Source: A tease in the weekly newsletter of developer Bungie and the subsequent fallout from gaming message boards.

　　What we heard: Halo 3. Just say the game's name and rumors begin flying. However, this time around, the latest rumors have some serious legitimacy. Developer Bungie is notorious at keeping a tight lid on its projects, but every once in a while it unloads a megaton of information.

　　On the company's most recent Weekly What's Update, which is posted every Friday, community manager Frank O' Connor says the following: "A bunch of stuff is going down to celebrate the fifth anniversary of a little game we like to call Halo... Next year, Halo 3 will conclude the story arc begun all those years ago and next week, we'll take a long lingering look at the series to date. There will also be some pretty BIG surprises and maybe announcements. Who can say?"

　　Naturally, this sent fans of the flagship franchise into a tizzy, with many speculating that news of the game's release date and demo would soon surface. While Halo rumors usually aren't nearly as sticky as a well-placed plasma grenade, these could very well be legitimate--all one needs to do is look at recent and upcoming events.

　　The news is likely to break in this week's Weekly What's Update, which (surprise!) is also the day the PlayStation 3 launches in North America. The timing for some big news makes perfect sense, with Bungie and Microsoft dangling a carrot in front of disappointed gamers who leave electronics stores empty-handed this weekend.

　　So what will this big news be? Chances are it could answer one of the biggest questions about the game--its release date. It's probably that Bungie will announce a release window--that is, summer 2007 or Q4 2007. Currently, the game has only a vague "2007" release date, though conventional wisdom has the game launching in November like its two predecessors.

　　As for the chance of a demo announcement, it's more possible than one might think. In addition to last month's Halo 3 demo rumor, the game's multiplayer portion has already been played by people outside of Bungie, indicating that some content is ready to go.

　　On a more conservative route, the least Halo fans should expect are the first real details, screenshots, and hopefully, gameplay video.

　　The official story: Microsoft rep--"We have nothing to announce at this time."

　　Bogus or not bogus?: Big news is definitely coming, likely some art assets and a release date. As for a demo? We have our trigger-fingers crossed.