MS really don't have a clue.

The Halo 3 multiplayer beta went public yesterday. Those who were Friends & Family of the bungie forums got in no problems, although some of them didn't receive their access codes by email. The 'Rule of Three' players faced the same problem. Seems a lot of people don't know how to check their bulk/spam folders.

But, the Crackdown players, who are the only ones who actually paid to get on the beta, couldn't access it. The beta was working, the link to it wasn't. And, since the link is actually built into Crackdown's code, we couldn't even download it another way. We just had to sit and wait.

Turns out that the updates to the game are what broke the system. Some people deleted their save files, cleared their 360 HD cache, and deleted the updates to Crackdown. Those 3 or 4 people managed to get in. The rest of us were forced to randomly try checking the downloads section, in the hopes that our 'Download Halo 3 beat' button was no longer grey.

The irony is that this is a situation that could easily have been avoided. Had MS just allowed Bungie to put the beta on to Marketplace in the first place, and included codes in the retail version of Crackdown, everything would have been just peachy. But, no, MS wanted to push sales of Crackdown with a gimmick. The irony is that Crackdown doesn't need a gimmick like that to sell it, it already has the best gimmick. Co-op play over Live on Crackdown is the most fun you will ever have, period!

I am now at 94% on my download. Any minute now, I get to play. Thoughts coming soon!

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	honestgamer - May 17, 2007 (01:08 AM) Definitely keep the commentary coming, Lee. Halo 3 is what some might call a big deal, so I'm interested in how it turned out and how pretty it is. It's the game a lot of people bought their Xbox 360 system for. I'm sure it will sell well, unless the beta is a total flop...