Bach: Halo 3 ships when it's ready

By now, every Halo fanatic has pegged March 20 on their calendars. Thanks to an interview with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates in Time Magazine just before last year's E3, Xbox fans the world over believe that the franchise that practically put the Xbox on its shoulders and leapfrogged Nintendo as the number two gaming hardware company will be released to coincide with the PlayStation 3, in an attempt to blunt sales of Sony's console. Word on the street was that the PS3 had a launch window of Q2 2006 (regions unknown), and more recently, Sony CEO Howard Stringer mentioned that the PS3 would launch in spring 2006.

Putting two and two together, gamers now believe that Halo 3 will launch next spring. However, that isn't necessarily the case. Nothing has been set in stone, as neither company has made a de facto official statement.

Microsoft games division president Robbie Bach sat down with IDG News and simply said, "Halo [3] is something we'll ship when it's ready." He explained his boss's comments by saying, "Philosophically, the point Bill was trying to make is that we're not just going to ship and not have great stuff coming up. We don't know when Sony will ship PS3. They've said spring. What we do know is that the way our portfolio lines up, we're going to have great exclusive content."

When discussing how the PS3 and the Xbox stack up, he sees the two consoles' actual performance as comparable. "In some places we're faster, in other places, they're faster. The platform isn't just about that. Software developers are finding it incredibly easy to use [the Xbox 360] to design great games. On [Xbox] Live we're years ahead. The platform is going to be better, the games are going to be better, and the online services are going to be better."

Microsoft also sees their head start to market, something Sony had in the past generation of consoles, as a great advantage.

"By the time PS3 ships we'll be working on second-generation games," states Bach. One of which could very well be Halo 3--only time will tell.