We're aware that players are experiencing slowness in matching in today's special edition hopper. Men of the Top nature have been deployed.


Players in the limited edition "Living Dead" hopper are experiencing slowness when joining and subsequently matching as a Party. We're investigating the issue this morning. Thus far, Test has been able to join and match as a party in the hopper, but with slower-than-usual matchmaking times. Since that slowness is suboptimal, we're still investigating the issue and if we can find the root of the sloth, we'll squash it like the discarded Butterfingers covering the sidewalks of tomorrow. For now, joining solo should yield the fastest results, so if you're trying to grind out that Steppin' Razor or Overkill achievement, just join by your lonesome. We'll update this post with further information as needed.

The forums will be offline for an hour or two due to maintenance.

Update: This work is complete.

The bungie.net forums will be offline temporarily for database maintenance.  We apologize for the poor timing.  We suggest playing Halo 3 instead.

If you live in the New Jersey area and are interested in playing some  Halo 3 for a good cause, you might want to take a look at this website. This is a private tournament and has no affiliation with Bungie or Microsoft.

If you live in the New Jersey area and are interested in playing some  Halo 3 for a good cause, you might want to take a look at this website. This is a private tournament and has no affiliation with Bungie or Microsoft.

lukems writes:

The web team at Bungie Towers confirms that over 1 million people have registered on Bungie.net. That's a lot of mini-vans full of Bungie.net users.


Chris Gossett, also known as RunningTurtle 'round these parts sent a note out this morning confirming that as of October 12, 1,000,000 users have registered here at Bungie.net. That's an insane amount of Hot Pockets! Kidding aside, thanks for registering here at Bungie.net, we appreciate it and the web guys have made the site with you, the Community, in mind.

This morning there will be some interruptions in File Sharing and stat services as we add capacity to our Bnet and File Sharing servers.

Today (10/15/2007)  we're adding capacity to the database so it can keep up with the massive load of weekend games. The server will have to be rebooted during this time, which will disable both file sharing and viewing of stats on the website. 

Sharing "should" only be down for about 10 minutes, and stats may see subsequent intermittent issues, which we will endeavor to keep to a minimum.

Halolcats is one of those cat-meme sites, only this time, all the "catptions" are about Halo and related themes. We realize this site is a little olde, but decided to see if we could crush their bandwidth by sending you to LOL, or HaLOL as the kids say over there.

Oh and one of the Halolcats is by a Bungie employee and is a photo of his actual cat. See if you can find it. Click HERE.

Some folks have been experience statistical weirdness over the last few days, that weirdness is being rectified right now, but more weirdness is arising!


Over the past few days, some players (including myself) have noticed that their stats from games of Halo 3 have not been uploading to Bungie.net. The issue involved corrupted data that, in the simplest of terms, wasn't connecting players to their game data. The data still existed, the games just had to be relinked to the profiles.

Because of the way our database works, the most recently uploaded games affect the Player Bar at the top of your page. So, while the reprocessing is underway (it should conclude in the next 24-36 hours), things like your Rank and EXP may appear differently than they appear in game, specifically, they may appear how they were on say, last Friday. The good news is that the in-game display is correct and will be reflected on the website either after you play another game and it uploads, or one all of the processing is complete and you play another game -- that's because of the "most recently updated game history" bit I was talking about above.

So if your displayed rank, EXP or anything weird is showing up on your stats page, we're aware of it and it's the result of maintenance we are doing to keep everything current. Don't freak out, top men are on it.

SketchFactor writes:

Bungie is pleased to announce its new status as an independent developer with a continuing and mutually prosperous publishing relationship with Microsoft Game Studios.

Press Release:

For Release 8 a.m. PDT

Oct. 5, 2007

Bungie Studios Becomes Privately Held Independent Company

Bungie and Microsoft forge new long-term relationship.

KIRKLAND, Wash. — Oct. 5, 2007 — Bungie and Microsoft Corp. today announced a plan for Bungie Studios, the developers of Microsoft’s “Halo” franchise, to become a privately held independent company, Bungie, LLC, in which Microsoft will hold a minority equity interest. As part of this transaction, Bungie and Microsoft have forged a deep and long-term development and publishing relationship focused on the continued success of the “Halo” franchise. It is also the intent of both parties to expand their partnership to include new IP created and owned by Bungie.

Bungie’s critically acclaimed Xbox 360^® exclusive “Halo 3” achieved $300 million in global sales in its first week. Released on Tuesday, Sept. 25, “Halo 3” is the fastest-selling video game ever and already one of the most successful entertainment properties in history.

“This exciting evolution of our relationship with Microsoft will enable us to expand both creatively and organizationally in our mission to create world-class games,” said Harold Ryan, studio head for Bungie. “We will continue to develop with our primary focus on Microsoft’s platforms; we greatly value our mutually prosperous relationship with our publisher, Microsoft Game Studios, and we look forward to continuing that affiliation through ‘Halo’ and beyond.”

“Working with Microsoft was great for us, it allowed us to grow as a team and make the ambitious, blockbuster games we all wanted to work on.  And they will continue to be a great partner.  But Bungie is like a shark.  We have to keep moving to survive.  We have to continually test ourselves, or we might as well be dolphins.  Or manatees,” said Jason Jones, Bungie founder and partner.

Bungie’s management retained the services of Don Leeds, senior managing director of B-Hive Global, LLC, to spearhead the structuring of the deal and negotiate on their behalf. Bungie will remain in Kirkland, Washington, and is always looking to hire excellent talent.

About Bungie

Bungie was founded in 1991 with two goals: to develop games that combine brilliant technology, beautiful art, intelligent stories and deep gameplay, and to sell enough of those games to achieve its real goal of total world domination. Over the past 10 years it has produced games such as the “Marathon” trilogy and the first two “Myth” games, hailed as classics by critics and gamers around the world. Bungie’s “Halo” franchise is an international award-winning action title that has grown into a global entertainment phenomenon, selling more than 18 million units worldwide, logging billions of hours of multiplayer action on Xbox LIVE^®, and spawning action figures, books, graphic novels, soundtracks, apparel and more. The critically acclaimed “Halo 3”, released on Tuesday, Sept. 25^th 2007, is the fastest-selling video game ever, achieving $300 million in global sales its first week,  making it one of the most successful entertainment properties in history. More information on Bungie can be found at http://www.bungie.net.

#########

For more information, business only:

Bungie Global Media: Brian Jarrard, (425) 739-4900 ext.1, media@bungie.com

Bungie European Media: Cathy Campos, Panache PR,  / ccampos@bungie.com

Bungie Online: www.bungie.net

B-Hive Global: Don Leeds, donleeds@optonline.net, www.b-hiveglobal.com

The Blue Filter, a non-essential tool you can use to finely tune your television is now available at the Bungie Store.


The Blue Filter, used in tandem with the A/V Calibration tool that comes in the Legendary and Limited Editons of Halo 3, is now available at the Bungie Store.  The Blue Filter comes free with any order from the Bungie Store, make sure you add it to your cart though, because this item only has use for folks with the Legendary or Limited Editions of the game, due to its working partnership with the A/V Calibration tool

For a guide on how to use the Blue Filter once you receive it, click here.

THE DON WAN writes:

Last year in October, the Cavegirls hosted an online Halo 2 tournament to raise money for the fight against breast cancer. Since the tournament was a huge success last year, we've decided to hold another tournament in Halo 3! Please join us!


The Cavegirls present: Fight Like a Girl 2
Halo 3 tournament for the fight against breast cancer

When: October 20th, 2007
Where: On XboxLive
Entry Fee: $10 (If you are playing in both 2v2 and FFA, you need to pay the entry fee for each tournament)
Who can sign up? Anyone
Time:    11 AM Pacific
              12 PM Mountain
              1 PM Central
              2 PM Eastern

How this tournament came about:
I was working at Safeway when I was inspired to put together a Halo tournament to help raise money for the fight against breast cancer. They actually wanted me to bake cookies on my day off. I decided to raise money my own way, so I asked my lovely Cavegirls if they were willing to help out. The tournament was a huge success. We raised $777 in three weeks, and the money helped fund a mobile mammogram station in Seattle, WA.

Interested?
Please sign up here.

*This tournament is supported by LoadingReality