According to the electronics retailer behemoth, Best Buy, Halo 3 will be released on May 15th, 2006. Of course this seems to be more of a best guess and not an official statement. At this point Microsoft has not confirmed a release date. Statements from Microsoft have put the launch somewhere around the time the PS3 will be released. Rumors have indicated that Halo 3 will debut with the Halo movie that is speculated to be released in 2007.

My best guess is that Microsoft will put Halo 3 up against the release of the Playstation 3. However, this may prove futile in the Japanese
marketplace. Japanese gamers have no love for first person shooters and have had mixed opinions about the Xbox 360. Reports indicate that the Tokyo Game Show did help garner Xbox 360 more support. It might be a bit fool-hearty for MS to put their flagship product in a position that it may fail.

You can pre-order Halo 3 from BestBuy now for $59.99.