Today bungie.net is reporting that Bungie will be putting out a Halo 3 multi-player public beta. Currently, this is something scheduled for Spring 2007 with all other details remaining unknown.
"Halo 3 Public Beta!? Perhaps the biggest bomb that was dropped today, the MOAB of press announcements, was the indication of a public beta for Halo 3 coming next Spring. What exactly does this mean? Well, again we can’t really get into the details quite yet (notice a theme here?) but we can confirm that our fans will have an opportunity to play Halo 3 multiplayer over Xbox Live BEFORE the final game is available. You’ll be playing a little multiplayer and simultaneously providing us with some valuable data to help our development team. We’re still working out the details on timing and scope and there will be a lot more info coming in the weeks ahead. We can confirm that you will absolutely be required to have an Xbox 360. Probably not a huge surprise."
Perhaps this will be an Xbox Live downloadable demo? Or perhaps Microsoft will try to recoup some development costs by allowing us to download it at a cost in Microsoft Points? Right now, we just have to leave all the questions to Internet Rumors. It is almost a garauntee that plenty of news sources will be trying to second guess the next Halo 3 news tidbit.
What does this mean for us gamers? First, it means Bungie understands the needs of the multi-player gaming community and wants to provide us with a quality multi-player release. With the community input and bug finding we'll be able to assure ourselves that the next upcoming release will be just what we all wanted and expected. Secondly, halo 3... early!? Enough said.
source: bungie.net
