'Halo: Reach' Release Date And Beta Statistics

Bungie may not have attracted the 3 million players they expected to host for the "Halo: Reach" multiplayer beta test, but they sound like they came close. "More than 2.7 million" is the official count, according to a report by the AP, and September 14 will be the ultimate release date for the full game.

"It's exceeded our expectations," Bungie community director Brian Jarrard said, according to the story. "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."

Emotions and demands likely run high right now on the Halo team, since "Reach" will be Bungie's last title with Microsoft before embarking a new project with Activision as its publisher.

"This is the most pressure we've ever been under," "Reach" creative director Marcus Lehto. "This is the biggest 'Halo' title we've ever made, and we're worried there's 'Halo' fatigue out there. That's why we set out to add new twists, and we're happy to see people enjoy it, but it was a huge risk for us to release what's essentially a work in progress to almost 3 million people."

2.7 million participants is certainly nothing to scoff at, and that much gameplay should make for a healthy chunk of data to use for debugging and polishing up Bungie's final project.

What do you want to see fixed when the full version of "Reach" goes on sale? Have you marked your calendar for September 14 yet? Share your responses in the comment section below.

Tags bungie, halo, halo: reach, microsoft game studios