Halo 3: ODST was already complete in May

Brian Jarrard, Community Director at Bungie, confirmed on this week’s Bonus Round over at GameTrailers that Halo 3: ODST was complete and ready for shipping in May, before this year’s E3. Developing the game took only one year, mainly because Bungie decided to use the 3-4 year old Halo 3 engine again. Microsoft decided to hold the game back, in order to shift more copies by selling the game nearer to the end of the year.

Brian also mentioned that the development team moved back to Halo: Reach, which will be using a new game engine, as soon as ODST was complete. This may explain why ODST will also be shipping with a multiplayer beta component for Halo: Reach, which when announced at E3, left us all scratching our heads. Halo 3: ODST is set to release in North America and Europe on September 22nd.