Bungie have released their latest update on their website which includes some interesting information about the Halo 3 launch and some backstage information.
From the Bungie account of the build-up to the launch we find out that there were two days of rehearsal involved before the actual announcement took place, during the Microsoft press event at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Bungie, conscious of the risks involved when running a trailer in real time, had a total of six 360 debug kits installed at the venue. Bungie explain, Three [debug kits] for the E3 briefing at the theater and three for something we did later. The three at the conference were the main unit...
Bungie also offered some interesting information regarding the way the trailer run, Harold Ryan our studio manager sat patiently backstage, waiting to press "A" after Bill Gates' speech. A dirty little secret was that he pressed "A" on two controllers simultaneously. That way if one of the boxes was accidentally unplugged, or broke, or gasp - crashed, the projector would switch seamlessly to the second Xbox and hopefully nobody would notice.
The event itself had a few spoilers as one of the Bungie staff forgot to cover-up his Halo 3 t-shirt and almost gave away the night's big surprise. Another problem was that of timing; the Halo 3 trailer appeared on XBox Live at 12:15, before Bungie had a chance to show it at the conference which was running late.
To read the full story visit Bungie by following the download tab above.