- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
I Know This is going to get locked but I just have to say, that in the Ilovebees rules forum it quotes Frankie O'Connor [color=blue] 'Halo 2 comes out on Nov. 9th or Nov. 11th for the UK. It does NOT come out on Aug 24th. You know what does come out on Aug. 24th? Some OXM special which does NOT, and I repeat does NOT have a Halo 2 demo on it. No clue how that rumor gained so much momentum. But to reiterate, Halo 2 comes out Nov. 9th or Nov.11th for the UK.' [/color]I read most other threads and I notice that the release date when stated is always for the UK what about The U.S.? And for the Record im not saying Frankie's lying .
It also says that they dont know how this early release got so much momentum, Its mostly from this artical on Warcry News Network
"MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY First thing I should do, make a signal. The crew will come get me if they can. Head is full of sand and it's hard to think. But they won't stop looking for me." The quotes in this game are awesome! You wanna' play? What do you know about honey?
It's the honey of an idea from Bungie, the brilliant minds behind Halo and developers of the upcoming Halo 2, and what they are doing with their latest, grassroots, marketing campaign has Halo 2 fans foaming at the mouth.
It all started with the trailer for Halo 2 that started appearing in movie theaters several weeks ago, most notably headlining with Spiderman 2, a film that took in over $250 million dollars in the first 12 days at the box office. The last screen of that trailer presents the familiar Xbox logo, but, for a moment, the web address changes from the traditional www.xbox.com to www.ilovebees.com.
The fans who paid close enough attention to catch this subterfuge went home and visited this site, a page that purports to have been that of a self-employed beekeeper and honey maker in California, only to find that the page has been hijacked by an interesting parasite. The page is almost unreadable with random phrases scattered across corrupted images. One link takes you to the weblog of Dana Awbrey. She is the niece of the beekeeper, Margaret Efendi, who is trying to help her aunt get the site back; through a series of entries, she makes a cry for help to the geeks of the Internet and continually fails to rid herself of the intruder.
The story gets more bizarre as readers start coordinating these seemingly random messages into coherent sentences. Some of the guru Internet helpers find even more information buried in the binary encoding of the seemingly corrupted photos. Dana gets scared and bugs out to Japan, but not before making one last post stating that this SPDR threatened her directly. An interesting story and a sticky situation for the honey makers, for sure, and as soon as the link to Halo 2 became apparent, we got interested.
So, what is this? It’s a marketing ploy to build hype using Alternate Reality Games to add a little more excitement to an already cool thing. Don’t be embarrassed if you don’t know what an ARG is--we sure didn’t. It’s a type of game that requires players to research, to think outside the box, and to put together pieces of the puzzle in a game that has many of the same elements as a whodunit mystery. These games often rely on technology to add depth and dynamic to the experience. I would describe it as an open-source approach to gaming, communities of interested players pool their collective minds, resources, and experiences to solve the problem. If you’re interested in learning more about them, check out http://www.argn.com to see an entire network devoted to Alternate Reality Gaming.
What really tickled our toenails were a few key features of the game. There have been a series of countdowns listed on the ilovebees site, each yielding some new insight into the SPDR that uncovered an unknown event scheduled to occur on August 24th. Another interesting note provided in the SPDR says, "This system will metastasize in 12 days." Quick lesson in biology...metastasis is the method by which cancer spreads itself. We sent out our reviewer to get involved in this game, and tell us what this all has to do with Halo 2.
There are two types of countdown in the site, one leads to August 10th saying "In X days this medium will metastasize." August 10th will mark the second time this counter has ticked over. The first time was July 27th, resulting in a significant change in the imbedded messages on the site and yielding what looks to be backstory and dialogue. The larger countdown leads to August 24th announcing the "Countdown to Wide Awake and Physical."
I scoured the net and found as many interesting theories as quack explanations. Take a look at TeamXbox and Bungie.net forums. Some people say that, on August 24th, we will get a demo of Halo 2. Others say we will get more information about the game. Call me crazy! Flame me! Do whatever you want, but I'd bet good money we will get an early release of the full game. I will explain.
Like many of the fans playing this game, I thought the 24th Prize was actually a demo because Official Xbox Magazine (OXM)was going to publish a new issue of their magazine, and I, along with many others, thought that a playable demo would be found in this Official Xbox Magazine. They’ve done it before, and with the official release date for Halo 2 still showing November 9th, it would make for appropriate timing. Howver, releasing a demo of their game before release date isn't Microsoft Games' usual strategy, nor Bungie’s. By releasing a demo, they will kill the hype of the game because people can play it. It spoils the surprise, and they get that longing out of their system. With a game that already has such a large following, and a title that almost guarantees new sales records, there is no real gain by releasing a demo. My logic was confirmed with a post from Ryan McCaffrey(Assitant Editor from Official Xbox Magazine) in the TeamXbox forums where he was asked "Will there be any Halo 2 demo in future OXMs?" and he answered, "Probably, but I GURANTEE you it woldn’t be until after the game ships." ( http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php?t=277468 ).
The first thing that made me think August 24th was going to be the release date of the game was the trailer. Unlike most pre-release trailers, at the end the Halo 2 trailer said, "Rated M for mature" in a voice-over and provided the "M" rating logo differently than you would for a preview trailer. This choice indicates that the game is already rated by the ESRB. This is important because, in order for the ESRB to give a rating to a game, they must review the final product, or at least a product close to the final one. This also suggests that Halo 2 is either done, or almost done.
Reading the message in the site, I see it this way: on August 10th, the media and the stores will know what will happen on August 24th (on this occasion, the release date for Halo 2), so the countdown will "metastasize" because every gaming site and every gaming store site will be consumed by this news. You might also be thinking, "But what is the logic behind your prediction? They have a nice November 9th release date. It’s near Christmas and everyone knows games sell at Christmas!" You’re right, and you should also realize that Microsoft Games has other games releasing during those months, too. Halo 2 is a as close to a sure thing as you can get in this industry. People will spend their money on Halo 2, regardless of when it is released. But what about Forza Motorsport and Fable, just to pick two unreleased titles from the list? An August release of Halo 2 keeps Microsoft Games from competing with themseleves come the Christmas rush.
Perhaps we're going off the deep end making predictions, but this isn't the first time that Bungie has used ARGs as a marketing ploy. Their first Halo-themed ARG was based on Cortana, the in-board ship AI that Master Chief partnered with. Now, stop and take stock of the amount of attention that is being generated by this little ploy, a buzz that is being fueled by both Bungie and MSG. Also make note that it seems Bungie has a history of releasing games on Tuesday, and both November 9th and August 24th are Tuesdays. Rumor on the street is that one of Bungie's first games, one that was never released, was scheduled to ship on August 24th, which may play some significance. Then again, maybe this is just that special Halo magic, making everyone talk crazy. I don't know about you, but I'll be watching that counter tick down for a few more days. Regardless of what happens, I think this is a brilliantly fun game, and I hope you take the time to play, too!
Also an interesting fact : 11/09/04 is when Halo 2 is stated to be released. (11 + 9 + 4) equals...24, coincidence? Perhaps. But a sweet idea.
So, what do you think? Do you have an opinion, or are you just another lemming surfing the net? We'd love to hear your thoughts. Email us at Editor@Warcry.com
Thats it.
[Edited on 8/5/2004 12:35:28 PM]