JOEyGADGET

Today is the day owners of Crackdown for the Xbox 360 may download the Halo 3 beta. As of 11 am EST there’s no download and I’m getting the message: “Check back here at a later date to download the Halo 3 Beta.” All the usual suspects are reporting that Bungie has alerted the Xbox Live group of the hiccup and they’re working on it.

More interesting is Major Nelson’s post on highload.majornelson.com, which appears as an absolutely plain, text message:

We’re aware that some users are having difficulty downloading the Halo 3 multiplayer beta via Crackdown. Bungie Studios is working with the Xbox Live team to resolve this as quickly as possible – stay tuned. Gamers entering the beta through other means, such as the Friends and Family remain unaffected.

I am headed back to Seattle in a few hours, so I’ll be offline while I am in the air. For the most up to date information, keep an eye on Bungie.net for the latest from Frankie regarding this issue.

This site is experiencing an excessive traffic amount of traffic at this time, so sorry for the temporary nature of this message. We’re working on getting back online as soon as we can.

(Click here for a screenshot of the message.)

Personally I’m not crushed by the delay since I’m a multiplayer wimp and will be more into the single-player game when the real thing ships on September 25. My friend Ric, however, is visiting, and he’s an insanely great multiplayer gamer. He came prepared with his profile on a memory card, gripped in his sweaty fist and waiting for the download to happen so he can log in and lay into other Halo 3 beta go-getters.