frame as Killzone 2, is also hanging in at number 40."
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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 4
3 Call of Duty: WaW
4 Gears of War 2
5 GTA IV
6 Battlefield 1943
7 Marvel vs. Capcom 2
8 1 vs 100
9 FIFA 09
10 Left 4 Dead

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased):
1 Marvel vs. Capcom 2
2 Battlefield 1943
3 Splosion Man
4 Castle Crashers
5 The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition
6 Worms 2: Armageddon
7 Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers
8 UNO
9 Teeage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1989 Classic Arcade
10 Hasbro Family Game Night **
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Ausgamers:

Microsoft Australia have announced Christmas early with an Xbox 360 Pro Bundle packaged with both Halo 3 and Halo Wars, available nation-wide from August 6th (at participating retailers).

Sounds like a pretty sweet deal if you haven't made the console jump yet, and at AU$449 (RRP), you could do a lot worse in the bundle department. For those not in the know, the Pro Bundle comes packaged with a 60GB HDD, wireless controller, HDMI in, headset and ethernet cable.
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Bungie writes: "Happy Friday folks. Today's update is coming at you extra early on account of our entire team heading into an ultra top-secret World Domination strategic planning symposium."
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Koku Gamer writes: 'Halo 3's dominant streak on Xbox Live continued as it held out against the Call of Duty games once again.'
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Microsoft's announcement of Halo Waypoint, the Halo "destination" coming to Xbox Live this Fall, was light on details, overshadowed by the reveal of the Halo Legends anime series. Fortunately, 343 Industries' Frank O'Connor was at Comic-Con to clear things up.

Waypoint will offer Halo enthusiasts access to audio and video content in addition to community features and the option to follow your "Halo career." O'Connor explained that Waypoint will track the Halo games you play, the achievements you unlock and other aspects not directly tied to "Halo 3, Halo Wars, and Halo games ongoing."

O'Connor says that Waypoint, accessed from the Xbox 360 dashboard, and likely from the My Xbox section, will be a "really good place for you to interact with other people."

"There's a lot more to Waypoint than just watching movies and listening to podcasts," he said, saying that fans of the series are underserved on their Xboxes.
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Lars Bakken of Bungie and Microsoft Game Studios' Ryan Crosby confirmed that the campaign for Halo 3 ODST would be a shorter one than Halo 3.
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Bungie writes:

"A fanatical orgy of super nerds descended upon San Diego this week to get their clammy hooks on all manner of geeky, cross-genre goodness. Our boys Brian and Bertone have been busy wading through the body odor to offer up free samples of Halo 3: ODST Firefight (and mopping down each gaming station's controller with industrial strength antibacterial wipes). Good times.

Though Brian's absence from the community corner of the studio means I'm left to man the fort all by my lonesome, he hasn't gone completely dark. Surrounded on all sides by a teeming mass of pimpled manflesh for sixteen hours on Thursday, and armed only with his fancy pants magic phone and his hotel room's blazing fast broadband connection, Brian did his best to sum up the experience with a handful of snaps and a small pile of words.

Yesterday we enjoyed a quaint afternoon with upwards of 100,000 other people who all descended upon the San Diego Convention Center for the annual Comic-con. Paul Bertone and I brought ODST along and offered fans a chance to get some hands-on time with Firefight inside the Xbox booth. Apparently, judging by the constant lines and crowds, a lot of people like Halo. Who knew?"
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In 2006, it was announced that a film adaptation based on the insanely popular videogame series Halo would be helmed by a 26-year old first-time director named Neill Blomkamp. Blomkamp went so far as to create some Halo-inspired shorts, but after several months of development, the project ultimately fell apart. Blomkamp went on to work with producer Peter Jackson to create his first feature-length film District 9, but some Halo faithful still held out hope that Blomkamp might return to the video game franchise again.
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Bungie has revealed to GamerZines that it is working on brand new IP, unrelated to the Halo universe.

Speaking at a press event held on Monday for forthcoming title Halo 3: ODST, Bungie's Lars Bakken admitted that "we are working on some new IP which we're not ready to talk about just yet".
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58 teams signed up for the Consoles EU online Halo3 €600 4v4 Tournament. Teams have been clashing in the brackets for the last couple of months to see who will stand in the winner's bracket, who will fall to loser's and who will drop out of the tournament altogether. Consoles.net recaps what has transpired in the tournament so far.
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You probably heard already that Microsoft's 343 Industries is working a series of anime short-films based on the Halo universe, called Halo Legends. However, if you were under the impression that you'd be learning some profound or shocking details about Master Chief's storyline in the films, you're about to be disappointed.

With regards to what fans can expect from Legends, 343 Industries' creative director Frank O'Connor (and former Bungie big brain), confirmed during the Comic-Con 09 Halo panel, "There's a few nuggets in [Halo Legends] about Master Chief's future," however, "We don't go much further than the end of Halo 3."
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G4tv.com's liveblog from the Comic-Con panel, Halo Franchise: What's Next? is live and in progress.
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The Herp of Spawn Kill Writes:

"We all know how big a nerd Marc Ecko is; he says it himself all the time. In fact he loves video games so much he helped produce his own game called Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure. It was released three years ago and received decent reviews. His love for video games doesn't stop there; today Ecko has released a Limited Edition line of Halo T-shirts."
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Microsoft has announced that this autumn it will launch Halo Waypoint, a new destination for Halo fans on Xbox LIVE.
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Some publishers are making their own films, motivated by a desire to maintain control of their most valuable assets -- and benefit in the event that they hit upon the next big movie franchise.
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urk of Bungie writes:

"Ten years ago to the day. July 21st, 1999. Macworld, New York.

Apple's iCEO Steve Jobs yields the stage for a brief but soon to be memorable moment to Bungie co-founder Jason Jones. Jones, looking a bit nervous, steps into the fore, shakes Jobs' hand and begins quite simply:

"So our game's called Halo...""
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X360a writes:

"Following a distress signal from the overrun city of Jilane, Delta Squad is dispatched to investigate with the help of a unique "scout" named Alex. The team, with the help of Sigma Squad, will explore one of the darker elements of the Gears universe, and to tell this unique and harrowing tale, series writer Joshua Ortega will be joined by Epic Games president Mike Capps! Further exploring the world of the sensational hit video game!"
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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 4
3 Call of Duty: WaW
4 Gears of War 2
5 Battlefield 1943
6 GTA IV
7 FIFA 09
8 Left 4 Dead
9 UFC 2009 Undisputed
10 Fallout 3

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased):
1 Battlefield 1943
2 The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition
3 Ikaruga
4 Worms 2: Armageddon
5 Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers
6 Castle Crashers
7 UNO
8 N+
9 HASBRO FAMILY GAME NIGHT**
10 Sonic The Hedgehog 3
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NextGen Player writes:

"The World Cyber Games, the largest e-sports festival on the planet, has announced the torch relay route for the WCG 2009 Grand Final. This 80-day, virtual online journey is the ceremonial beginning of the WCG and is symbolic of "lighting the passion & spirit of Cyber World".

The online relay will travel around 11 countries to finally end up in Chengdu, China, the host city of WCG 2009 Grand Final. At each stop, the torch icon will appear on official WCG country websites with greeting messages from past WCG champions."
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