"Halo 3" NOT coming out at the same time as the PlayStation3

Face it, the Xbox 360 needs a killer title, and it doesn't have one -- yet.

Gears of War may be it, but no dates have been set.

Halo 3 would be the title that would sell 360s, and Time Magazine quote Bill Gates at the 2005 E3 saying that Halo 3 would release day and date to counter Sony's PlayStation 3 (due later this year). Execs at Microsoft (Robbie Bach) and developers at Bungie disagreed, and Bach even said, "Halo 3 is something that we'll ship when it's ready."

This last week at CES, Gates as much as said his statement may have been premature. "It's up to the team [at Bungie] when they want to ship [Halo 3], and they're going to take their time to make that a super great product... So even we don't know when that will come out."

The question is now whether the game will launch in November (like previous versions of the franchise), or with the Halo movie in summer 2007.

I just hope they're not stupid, and launch it at the same time as Gears of War, which would hurt both titles.