It’s so meta!

Some of you have been playing with our Tag system. Naughty, naughty. While you made a mess, we made a list of names. If you’re on it, you abused your power and tagged someone else’s content with rude, inappropriate, or unnecessary tags. And they weren’t even funny.

Enjoy your ban. First offense earns removes your ability to rate and tag content for a limited time. More bad behavior will earn you another extended vacation, and may even culminate with the revocation your ability to upload and download content from your own File Share.

Have a great day.

Wake me when you need me.

Hot on the heels of your magnificent Moa submissions this past Friday, we're ready to get you off and running for some Week 3 madness. And since the Animal Kingdom paid massive dividends last week, we're sticking to some similar subject matter. Your mission: a certified, Grade A Sacred Cow.

1. Using any medium you can digitize and send via email, whip up some fan art of what you think Master Chief would look like without his helmet on.
2. You have from this very second until Thursday, January 27th at 11:59pm PT to submit your entry for consideration (and public ridicule) to contest@bungie.com.
3. Use the subject line “Bungie All Star Week 3” without the quotation marks to help me keep nice and organized.
4. The size limit is 10MB and you should use your best judgment and discretion in terms of the nature of the content you choose to submit. After all, our mothers visit this site (yours too!).
5. One submission per person. Please include your Bungie.net profile and gamertag in your email so we can grant you your reward of the star nameplate if and when you win.

You can go with a super serious straight take, or go straight for the funny bone. If you want to build John out of Forge blocks, that works too. Anything goes (except, you know, that). And don't worry about what you think Bungie originally had in mind for John, now's the time for your creativity to shine. Oh, and this week we're rewarding more than just one nameplate, so don't be intimidated by the awe-inspiring artisans of the Bungie Community. We'll be looking to highlight submissions from multiple categories, provided there's enough submissions to accommodate our aspirations.

Good luck!

Experience the music.



LOS ANGELES, CA - The live touring sensation Video Games Live will be debuting new music from the highly acclaimed Xbox 360 exclusive video game, Halo: Reach. The Award Winning music from the latest game in the Halo series was composed by Marty O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori who have been with the franchise since the beginning. Both Marty and Michael will be in attendance at the Seattle performance of Video Games Live and are available to all ticket holders at the post-show meet & greet for autographs and pictures.

This will mark the first time that the music from Halo: Reach has been performed in front of a live audience. “It’s a real thrill and honor to have our music be a part of such a successful event like Video Games Live.” said Bungie Audio Director Marty O’Donnell, “To know that people around the world are able to experience our music live in such a creative and artistic way is very exciting for both myself and Mike.”

Video Games Live currently has over 30 tour dates on sale across the globe with 30 more shows expected to be added for 2011 (http://www.videogameslive.com/index.php?s=dates).

The world premiere of Halo: Reach will take place on Saturday, January 17, 2011 at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, WA. New tickets for this event have just been added: http://stgpresents.org/artists/?artist=1401

To stay up to speed on Video Games Live, follow them on Twitter and friend them on Facebook!

http://twitter.com/VideoGames_Live

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Video-Games-Live/62865898389

Vote now. We ain't asking.

HBO took the time to collect all of this year's epic submissions. The least you could do is take a few minutes to vote for your favorites. There are some pumpkins in here that you simply have to see to believe.

343 Guilt O' Lantern: Voting

Calling all pumpkin carvers!

Got skills with a blade? Show them off and you could win some great prizes. Participation is simple. Carve a Halo-themed pumpkin and submit it using the handy dandy link below.

343 Guilt O' Lantern

Step into my office.

Put Dual Wheel Guns back in! What happen to them?Having 2 Guns was Awesome!
BeersNotYourFriend writes: You guys need to put Dual Wheeled Guns back in! It was great having 2 guns at one time! That feature made the game More Unique and FUN!

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Message to all friends,

The frontpage news feed is for, you guessed it, news. Having to wade through a few hundred "submissions" of the caliber on display above (and depressingly much, much lower) to get to the good stuff makes me stupidly cranky. Don't make me turn this website around!

Thanks,

The Management

Yup, the backend servers are getting hammered.

We're aware and working to resolve slow matchmaking times and inaccessible playlists. As soon as we're back up and running at full capacity, we'll make some noise.  Stay tuned for more information and thanks for your patience.

Just a gentle reminder...

Not that it needs to be said, but as we march towards the Halo: Reach Xbox LIVE multiplayer beta you can be pretty certain that the Internet will inundate you with plenty of bogus information. If you want to avoid being duped, you should make sure your source is legit. Think Bungie.net, Xbox.com, and the whole host of print and online publications you traditionally expect to carry official coverage. Anything else should be met with healthy skepticism, upright eyebrows, and abject ridicule.

Oh, and one more thing. As always, the posting of "leaked" information to our forums, whether it is substantiated or otherwise, will be met with a really mean spirited ban. Especially if you catch us before morning coffee. We're cranky in the am.

Carry on.

Help us, help you.


Answer some questions for us and we might give you some prizes.  There's only twenty four queries in all and we know you've got nothing better to do.  Why not spend your valuable time at Bungie.net to help us make your time here more valuable?

Bungie.net Survey

There's no beta and you're not getting piles of free points.


So, don't click on that link.

We're getting a lot of reports that the usual suspects are using the promise of a Halo 3: ODST beta and/or Microsoft Points to lure people into their traps.  Don't be so trusting.  In fact, if you've seen these links and had to think about it for even a fraction of a second, you should probably never click on any links again.  Ever.  Unless they're on our front page.  Those are cool.

If you did click on a suspect link, it's probably a great idea to get on the phone with customer support at Xbox LIVE.  1-800-4-MY-XBOX.

A word on leaks.


Yup, they're real.  And yes, they suck.  Spectacularly. 

As much as it pains us to say it, if you're looking to stay spoiler free for ODST we strongly suggest that you steer clear of our forums from now until you've finished up your first campaign play through.

From here on out, you may want to evaluate whether or not it's worth it to visit any online gaming forums or other channels where gaming discussion goes down. The only way you're assured to have a spoiler-free experience, is to go dark.  If that's the call you decide to make, we'll see you shortly after 9/22.  Godspeed, Seventh Column.

Oh, and if you do decide to stick around, best keep it clean.  There's no quarter for leaks on Bungie.net, fake or otherwise.  Links, leaks, and spoilers will be met with permanent bans.

And requesting a flyby.


Whaddaya know, tomorrow is Bungie Day.  Came up fast didn't it?  How the time flies.

Since you're so stinkin' awesome, we're planning on packing Bungie.net with a whole pile of great content for you to check out tomorrow.  Maybe (just maybe) we'll have some brand-new screenshots of some stuff you've never seen, another puzzling way for you to win Recon, a battle-tested beta feature becoming publicly available, and some sonorous words to cast your way.  You should definitely Stay Tuned.

On the Halo 3 front, we've got a whole mess of Bungie employees signed up to square off against you in the Bungie Vs. The World Playlist. We've filled the 24-hour hopper with community-crafted maps and set it to go live tomorrow at the wee hour of 1:00AM PDT.  Set your alarm clock - if you're wide awake and physical and find yourself facing down four flaming heads in the lobby tomorrow, you'll want to buck up and play your best because Recon armor will be on the line.  Pull out a victory against one of our four-player teams and you'll be one of the few that gets to rock Recon before Halo 3: ODST ships in September.

Wanna see who you'll be playing against should you get the luck of the draw and run into four flaming heads?  Scroll.

The Roster

1:00 AM - Clowntown FTW

Derek the Gorilla
Lord Shishka British
David the Wizard
Princess Carney

2:00 AM - There's tequila in the office!

Bob
Matt R.
Pat
Javier

3:00 AM - There's STILL Tequila in the Office! And Rum and Whiskey now too!

Bob
Matt R.
Pat J.
Javier

4:00 AM - Hey, Where'd All the Tequila Go?

Shishka
Cameron P.
Matt B.
Javier

5:00 AM - Team I'M ROMEO

Dan Miller
Cameron P.
Matt B.
Tristan R.

6:00 AM - Too Good to Win

Jonty Barnes
Pete Parsons
Chucky Gough
Jason Jones
Harold Ryan (Tagging In Whenever He Wants)

7:00 AM - Dawn of Recon

Tristan
David Candland
Justin Y.
Ben T.

8:00 AM - Morning Wood

CJ Cowan
Jason S.
Javier
Vic DeLeon

9:00 AM

Eric E.
Sam J.
Justin H.
Ray B.

10:00 AM to 12:59 PM - Hired Guns from Microsoft

Eric H.
Scott S.
Desmond M.
Paul G.

1:00 PM - Clowntown FTW

Derek the Gorilla
Lord Shishka British
David the Wizard
Princess Carney

2:00 PM - Compare Our Lives to Your Own, Then Wet Yourself

Pat J.
Blake l.
Artem V.
Chris A.

3:00 PM - A Coupla Guys Who Are Up To No Good

Max D.
Tam A.
Brendan
Jon C.

4:00 PM - The Only Hour That Counts

Luke Smith
Joseph Tung
Lars Bakken
Luke Timmins

5:00 PM - Grizzled Ancients™

Chucky
Ben the Wallace
Cuban
CJ

6:00 PM - $#%! Shoot me in the face!

Dave G.
Nick G.
Andrew H.
Jon W.

7:00 PM - Team Twatter

Mike M.
Ken T.
Cameron P.
Jason S.

8:00 PM - MP/UI Mobsters

Luke T.
David A.
Brad F.
Paul L.

9:00 PM -  Get Whoomps!!!

Javier
Matt R.
Drew S.
Mike H.

10:00 PM -  Team Free Recon!

Carney
Tung
Wilson
Lehto

11:00 PM - $#%! Shoot me in the face!

Dave G.
Nick G.
Andrew H.
Jon W.

12:00 AM - $#%! Shoot me in the face!

Dave G.
Nick G.
Andrew H.
Jon W.

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So, just how do you get your fancy new duds?  Well, first let's explore a couple of ways in which you won't: you won't have to give us any of your personal information and you won't have to join a custom game or indulge in any wacky Internet shenanigans to claim your prize.  In fact, just ignore anyone offering to give you Recon via any method.  They're jerks.  Jerks who are trying to trick you. 

When you run into our crew, you'll know it.  They'll have the Bungie nameplate visible from the lobby and their friggin' heads will be on fire in-game.

The ways in which you can earn Recon through this Bungie Day event are pretty straight forward.  Simply defeat one of the four-player squads you see listed above in the one-day-only Bungie Vs. The World Playlist or trigger some special metrics that we're not going to tell you about until after the competition is over and done with.  A few days after 07/07, once we have everything in order, we'll tell everyone to check their armor permutations for Recon.  Once the Internet recovers from the mass outage, you'll be able to sign-in and see if you've won.

Again, we won't ask you for passwords or personal information, and we don't need a thing from you to enable Recon.  Just play and have fun.  We'll take care of the rest.

Make sure you're ready to go when the Playlist goes live at 1:00AM PDT, and check back in with us at Bungie.net all throughout the day tomorrow for more information.  Even if you find yourself sans Xbox 360 or stuck at the office, we should have plenty on hand to keep you in a celebratory mood.

See you suckers in matchmaking.