It is interesting reading all of the various reasons for the different Beta dates. The one factor I would like to address is "pre-microsoft divorce" Bungie being thankful and adamant in addressing the loyalty in their Halo fans, at the time. If I remember correctly, both Halo 3 and Halo: Reach had post-credits messages thanking gamers for sticking with them and playing their five Halo games, concluding the message with something like, "See you starside, (heart) Bungie." Being that the first game and console I purchased for myself was Halo:CE and Original Xbox, respectively, I feel part of the older generation of Bungie fans. My disappointment is, don't make a big deal out of loyalty if you're just going to give an indifferent shoulder to Xbox users when the new generation of consoles hit. It makes a "loyal" follower question all the time and money given to Bungie (Halo) games when the PS4/PS3 gets double the beta time... In regards to "testing the online network for bugs" theme that is running. If Bungie is familiar and confident in their Xbox Live expertise, why is it so hard to start the Beta on XBL on the 17th as well? I feel Bungie's familiarity with Xbox Live is an invalid excuse to start later and run it shorter. It should be an encouragement to get the Beta up and running as soon as possible on a well-oiled and now "cloud-powered" online machine. An analogy could be made to cooking a recipe you have known for 10 years while starting a new recipe a friend gave you, the 10 year recipe is second-nature and should have no problem and will cook perfectly in the background. I am still buying the Ghost Edition regardless, but as a ten year customer and fan, the foundation of my "Seventh Column" has been shaken. Four days is four days...