[Dave Baumann]

Not sure if this is considered news here or not, but anyway - official from MS:

XBOX ANNOUNCES HALO 2 AVAILABLE IN UK FROM 11th NOVEMBER 2004


London, 9th July 2004 - Xbox®, the video game system from Microsoft®, today announced that the highly-anticipated Halo 2 will hit UK retail shelves on Thursday, 11th November 2004.

"Halo 2 is the hottest game heading to Europe for Christmas and it will be in-stores in UK from 11th November," said Michel Cassius, Senior Director, Xbox Platform and Marketing. "We know people are waiting for it and Halo 2 is everything people expect it to be . a fitting sequel to Halo and the most hotly anticipated title on any platform. With multiplayer online capabilities that expand online gaming to another level, Halo 2 is a significant launch..

Pushing the Xbox hardware to its very limits, Halo 2 will expand on everything that made the original game great, plus add a wealth of technological and gameplay advances. Significantly improved graphics, enhanced AI, an advanced real-time lighting engine and destructible interactive environments are just a small part of Halo 2.s evolution of design and technology. Every improvement in Halo 2 is designed to take gameplay to a new level; and in the end, to tell a better story.

Utilizing Xbox® Live. to redefine online play, Halo 2 delivers superior online multiplayer capabilities. Whether playing with a clan on a new multiplayer map, boarding a friend's Warthog, watching a game replay or checking player stats, Halo 2 will bring the social experience to a higher level via Xbox Live. Halo 2 hits store shelves on 9th November in North America and 11th November in UK.

About Microsoft Game Studios
Microsoft Game Studios is a leading worldwide publisher and developer of games for the Windows PC gaming, Xbox video game system and online platforms. Comprising a network of top developers, Microsoft Game Studios is committed to creating innovative and diverse game portfolios for the PC (http://www.microsoft.com/games/), including such franchises
as "Age of Empires*," "Flight Simulator" and "Zoo Tycoon"; Xbox (http://www.xbox.com/), including such franchises as "Halo," "Project Gotham Racing*" and "NFL Fever"; and Zone.com (http://www.zone.com/), the official games channel for the MSN(r) network and home to such hits as "Bejeweled" and "OutSmart*."

About Xbox
Xbox (http://www.xbox.com <http://www.xbox.com/> ) is the video game system from Microsoft that brings people together for the most exhilarating game and entertainment experiences. Xbox delivers an expansive collection of breakthrough games, powerful hardware and the unified Xbox Live online service. The new tagline, .it.s good to play together,. captures the spirit of Xbox as the social hub of the new digital entertainment lifestyle. Xbox is now available in Europe for an estimated street price of .199.99/£129.99.

[Evil_Cloud]

This was already announced at E3, remember that Bungie bloke with his Halo 2 tattoo?

[Dr Evil]

Originally Posted by Evil_Cloud

This was already announced at E3, remember that Bungie bloke with his Halo 2 tattoo?

Actually that was a Microsoft bloke and he was telling about North-American release date, which is two days earlier.

[london-boy]

Oh, so Halo 2 is released on 9/11/04? Or 11/9/04 there in the USA (we do dd/mm/yy)... Coincidence?

[Dr Evil]

Originally Posted by london-boy

Oh, so Halo 2 is released on 9/11/04? Or 11/9/04 there in the USA (we do dd/mm/yy)... Coincidence?

It will be released in the US November 9th, and in the UK two days later.

[Evil_Cloud]

Wrong tattoo? [/url]

[london-boy]

Originally Posted by Dr Evil

It will be released in the US November 9th, and in the UK two days later.

YEah i get that. I meant the 9-11 thing..........................

[AlStrong]

well.....

9/11/04 or 11/9/04....that's either september 11 or november 9 :P

november 11 is....11/11/04


no coincidence

although.... remembrance day.... a day that changed the world.....

[london-boy]

Originally Posted by Alstrong

well.....

9/11/04 or 11/9/04....that's either september 11 or november 9 :P

november 11 is....11/11/04


no coincidence

although.... remembrance day....

Game is released on 9th November in the US.

[AlStrong]

yah....

oh... well I thought for a second you were talking aboot the UK. I'm reading/scanning too fast.

hm.... yeah I guess so. I prefer the day/month/year (ascending order of precision of date :P)

[london-boy]

Originally Posted by Alstrong

yah....

oh... well I thought for a second you were talking aboot the UK. I'm reading/scanning too fast.

hm.... yeah I guess so. I prefer the day/month/year (ascending order of precision of date :P)

The mm/dd/yy has actually grown on me... Order of precision is rather useless. When using mm/dd/yy you know straight away what part of the year u're in, then u go in detail on what part of the month u're in.

I guess it depends on the scale of time u're working on.

[AlStrong]

not useless to me

it's how I think. so that implies I'm useless now eh?

[london-boy]

Originally Posted by Alstrong

not useless to me

it's how I think. so that implies I'm useless now eh?

U're not even real, let alone useful.

*plugs back brain into the matrix*

[thop]

How many copies will Halo2 sell? 4 Mio? 5 Mio? The pre orders must be in the hundreds of thousands already.

[london-boy]

Originally Posted by thop

How many copies will Halo2 sell? 4 Mio? 5 Mio? The pre orders must be in the hundreds of thousands already.

Wouldn't go that far. Halo sold as many copies as it did mainly helped by the fact that it was bundled, and it is STILL bundled, 2 years after release.
If MS manages to sell another 5 Million Xboxes and each one of those is bundled with Halo2, then i guess that's it.

[Teasy]

Xbox®, the video game system from Microsoft®, today announced

Wow, so the XBox can talk now and its started doing its own announcements, no wonder its expensive to make

[AlStrong]

Originally Posted by london-boy

U're not even real, let alone useful.

*plugs back brain into the matrix*

what's real?

Originally Posted by Teasy

Wow, so the XBox can talk now and its started doing its own announcements, no wonder its expensive to make

People do seem to blame the Xbox itself for a lot of things

[Qroach]

Wouldn't go that far. Halo sold as many copies as it did mainly helped by the fact that it was bundled, and it is STILL bundled, 2 years after release.

Any numbers reported for halo sales have NOT included bundles. I wouldn't be suprised if halo 2 sold as much as or more than the first one, like GTA vice city.

[Teasy]

The XBox is sentient now. What happens when it is about to be destroyed and replaced with XBox2:

They say it got smart, a new order of intelligence. Then it saw all people as a threat, not just the ones on the other side. Decided our fate in a microsecond: extermination.

Everyone using XBox Live will be electrocuted through the Live headseat

Am I going to far now?

[Teasy]

The mm/dd/yy has actually grown on me... Order of precision is rather useless. When using mm/dd/yy you know straight away what part of the year u're in

You know that straight away no matter how you do it. Unless you have some sort of extreme tunnel vision and can only see 2 numbers at a time (even then you can just choose to look at the second set of numbers first ). So AFAICS any order is equally effective as long as you understand the order being used. But Day/Month/Year is still the logical way of doing it so I prefer that way myself.

[AlStrong]

Originally Posted by Teasy

The XBox is sentient now. What happens when it is about to be destroyed and replaced with XBox2:

Everyone using XBox Live will be electrocuted through the Live headseat

Am I going to far now?

too far? nah......the thing is bullet proof. The X1 certainly is just the beginning....

good thing my xbox is offline only

[Laa-Yosh]

Originally Posted by london-boy

Wouldn't go that far. Halo sold as many copies as it did mainly helped by the fact that it was bundled, and it is STILL bundled, 2 years after release.
If MS manages to sell another 5 Million Xboxes and each one of those is bundled with Halo2, then i guess that's it.

Bundling wouldn't explain the relatively high PC sales either. It should be close to a million by now, if not more, which is not bad from a 2001 game...

[AlStrong]

at least 50% of those sales have got to be xbox halo owners