The "Halo: Reach" beta will be open in a little over a week, and Bungie hopes to have a big party on their hands. In fact, they're expecting the game's various modes to attract record numbers, and 3 million sounds like the mark they want to hit.
"My expectation is it could be upwards of 3 million people," Bungie community director Brian Jarrard told The Seattle Times. "I think that’s a fairly conservative estimate. Certainly there will never be a console beta of this magnitude."
3 million players would mean plenty of data for Bungie's team to collect in advance of the full game's release later this fall. "Halo 3: ODST" sold 4.88 million copies, according to the VGChartz numbers, so it may be possible given the number of codes already floating around out there. 3 million beta testers would be roughly 85-percent of the number of people who bought the game in the U.S. though.
That's not to say Bungie isn't capable of attracting all those testers. I don't know if it's really as conservative an estimate as Jarrard believes, but I'm ready to be proven wrong. If they succeed in building a better game than "ODST," which was nothing to scoff at, they may be able to do it.
Do you think 3 millions beta testers will show up for "Halo: Reach"? Do you plan on playing it on day one? Share your expectations in the comment section below.