Halo 3 Launches September 25/26

Well, now it’s official. Microsoft has confirmed that Halo 3 will launch in the US on Sept 25, followed by Europe on Sept 26. This is earlier than predicted and points to Microsoft making an early dash to snag as many Christmas Xbox 360 console sales as possible.

The company claims that the game will ‘shatter’ one-day entertainment sales records and it’s probably right, considering 2.5m copies of Halo 2 sold in the first 24 hours. So far, over 14m copies of Halo games are in the wild. The multiplayer beta kicked off yesterday and already the signs are good.

Microsoft will be also flogging a special Halo 3 edition of the Zune music player sporting Halo music and artwork - after all, it needs all the help it can get. There will be three versions of the game on offer and I’ve only got US pricing so far: basic game $59.99 (£30), a Limited Edition for $69.99 (£35) and a Legendary Edition for $129.99 (£65). Just add around £20+ to each.

Jump now for a photo of the Legendary Edition.