The full soundtrack for Halo 3 will be in shops later this month, which is about as surprising as doing your teeth.

Officially the US will get it on 20th November, while retailer Amazon believes we will have it on 26th November. Microsoft Europe was unavailable to comment, helpfully

The two-hour soundtrack contains some really rather impressive music from Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori, which has been recorded by a full orchestra and voices of real people who can sing.

It is one of the most memorable scores from one of this year’s biggest games, and we had a chance to talk to O’Donnell about it at the Videogames Live concert held recently as a part of the London Games Festival.

Pop over to our Halo 3: Music To Watch Armageddon By article to find out more

                                                                                                                                                                                         Microsoft has announced that it will soon offer downloadable Xbox titles including Halo and Psychonauts as part of a new “Xbox Originals” campaign, as well as free Xbox Live Arcade titles in celebration of the previously announced fifth anniversary of the Xbox Live service.

November 15th marks the five year point of the service, and and company has said that, “as a gesture of thanks to the gaming community,” all Xbox Live gamers will get one free Xbox Live Arcade game, as well as 500 free Microsoft Points for all members who joined the service at its start in 2002.

More interestingly, the company has announced that with its latest Xbox Live update launching December 4th, Microsoft will kick off a new “Xbox Originals” campaign that will see the release of downloadable games for 1200 Points ($15) each.

Thus far confirmed titles include Halo, Psychonauts, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge and Fable, with “a growing catalog of Xbox games to download and own over the coming year.”

Said Live, software and services vice president John Schappert, “In just five short years, Xbox LIVE has revolutionized the way friends and family have fun in the living room. On its fifth birthday, Xbox LIVE truly is the place for hanging out with friends and enjoying downloadable TV shows, movies, videos, game add-ons and now downloadable Xbox games on demand.”

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.

Halo3Trio.com

Ticket sales down a whopping 27 percent for first October weekend, film execs blame the Chief.

Film executives are blaming Halo 3 for lower than expected October Box Office numbers, which on the weekend of the 5th were down a whopping 27 percent from the same time last year.

Many film executives, reports Advertising Age, are convinced that punters stayed indoors to play Master Chief’s latest, which let’s not forget broke all box office records by making $170 million on its first day. It’s now gone on to sell well over $300 million.

Ben Stiller’s new offering, The Heartbreak Kid (which cost $60 million to make) was expected to clear $20 million in its opening weekend, instead it made only $14 million. Execs blame the Chief.“The audience on this game is the 18-to-34 demographic, similar to what you’d see in cinemas,” said Mike Hickey, an analyst at Janco Partners, adding that “this could last for several weeks.”

In its first week of release more than 2.7 million Xbox 360 owners played Halo 3 online - that’s more than a third of all Xbox Live subscribers worldwide.

So you can see why a good portion of 18-34s were busy shooting people in the face rather than watching Ben Stiller.

Microsoft is apparently not surprised either: “We marketed it like a film,” said Josh Goldberg, a product manager at Microsoft, adding, “and now, we’re just as big or bigger than film.”

We’re starting to think its time to pack this journalist lark in, and sell bootleg Master Chief shirts out the back of a VW. Who’s with us?

Halo3Trio.com