XBOX 360 Wire

Halo 3 Beta Codes Still M.I.A [Updated 20:55]

Yesterday seems to have turned in to a bit of a PR disaster for Microsoft & Bungie - perhaps even rivaling those which Sony endured over the last couple of years. Imagine my surprise to find Halo 3 on the headlines ‘ticker’ on the BBC News site this morning.

The issue with access via Crackdown certainly appears to be fixed. I can confirm this is the case over here in the UK where I’m dying to put this laptop down and go see what all the fuss is about. But what about those of you who won your entry through one of the many competitive schemes run earlier this year?

We have been contacted by a number of people who feel that those who gained entry in this way are in general being ignored. Brad Wedell told us..

“The matter that needs attention at this point that has been completely ignored by Bungie is the fact that thousands of Halo 3 fans who won an entry into the beta through the “Rule of 3” are still awaiting their turn to play the beta …….[…snip….]… I hope that many of you will see the seriousness of this issue and address the problem on your sites to draw attention to a very serious matter. The laws around contest entries are very strict…..”

Further entries in our comments section, and on the official Bungie.net forums confirm this to be the case - yet there doesn’t appear to have been any formal acknowledgment of the issue, nor a statement saying if something is to be done about it.

Paul Brown told us..

“The issue regarding Crackdown has been addressed, but there is still a very large number of individuals who have not received their access codes that were promised to them through other means of entry, mainly the “Rule of Three”. There is a large forum at bungie.net and many of them at xboxlive.com regarding this subject, but there is yet to be a formal statement from a representative of either company.”

The only related information we are aware of at the moment, is that Bungie are claiming it’s a Microsoft issue, which is a problem for them, and them alone to deal with. Spin and speculation possibly.
So despite the majority of us now enjoying Halo 3, there are still some folks out there waiting with bated breath. An with those people being winners of a contest of sorts, one could argue their issues should have been sorted out first, before the ‘free’ entry was resolved.

We’ll update this entry as further information becomes available.

[UPDATE 1 20:55] 

Bungie have released an official statement on the subject.

“Thousands of lucky gamers around the world won their way into the Halo 3 beta via the “3 ways to play” Microsoft sweepstakes earlier this year. Beta access codes were sent out to everyone on Wednesday 5/16 but we understand that apparently not everyone has received that mail. However, the majority of winners did received a mail and are playing Halo 3 right now. The only explanation we have is that many people likely had the mail blocked by their ISP or they ended up in a junk mail or spam folder. The first thing you should do is check to see if the mail was intercepted and might be buried in your inbox somewhere.

Microsoft is going to send out beta codes one more time to everyone who won at 3pm PDT today.

This will be coming from the email alias  halo3beta@microsoft.com. Please keep an eye out for this mail. This is a second mailing and is NOT a new code. Anyone who originally received a mail the first time can disregard – this is the same code you already have.  The original mail was sent from halo3beta@bungie.com. This is the same mail, different alias.

We understand many of you have been waiting and hopefully this secondary mailing will clear things up. If you still do not receive your code, you are advised to contact Xbox Support – unfortunately there isn’t anything we (Bungie) can personally do to assist you. Once the Xbox support team verifies your identity, they will attempt to retrieve your code for you.”

Posted by Bleem - May 17th, 2007 -