Halo 3 Beta, Round One.

I received an e-mail in my inbox informing me that the first round of Halo 3 beta testers would be e-mailed within the next two days (1/22 - 1/24). The registration process for phase one of the beta testing is officially closed and now all I have to do is wait, and hope.

If you haven't yet registered to participate in the beta testing, which will cover the multiplayer aspect of Halo 3 over Xbox Live and is scheduled to launch in Spring 2007, there are still two ways for you to get in:

Rule of Three Program
The "Rule of Three" program is currently planned for gamers (17 years and older) in the 50 United States (includes District of Columbia) and Canada who have access to an Xbox 360 Pro console or an Xbox 360 Core console with hard drive, a valid Xbox Live Gold subscription and the Halo 2 game.

It is a two-step process:
1. Participate in at least three hours of Halo 2 multiplayer sessions on your Xbox 360 console via Xbox Live during the three (3) day period beginning February 1st at 12:01 am EST and ending February 3rd at 11:59 pm EST.
2. After the three day window is over, head back over to www.halo3.com on February 5th and register.

If you are one of the FIRST 13,333 to do this (and meet the above requirements) you will receive an invite notification in February to participate in the Halo 3 Beta.

Please note that if you registered to participate in the Halo 3 Beta during Phase One and were not selected, that does not preclude you from registering again for during Phase 2.

Crackdown
When Crackdown hits store shelves (Feb 20 - North America, Feb 22 - Asian territories, Feb 24 - European markets), and you still haven't secured a place in the Halo 3 multiplayer public beta you can still get in via specially marked boxes of Crackdown. These boxes of Crackdown include an invite to participate in the coveted Halo 3 multiplayer beta program when it becomes available. When the Halo 3 multiplayer beta surfaces in spring 2007, those owners of Crackdown that have access to an Xbox 360 Pro console or an Xbox 360 Core console with hard drive and a valid Xbox Live Gold subscription simply need to load their copy of Crackdown into Xbox 360 and use the disc as a key to download the beta from Xbox Live Marketplace and join the battle in Halo 3 multiplayer.

I expect sales of Crackdown to get an enormous boost in sales because of this sneaky marketing scheme. Just make sure you look at the box before you buy it to make sure you have the "specially marked packaging."