Halo 3 Beta

The Beta Banner as seen on Bungie.net

The Halo 3 Beta controls on a Xbox 360 controller

The Halo 3 Beta was a phase in the development of Halo 3, produced by Bungie Studios and organized by Microsoft. It was the open beta of the video game Halo 3, which was later released by Bungie on September 25th, 2007.

Introduction

Mr. Jukes' "Halo 3 Betalicious" video, endorsed by Bungie (posted on bungie.net on May 10, 2007)

The Halo 3 Beta was an intermediate build of the multiplayer functionality of Halo 3. It was first released to selected members of the public on May 11, 2007, and its purpose was to collect information and feedback from the millions of playtest games played through the multiplayer beta to refine Bungie Studio's final multiplayer product and to advertise Halo 3^[1].

Over the four weeks of the Beta, 820,000 unique users clocked up over 12 million hours of play - the equivalent of a single person playing Halo 3 for 1,400 years (Xbox 360 world magazine).

Entrance

Because it was highly popular, there were only three programs for the general public to enter into to have access to the multiplayer beta.

Invites

Phase One

Phase One consisted of getting onto www.halo3.com after the Halo 3 Starry Night CGI Trailer that aired on December 14, 2006^[2].

Players that entered into www.halo3.com quickly enough were selected to participate in Phase One, and received an email notification on the week of January 22-26, 2007.^[3]

Phase Two: The Rule of Three

Players interested in entering via Phase Two were to play at least three hours of Halo 2 multiplayer sessions on an Xbox 360 on Xbox Live during the three day period beginning February 1st at 12:01 am EST and ending February 3rd at 11:59 pm EST^[4] and had to be of 17 years of age or older.

Afterward, players signed up on www.halo3.com on February 5th at 1:00PM EST for their chance to participate in the Halo 3 multiplayer beta. If the player was one of the first 13,333 to do this and meet the requirements, they would receive an invite notification on February 11th or February 12th to participate in the multiplayer beta^[5].

If not selected to participate in the multiplayer beta through Phases One or Two, interested players had a third chance to enter.

Phase Three: Crackdown

Main Article: Crackdown

Crackdown, a video game unrelated to the Halo series, was released on February 20, 2007 (Feb 22 - Asian territories, Feb 24 - European markets). Players could get into the Halo 3 beta by purchasing specially marked boxes of Crackdown. ^[6]

These boxes of Crackdown included an invite to participate in the Halo 3 multiplayer beta when it became available. Owners of Crackdown that had access to an Xbox 360 console with a hard drive and a valid Xbox Live Gold subscription could simply download the Halo 3 Beta by selecting "Downloads" on the Crackdown main menu, then select "Download Halo 3 Beta". After the Halo 3 Beta finished downloading, players would then select "Downloads" on the Crackdown main menu, then select "Play Halo 3 Beta".

Also note that to play the Halo 3 Beta, you MUST have had the Crackdown disc in your Xbox 360 console. This means that you could not rent the game to just play the beta, nor could you buy the game, download the Beta, and sell the game.^[7]

Details of the Beta

The Halo 3 Beta began on May 16, 2007 and ended on June 10, 2007. In an interview with Game Informer, Brian Jarrard shared some details about the beta. Jarrard stated that there would be more than one map in the multiplayer beta, but far more than the beta will be in the final game. As for weapons, he stated that weapons such as the Spartan Laser and Spiker would be in it. He also said that vehicles would be added where needed, including the Mongoose. ^[8]

Bungie and Microsoft announced that the Beta would be released for download on May 16th, and would run until June 10th, presumably a sufficient time for Bungie to gather enough information to make the improvements necessary for the final game. Throughout the beta, Bungie looked on their forums for player feedback on the Public Beta. Included were three different maps: Snowbound, Valhalla and High Ground.

Early Beta

On May 11th, both members of the press and people part of the "Friends and Family" program got the Beta 5 days before everyone else.

Bungie and Microsoft hosted big press parties in New York, San Francisco, and London where the press could play and write up on their experiences. The press featured some of the best out there: IGN, Gamespot, and many more.

Videos and write ups of their gameplay experiences can be found at their sites.

Unfortunately, people sold the codes on Ebay, making a profit off of the Beta. ^[9]

Bugs and Errors

See the main article: Halo 3 Beta Errors

Numerous problems had been encountered with the Halo 3 Beta, one such problem being a 14-hour setback in its release for many Crackdown users, downloading errors, and matchmaking errors. To compensate the gamers, Bungie had extended the period of play until June 10, 2007 At 11:59 PM PDT (from June 6th, 2007, which was the originally intended end date).

Included Features

The Beta test featured the majority of features from the final multiplayer experience, though it had been hinted that not all will be shown. The features were:

Weapons^[10]

UNSC

MA5C Individual Combat Weapon System
BR55HB SR Battle Rifle
AIE-486H Heavy Machine Gun
Missile Pod
M41 SSR MAV/AW Rocket Launcher
M90 Close Assault Weapon System
SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle
W/AV M6 Grindell/Galileian Nonlinear Rifle
M7/Caseless Sub Machine Gun
M9 High-Explosive Dual-Purpose Grenade
M6G Pistol (Only available through a glitch in the beta which allowed players to access custom games)

Covenant

Brute Shot
Beam Rifle
Carbine
Type-25 Directed Energy Pistol
Type-25 Directed Energy Rifle
Type-25 Carbine "Spiker"
Plasma Grenade
Spike Grenade
Type-33 Guided Munitions Launcher
Energy Sword (only available through a glitch in the beta which allowed players to access custom games)

Vehicles^[11]

UNSC

Covenant

Ghost
Banshee
Wraith (Only available through a glitch, until it was added in the final week of the beta)

Equipment^[12]

File:H3 Equipment.jpg

A list of the various equipment available in the Halo 3 Beta.

Maps

Matchmaking

Features:

"Party Up"
"Veto"

Ranked Playlists:

Rumble Pit – All out action with you entering alone to play Slayer, and some objective game types. Max party size: 1.
Team Slayer – Enter alone or with a small group and you’ll be matched against another team of equal size in a small variety of Slayer variants. Team Size: 3-4. Max party size: 4
Team Skirmish – Team based objectives are the order of the day here, everything from single flag CTF to Territories. Team Size: 3-4. Max party size: 4
Big Team Battle – Just like it says. Big team based games on maps big enough to support them. In this case, that’s Valhalla and High Ground. Team Size: 5-6. Max party size: 6.

Social Playlists:

Rumble Training– Just like Rumble Pit, but unranked. Max party size: 6
Team Training– An unranked mixture of team-based games, with both Slayer and objective types. Team Size: 3-4. Max party size: 8
BTB Training– An unranked version of Big Team Battle. Max party size: 12
2V2 Training– 2-man teams battle each other for bragging rights and little else in this unranked playlist. Max party size: 4

Saved Films