Update on the previous Bungie cock-block snafu:  Microsoft, as the publishing giant apparently behind Bungie’s latest game, rescinded their green light just hours shy of Bungie’s official announcement.  Bungie was about to make us all climax, but Microsoft stepped in with its shotgun and forced them to stop. This does not make us happy, Microsoft… not happy at all.

The countdown screen with the letter to the fans stayed up for about as long as the countdown itself was set to last. At that point, it was business as usual at Bungie.net, including an update to the community on the situation from community manager Luke Smith, featuring a useful and equally entertaining mini-Q&A:

“1. OMG! The announce was posted at 7! This is all part of the plan.
The news was broken to us shortly before 7 p.m. and we decided to keep with tradition to make a clean break.

2. Why leave the splash page up if it’s not happening?
We left the splash page up for the folks who didn’t see the message or were planning on tuning in the following morning before the news vanished into Bungie.net’s ether.

3. But Harold Ryan is only a TESTER this has to be fake!
Harold was a tester, but assumed the position of President a while ago. Crazy Wiki’s and their misinformation.”

In addition, the LA Times had the opportunity to interview the Microsoft Senior Vice President for Interactive Entertainment Business, better known as Don Mattrick. Rightfully so, they asked about the precarious situation they put themselves in by shoving Bungie to the side. Apparently, it was cut to make room for Microsoft to act like Nintendo with games like You’re In The Movies and appeal to the proverbial alpha moms who won’t ever hear about their press conference. Intelligently, he referred to it as “an embarrassment of riches”.

But we’re not buying it. What really happened was, Microsoft caught wind that neither Nintendo nor Sony had anything to top “omgz FFXIII 360! PS3 are doomed!” Even Mattrick himself effectively revealed that they killed it at the last minute: “We felt we could do this game more justice with a more dedicated event.”

So, X08, pretty much.

Source: LA Times via Joystiq and Bungie.net

Here’s an update for those of you who read Roly Reyes report on an apparent Motorstorm 2 reveal. In the end Jeuxvideo had only had a premature ejaculation (an abrupt, exclamatory utterance) providing us with the deflating announcement that the reveal had been delayed.

In the end there was no French gift to be got, and Jeuxvideo regrettably told us that Sony had pushed back Motorstorm 2’s reveal by another week. It is our understanding that Jeuxvideo never had the new trailer exclusively, but that it would be simultaneously released on a number of websites.

Jeuxvideo were the only website to be struck by the excitement, giving us a countdown until 7pm on Wednesday 5th. They regretably decided to wait until that time to tell us that there would be no trailer for another week.

Whoever’s at fault, we expect that at the end of next week’s countdown we will be informed of another week delay, and continuously until Motorstorm 2’s release. It’s like a demented easter egg hunt on which you don’t get any bloody chocolate until the arrival of the second messiah.

Could Playstation Home be out within 24 days? A web countdown suggests as much, though its reliability is unknown. Make your mind up after the jump.

There have been signs that Home’s release is imminent, with a Warhawk patch adding game launching within Home, XMB accomplishments integrated into Devil May Cry 4, a significant update to the Home beta, and news that internally Home is well past v1.00 – the version that when made available will signify the launch of the service.

A website countdown has now been discovered, suggesting that Home will be released in less than 24 days. Although an announcement was expected at last weeks GDC ‘08, a March release is certainly not unexpected.

Combine the countdown with this insider report…

A game must be able to integrate into Home, a game must support “Accomplishments”. Right there, two important things, the PS3 system for achievements is called “Accomplishments”, and Home is coming out VERY VERY VERY Soon.

…and like a teenager on a McDonald’s diet, the imminent release of Playstation Home gains weight.

The Official Playstation Magazine placed Play TV at a guesstimate price of £70 and a loose release date of between January and April 2008. Play.com have solidified the price to 154.99 Euro’s and provided its shoppers with a release date of 28th March next year.

Whether this is a typical retailers approximation designed to generate pre-orders, or an unofficial confirmation from Sony to Play.com is anyone’s guess. But it sounds about right.

But what’s even crazier about Haze is that it has had more release dates than a Guns and Roses’ concert. And just like a Guns and Roses’ concert, the closer we get to a release date the further it gets pushed back.

If my memory serves me right, the last release date for Haze was December 4th 2007 and just before we hit December, it was pushed back into “Q1 of 08″.

Haze was also rumoured to be released in February, but boy do we have some good news for you. Found on Play.com’s Playstation 3 section is a countdown for a Haze release date. The best part about this is that it tells us that the game is coming out in only 28 Days. And 28days later is January 18th!

So if Play.com is to be believed, play it smart this Christmas and keep some cash for next month, as Haze is one title not to be missed on the PS3.