It seems that Bungie and Microsoft had a few issues with their limited beta for Halo 3 last week. According to 1up,

5:00 a.m. on that appointed date came and went, though, and the beta didn’t launch for Crackdown owners. It wasn’t until some 14 hours later — 7:00 p.m. PST — that Microsoft issued a patch for Crackdown…yes, Crackdown. There wasn’t an issue with the beta — Halo 3 downloaded and played fine for press and those involved in the Friends and Family program — so how did Microsoft’s biggest promotion of 2007 blow up in its face after months of hype?

After a lot of finger pointing Microsoft fessed up that the issue was with Xbox Live.

“This is the first time that we’ve tried to interface downloading of a beta through Xbox LIVE with a previously-shipped game. It’s a complicated process, made even more significant by the huge interest in this beta,” said the company [Microsoft] in a statement.

Given all the effort (hype?) that has gone into marketing this launch which is after all just a beta release and a limited one at that, you think Microsoft would have thoroughly tested the process. You get the feeling the first user to download the beta was the VERY first person to download it. People had taken time off work and school to be some of the first to play test this beta so the lack of QA by Bungie and Microsoft is pitiful. Hopefully a bit more effort will be put into the final release - the marketing machine has already stepped up a gear with this press release announcing the launch date of September 25th.

For those of us who weren’t involved in the beta screw-up, err, test here’s a great Halo video with a smattering of Alien vs Predator to feed our Halo need.

Source: 1up

Despite the eagerly anticipated release of Halo 3 not being until towards the end of the year, just in time for the Christmas present shopping season, Microsoft arranged for a sneak preview for invite-only gamers. The lucky group got to presumably play a version similar to the public beta version out on Wednesday.

However the game got mixed reviews from the group with the graphics receiving particular negative feedback. Nick Puleo, editor at Evilavatar.com, said,

The graphics can use some work…They’re not much different than the previous Halo.

Despite any misgivings the group may have about the game, we’re sure it’ll still sell like the proverbial hot cake come release time. It’ll be interesting to see what the responses are during the beta test too. Anyway to keep you Halo freaks happy (that’ll be us too!) here’s a video of a leaked beta of the game.

Source: Reuters