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Halo: Reach Hitting Shelves September 14
You’ve played the beta, and now you’re left wondering when you’ll get your next taste of Halo: Reach. Well, wonder no longer. According to Bungie via the Associated Press, September 14 is the day everyone who isn’t living in Japan can pick up the game. (Those guys will have to wait an additional day.)
According to Bungie, more than 2.7 million players checked out the beta, logging in more than 16 million hours and more than 1 billion kills. That’s just a tad more than the number of folks who participated in Halo 3’s public beta.
"It's exceeded our expectations," said Bungie Studios community director Brian Jarrard. "Our only real perspective going into this was the 'Halo 3' beta test, which had about 800,000 people. We knew there were a couple million copies of 'ODST' out there, but we really didn't have any specific information that let us know what the population might be like."
Just what does Bungie hope to glean from the beta? With any luck, it’s info that should make things run smoother for players when the game ships.
"There really is tons of analytical data that we need to derive from the beta test with regard to the network and back-end systems," said "Halo: Reach" creative director Marcus Lehto. "We needed our fans to provide feedback. We needed a very large audience to hammer on this game, which allows us to use the data that really helps shape the final product."
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