Bungie Expects 3 Million Players in the Halo: Reach Beta

With the spring launch season pretty much done and hardcore players looking to the fall for some other big releases, one of the most important moments of the coming months is the outing of the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta, which is set for May 3. And with that date fast approaching, the people developing the game at Bungie are offering more details on the title and speaking about their expectations related to it.

Brian Jarrard, who is the community director at Bungie, has told the Seattle Times that “My expectation is it could be upwards of 3 million people. I think that's a fairly conservative estimate. Certainly, there will never be a console beta of this magnitude.” The huge number is linked to the amount of Halo 3: ODST copies that have been sold new to gamers, each of them containing one beta key that will be usable with Reach.

Jarrard also believes that most of those who will take part in the beta will be drawn from the significant contingent of North American gamers but also mentioned that the new matchmaking system integrated in the beta and in Reach will make it easier to connect with gamers all over the world. We know that four multiplayer modes will be available in the beta stage: Headhunter, Stockpile, Generator Defence and Invasion.

Finally, Jarrard also talked briefly about what Bungie plans to do after the launch of Halo: Reach, saying that the team is preparing something “totally new,” which might be bad news for all those who hoped for a revival of previous properties like Myth or Marathon.

The Halo franchise will remain in the property of publisher Microsoft but the company has not talked about who might develop further games that are set in the universe or whether it plans to shelve it for some time after Reach comes out.