First, predicting how masses of humanity will react to something is impossible. You can say it was a good or bad risk for Bungie to take but until Halo 3 is released we'll have no idea if the improvements the beta release allowed outweigh the loss of hype and/or disappointment with a game that isn't up to graphics expectations.

I would generally think the beta was a good risk. It would be worse to release tidbits, build up a huge amount of hype, then the game disappoints graphically and/or has serious problems here or there. That could work with Halo since it was THE console FPS (the first one since Goldeneye four years earlier). It was also possible with Halo 2 since it was THE console FPS online game. Halo 3 doesn't have that luxury. If it slips in any way there are plenty of other great online console FPS'. It's in Bungie's best interest to do everything possible to make sure Halo 3 is as refined as it can be.

That being said, people are notoriously fickle. At first I though people would be rational about the beta multiplayer build since it's a beta multiplayer build. How silly I was, reading comment sections, boards, and forums at gaming sites the Xbots seem to be far angrier than I could imagine. Many of the Xbots talk about Halo 3 the way they talk about the Wii, it really surprised me. The concept that the gameplay may be worth graphics not up to GoW or UT3 (haha, Xbots upset PC games outclass their system) seems alien to them.  Admittedly if the forum opinions of such hard core gamers counted for much the Wii would be dying a quick and painful death while a 360 sits in every living room. Then again such gamers make up more of the 360 fanbase than they do any other system. 

On the whole I still think it was a good risk for Bungie, but we'll have to wait to see this September.

Both Sony and MS are losing steam, I don't see many more splashes being made in the ocean by them in the future, things will probably be fairly dull from this point out. Halo 3 will do phenomenally but I think all the people who will get it already own 360s just like I think most the people who want many of the PS3 exclusives already own them. There's no arguing more consoles will be sold, but I don't see the pace of the race changing over games at this point.

wow really? so what sells consoles? marketing and fads?

not even 1 year into the generation and you are already saying that "games" (which is why we buy the consoles right?) won't change how a system sells? 

 The wii might be selling phenomonelly now, but there are plenty of games on ps3 and 360 that people will want (halo 3, bioshock, final fantasy, MGS, Ratchet, mass effect...) and what happens a year from now when the casual crowd no longer cares about the wii?  All those people who played wiisports and then didn't buy any more games?

 I think there are 2 things that sell systems after the inital hype, games and price.  Right now the wii has the price, but with a price drop the 360 could be even with the wii (in price) and have many more games.  I buy my console for the games, not because a clever slogan or everyone around me told me to. 

 No.  It won't.

 It will be a popular game, but if that was the case, then the first 2 halo's would have helped the xbox destroy the ps2.  I had Halo 2 and I really didn't like it and returned it 2 weeks later.  Didn't live up to the hype for me and I won't be suckered into buying it unless I rent it first. 

>>gears is the far superior game..played the halo beta and wasnt too shocked how much fun i wasnt having compared to gears.>> I didn't like the Halo 3 beta at first either. But I picked it up again the other day and started getting more into it. It has certain advantages over Gears such as the graphics are uber-clean. Gears is an incredible game but UE3 pushes the machine so far things tend to be kind of buggy or difficult to see. I'm also not sure the Gears philosophy of if you die once, you have to wait out the round is the best for multiplayer. Besides, we haven't seen the tip of the Halo iceberg yet. I can gaurentee campaign will have some amazing things as well as graphical improvements. Bungie has not shown ANYTHING of campaign yet which means we aint seen nuthing yet. And then toss in a bunch more multi-player maps and game types and all that stuff, it's pretty much gonna be crazy.

Price drops won't save the PS3 or the 360, they've both already lost too much momentum. Wii isn't just a fad, it isn't just a gimmick, its a console that tailors itself to the player's lifestyle and seeks to expand the gaming market to new consumers, the tell tale signiture of every console that has ever won a generational war; Pong brought people to home electronic gaming as a novelty replacement for board games, it too was considered a gimick, the Atari 2600 brought huge droves to gaming by featuring a variety of games and showing console gaming can be more than just electronic board games, the NES almost literally redefined the market by bringing so many people to console gaming with it by making gaming fun, fast and convenient as oppossed to computer gaming at the time which was slow and perceived as complicated and a chore, the SNES brought gamers to the market by targeting Teen audiences later in the generation to compete with the hardcore image of the Genesis, The Playstation brought gamers to the market by making gaming cheap, convenient and mature oriented, the Playstation 2 brought gamers to the market with Cinematic sytle gaming and a DVD drive. The PS3 and 360 do little more than push their own hardware and don't really improve upon anything previously done in gaming other than graphics and don't appeal to new gamers, only old ones. Right now there are large groups of fanboys who are convinced HD and high graphics are the direction of course for gaming, but in fact its tying gaming into one's life style that is the future, that is where the Wii will succeed and the PS3 and 360 are failing. MS and Sony are so focused on competitng with eachother and adding more and more features into their increasingly expensive consoles that they've ultimately failed to create any impovements in gamer's life style or convenience of gaming.

You haven't heard much hype from me because I've been playing the beta. Halo is going to be huge. I'm not sure if the hype has dies down though. I see a Halo post on Digg and on Kotaku nearly daily. Try to post a message on Bungie.net's forum. Your post will be on page 10 in about 10 minutes.

fine, minigames and kid games might be your "lifestyle" but nintendo is simply in this to make money... they don't care about you, when was the last time reggie called you to hang out?  when was the last time you brought your wii out on a date?  when was the last time you went to a bar and had the wii out so that you could start a conversation?  When was the last time you went to a park and threw the wii around for catch?  the fact is that the wii gives the perception of lifestyle and cool... but it does nothing for real gamers.  The motion sensing device is old, the tech on the system is old... multitouch systems will replace the wii in 5 years (like microsoft surface and others)

 The difference between the wii and the 360 is that the 360 is giving gamers what they want, a solid online experience, and online community, great graphics and GREAT GAMES!  The wii has 2 great games Zelda and Super Paper Mario.  What other game is "great" on the wii that is not minigame based?

 If the wii wins and the next set of consoles are nothing but minigames, low end graphics and motion sensing control then i'm going back to PC and saying a big F@CK YOU to nintendo.

if the 360 gives gamers what they want then why is the Wii selling so much faster? Face it, yours is a dying breed. Calling Nintendo's product Kiddy Mini-games is just your defense mechanism against the inevitable. Enjoy your dissapointing generation. :) I'd rather have Fun games than 6 hour Halo clones that force you to go online in ranked battles with angry 13 year olds to get your money's worth out of the game. See, childish exagerations can be used against your console too.

Here, enlighten yourself with a read.

http://thewiikly.zogdog.com/article.php?article=92&ed=11