Halo 3 Beta included with Crackdown?!?!

ow many copies of Crackdown can Halo 3 sell? Remember the first way to get in to the Halo 3 beta? Well, purchasing "specially marked" copies of the MS-published, Real Time Worlds' developed Crackdown in February will be the second way to get a piece of the Halo 3 beta pie. The "Specially Marked" beta program emerged via an advertisement in Gamepro.

Officially, Microsoft told 1UP "There will be more information coming soon." Will it coincide with a Bungie Weekly Update? Or will it end up surfacing next week after the holidays?

We warned of a potential software pack-in for the Halo 3 beta back when it was announced in November -- now that warning is a reality. Between the registration sweepstakes and the Crackdown pack-in, Microsoft is giving gamers two ways to get into their "public" beta -- though a fleeting beta you're paying $60 to participate in doesn't seem very public.

While the effort to lift other titles in their first-party line-up is admirable, it's easy to read the Halo 3 beta inclusion with Crackdown as the first second (remember the Brute Force Halo bonus disc?) time we've seen Microsoft play "the Halo card" -- using its biggest franchise to lift a new IP. Does that mean that Crackdown is struggling? That's the perception a move like this gives off, even though what we've played points to the opposite.

Including a demo for Metal Gear Solid 2 is a huge part of why so many gamers played Zone of the Enders, but in Microsoft's case with Halo 3, the beta is fleeting and not something that will be playable once the beta period ends.

The third company to consider in all of this is Bungie. In seems unlikely that a company who has been so focused on growing its community (they are still the only guys getting online matchmaking right) doesn't want their fans to pay to participate in the public beta -- that's incongruent with the way Bungie does things. Boosting Crackdown with the Halo IP? That sounds like something Microsoft dreamt up, not Bungie.