Halo 3 Goes Gold
Most Anticipated Title of 2007 Released to Manufacturing, Begins Final March to Xbox 360
 
The wait is almost over. “Halo 3,” the final chapter in the groundbreaking “Halo” trilogy and the most anticipated game release of 2007, has been released to manufacturing.
 
Three years in the making by renowned developer Bungie Studios, “Halo 3” is now finished and will begin its journey to store shelves around the world in less than four weeks. “Halo 3,” which has already set new records as the fastest preordered game in history, has exceeded one million presales in North America alone. The title is set to shatter day-one entertainment sales records when it is released worldwide beginning Tuesday, Sept. 25.
 
“This is a huge milestone for us and a big cause for celebration at Bungie and Microsoft Game Studios,” said Harold Ryan, Studio Head at Bungie Studios. “This is the game we've always wanted to make and certainly the best game our studio has developed. We can't wait for gamers to get their hands on it on Sept. 25.”
 
Created by legendary developer Bungie Studios and exclusive to the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system, “Halo 3” will set a new standard for interactive storytelling and social gaming by engaging consumers worldwide in Master Chief's epic battle to save humankind. In November 2004, the world's view of video games changed forever with the release of “Halo 2,” which generated a record-setting $125 million (U.S.) in sales within the first 24 hours and changed the way people think about interactive entertainment. Three years later, it remains the most-played game on Microsoft's Xbox LIVE® online gaming and entertainment network, with nearly 1 billion hours of online gaming logged to date.

We don't know who REDDOGG is... he could be MS, it may even be someone at Bungie who is out of the office and grabbed a disc.
At this point, a FEW people have legitimate copies of the game. These people are not supposed to be playing the game on Xbox LIVE.
 
No actual copies are avaialble to any retailers yet. The photos that surfaced earlier were EMPTY promotional/pre-order copies of the game. Many retailers have had these for a while now. It was a hoax.
 
However, we are just days away from real copies starting to legimitately leave the manufacturing plant. We are doing everything we can to try and keep the game story secret and not have the game get out early but sadly this is probably inevitable. The earliest anyone will officially get a copy is some members of press which will be around 9/22. Reviewers are playing it beforehand but only at Bungie or MGS controlled events. Nobody gets a disc. And then their reviews are under an embargo until 9/23 and even then, they are agreeing to not disclose story spoilers in their articles. We're trying our best but once this baby gets momentum nobody will be able to contain it.
 
For now... you should seriously be careful where you go online and what you read. There are jerks out there who will stop at nothing to intentionally ruin your day one game experience. Be warned.
 
On the plus side... just 25 more days to go. After nearly 3 years, what's another 3 weeks.

On the Halo series page at Wikipedia, an edit originated from Sony Computer Entertainment casts aspersions on Microsoft's Halo 3. In the Halo 3 section of the Halo page, Sony added "(Halo 3) wont look any better than Halo 2." (See the first and second story images attached below.) Since then, the Halo page has been corrected and locked from further vandalism.
 
The WikiScanner discovery is also reported on Wired's 'Threat Level'. (See Alternative Sources.) The report and IP address have been checked by Wired senior editor Kevin Poulsen, (i.e., see the third attached image for Poulsen's comments; "Sony insults Halo 3" is the second report after the Walmart report.)
 
Finally, the forth and last image was taken from a 'Whois' search at the RIPE.net database for "217.18.23.2", the IP address recorded by Wikipedia as having edited the Halo page. The query shows that 217.18.23.2 is registered to SCEE (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe) Liverpool Studios in Great Britain. The result also shows the studio's physical address, phone number, and email address.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.ph [...] =125851329