Halo Reach (XBox 360)

Halo: Reach is an upcoming first-person shooter video game for the Xbox 360. It is part of the Halo series, and it is scheduled for release during autumn 2010. Its world premiere was held on December 12, 2009, at the Spike Video Game Awards.

Halo: Reach was announced on June 1, 2009, at the Microsoft E3 2009 press conference. A trailer was shown and details were released including setting and timeline. It was announced that an invitation to the open multiplayer beta of the game will be available in Halo 3: ODST. Reach will be the last Halo game developed by original Halo developer Bungie. Future Halo games will be overseen by Microsoft subsidiary 343 Industries.

Halo: Reach is a prequel to Halo that takes place during the Battle of Reach, featured in Halo: The Fall of Reach and Halo: First Strike, near the end of the Human-Covenant War. The game follows the actions of Noble Team, a United Nations Space Command (UNSC) special operations unit composed of six SPARTAN supersoldiers. Players assume the role of the Lieutenant, a replacement for a presumably deceased member of the Noble squad, who is identified by the call sign Noble Six. The announcement trailer shows the colony world of Reach, one of the UNSC's most important manufacturing and military centers outside of the Solar System, under attack by a Covenant invasion force referred to as "them" by an unknown radio operator.

Martin O'Donnell returns to score Reach. With the game's music, O'Donnell wrote more "somber, more visceral" music because the plot is character-driven and focuses on a planet that is known to have fallen.

The music piece shown in the world premiere of Halo: Reach, titled "Lone Wolf", shown at the 2009 VGA's, is available on Bungie's website.

On November 5, 2009, several video game websites reported that several fuzzy screenshots, supposedly from Reach, were leaked on the Major League Gaming forums. These screenshots allegedly showed a new needle-firing carbine, a new rifle, and a new HUD showing the names and current health of squad mates. Microsoft, owner of the Halo intellectual property, declined to comment.

Multiplayer Beta was announced on December 12, 2009, when the game officially debuted, that the multiplayer beta would take place in spring of 2010 Information from a charity donation by Bungie puts the beta's launch date no earlier than April 28. The game Halo 3: ODST will be used as a key to access the beta.