Halo 3 Beta: One Ring World to Rule Them All If it seems like there are a few too many empty desks in your office, it could be some of your co-workers are leading a double life as beta testers of the most anticipated video-game release in years: Halo 3 starts a three-week public beta period Wednesday.
Microsoft's Bungie Studios handed out 13,000 beta spots for free in early February, and some 900,000 more have been sold with the Xbox 360 shooter Crackdown. The test features three maps from the multiplayer mode of the game, and it's a safe bet that some 360 owners will be playing hooky from real life to do battle over Xbox Live on opening day.
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Halo's addictive multiplayer mode has been a component of the franchise's success from the beginning. When the first Halo shipped without support for Xbox Live -- Microsoft's online gaming service hadn't yet been launched -- fans developed tunneling software to extend local network play to the internet. The system supported other titles, but Halo play dominated.
To date, players of Halo 2 have logged more than 800 million hours of multiplayer action on Xbox Live, and Bungie recently announced the 5 millionth player of Halo 2, some two and a half years after the game's release -- a remarkable feat in an industry where the shelf life of a typical title is six months.
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With Microsoft's Xbox division locked in fierce competition with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii, Halo 3 is certain to give the company a boost when the final version is released this fall. "It will sell 360s, primarily because of the hype," says Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter. "It will be the biggest-selling 360 game ever. Anyone who was waiting for an excuse to buy a 360 will soon have one."
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