‘Halo’ beta test attracts 2.7 million gamers

May 25, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES

Master Chief isn’t lacking for friends.

More than 2.7 million people logged onto the video game “Halo: Reach,” the upcoming prequel to the first-person shooter trilogy starring supersoldier Master Chief, developer Bungie Studios said Monday.

Players collectively logged more than 16 million hours and more than 1.1 billion virtual kills during the 18-day public beta test of the game’s multiplayer mode, Bungie said, adding the game will be launched worldwide Sept. 14 — except in Japan, where it will debut a day later.

“It’s exceeded our expectations,” said Bungie Studios community director Brian Jarrard. “Our only real perspective going into this was the ‘Halo 3’ beta test, which had about 800,000 people. We knew there were a couple million copies of ‘ODST’ out there, but we really didn’t have any specific information that let us know what the population might be like.”

Xbox 360 users who bought last year’s “Halo” spin-off, “Halo 3: ODST,” were provided access to the beta test, which ran from May 3-20. Gamemakers will use information recorded during the online test to fix glitches, tweak settings and balance the overall fairness of the game’s multiplayer mode, which pits blaster-wielding soldiers against one another.

“There really is tons of analytical data that we need to derive from the beta test with regard to the network and back-end systems,” said “Halo: Reach” creative director Marcus Lehto. “We needed our fans to provide feedback. We needed a very large audience to hammer on this game, which allows us to use the data that really helps shape the final product.”

Unlike previous “Halo” games, “Reach” bestows players with rechargeable powers, such as superspeed, flight and invisibility. The designers also added several types of online gameplay, including an objective-based edition called “Invasion” that tasks teams of players with advancing through an environment besides just shooting one another in the head.

“We always want to give our fanbase something new and fresh,” said Lehto. “We definitely wanted to give them something new to sink their teeth into with ‘Reach,’ and maybe even grow our audience bigger than we’re typically used to seeing. I think we did that with ’Invasion.’