You may not believe this but Halo 3 has indeed hit shops. It's not yet on shelves ready for you to take with your shivering hand, but according to Eurogamer.biz the image to the left (click to enlarge), courtesy of CVG, seemingly shows the Collector's Edition of Halo 3, boxed up and ready to sleep for three weeks in a French retail outlet's storage area.

If you're one of those hardcore gamers reading the latest news about the latest gaming hardware and generation of games, then you're surely aware that retailers sometimes break the street date and start selling earlier in an attempt to sell more than rival stores, given that demand is high as far as the sky.

It's exactly what happened with the PS3 in Europe (Italy). But do you know what this means (I'm referring to breaking the street date for Halo 3)? Even if just one retailer out of a thousand breaks the street date for Halo 3, all other retailers will be forced to act in the same manner - they don't want to lose potential to the guy who started selling earlier, right? It's pure logic.

So for you, the hardcore gamer and fan of Bungie's first-person shooter it would be great if one of the retailers stocking Halo 3 broke the street date. Imagine this happening as soon as today. You'd be getting your own Halo 3 copy by the end of the day and you'd be shooting all night long over Xbox Live.

Isn't it frustrating though?

- game goes Gold;
- developer (Bungie) gives the order for the game copies to be manufactured;
- game ships to retailer outlets
- game sits boxed for another three weeks, although Xbox 360s worldwide would be very pleased to run the game as soon as today.

I pity you Halo fans. But wipe your tears and rest assure that at least one retailer is going to break the street date, although I'd say (from what I've seen so far) that's not going to happen this week. Maybe starting next week...