Halo 2
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
Halo 2 is a first-person shooter developed by Bungie Studios for the Xbox. It is the sequel to the game Halo: Combat Evolved, and features a newly built graphics engine and the addition of new elements to the game. Like the Marathon series, the game will further develop the struggle between the human race and a religiously zealous and technologically superior foe (The Covenant from the first Halo).
Halo 2 was released on November 9, 2004, breaking the record for first day sales and preorders.
On the morning of October 14, a leak of the game was posted on the Internet, and circulated widely. Microsoft, the parent company of Bungie, tried to contain the spread, and pledged to bring legal action against anyone who spread the leaked version. Regardless, Microsoft later touted that there have been 1.5 million preorders for Halo 2 in the United States alone and that this guarantees it to have the largest first-day revenue of any game or movie ever. [1]
The development team includes 70 people, including Lead Animator Nathan Walpole, John Butkus and four other Canadians.
The "Haunted Apiary" ARG
The website ilovebees.com is currently being used as a publicity site for Halo 2, with the site being pointed to by adverts for the game during movie trailers. Ostensibly a site about bees, the server appears to have been taken over by some mysterious force, which is "counting down to something".
The frontpage had a counter counting down to July 27, 2004 (when it says "network throttling will erode"), August 10, 2004 (when "this medium will metastasize"), and August 24, 2004 (at 8:06 am, when it will be "wide awake and physical") - many thought something big would happen related to Halo 2 on these dates. Other messages relating to the Halo story are hidden throughout the site. Now that the countdown has ended, a new era in the ILB saga has begun and November 9th is gonna be big.
This style of publicity is similar to that which surrounded the movie A.I. which featured a grand Alternate Reality Game. The Halo ARG has been dubbed The Haunted Apiary.
