Microsoft has released an official announcement confirming rumors from earlier this week that Bungie Studios, developers of Halo, and Microsoft will be parting ways and Bungie will become its own independent company.

Bungie and Microsoft together have brought the Halo franchise, exclusively for the Xbox 360, to the gaming phenomenon it is now with “Halo 3″ which recently brought in over $300 million its first week out. This move will allow Bungie Studios to continue to build on their success and expand their games to other non-Microsoft platforms such as Sony’s PS3 or the Nintendo Wii. According to Harold Ryan, studio head for Bungie, it doesn’t sound like they announcing plans to jump the Xbox 360 ship quite yet, however.

Remember when we told you last week that “Halo 3″ made a stunning $170 million dollars worth of sales on its release day? Microsoft is back to blow its trumpet again: the first week of “Halo 3″ sales made the company $300 million dollars. Keep in mind that this game is only available for a single video game console, the Xbox 360. That could be why sales of the 360 have more than doubled in the past week as people open their wallets and purses to jump on the Master Chief bandwagon.

Microsoft is happy with the tally of “Halo 3″’s first day of release. The software giant has released a statement saying that sales figures for America alone for the first day of release for “Halo 3″ turned out to be $170 million dollars. That exceeds the $125 million in first day sales that the earlier installment, “Halo 2″, accomplished in 2004. It also gives Microsoft the bragging rights to claim that “Halo 3″ earned more on its first day than any previous Hollywood movie ever made on its opening weekend.

“‘Halo 3′ has become a pop-culture phenomenon,” said Shane Kim, the corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios. “Not only is ‘Halo 3′ setting sales records, it’s also redefining entertainment. Within the first 20 hours alone, we’ve seen more than a million Xbox LIVE members come online to play ‘Halo 3′ – that makes September 25 the most active Xbox LIVE gaming day in history.”

Got Halo? With yesterday’s release of “Halo 3″ it seems everyone is jumping on Bungie’s first-person shooter bandwagon. 7-11 has “Halo” Slurpee cups, Doritos have “Halo” branded chip bags and Mountain Dew is calling their pop “game fuel”. Although I do think those early pregnancy tests are taking things to far…

Mimoco is releasing their own “Halo” series of USB flash drives in three weeks. Compatible with USB 2.0 protocol the Halo Mimobot Series 1 line replicates the likeness of Master Chief, “Halo”’s hero. You can pick a drive in Spartan blue, red or Master Chief’s preference, forest green. They’re a little goofy looking but then again it’s supposed to be a tiny USB drive, right?

In less than 10 hours H-Day will be finally upon us. With the arrival of “Halo 3″ on store shelves you can expect millions of gamers embarking on the final battle against the alien forces of the Covenant, of deathmatches where combatants are pwned and of all-night gaming sessions powered by Mountain Dew and Doritos. And then in what always follows in the aftermath of a turbulent battle there follows the next day when the scope of the carnage becomes apparent. It’s the time to call in sick.

Whether you’re a gamer or not it’s hard to ignore the recent build-up to what just might be the largest game rollout in history - the release of Microsoft’s “Halo 3″. Any closet hardcore gamers in your office could very possibly be outed on Tuesday as more than 10,000 retailers across the nation plan to be open at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday morning for the launch. Retailers participating in the Halo 3 “Midnight Madness” include Best Buy, Circuit City, Game Stop, Wal-Mart and more. Most of them will also be hosting special promotions along with the launch.

You don’t need to frequent one of these popular gaming retailers to catch some of the hype, though. More than likely you’ve already been exposed to the Halo 3 nation through places like Burger King or 7-Eleven who have Master Chief plastered on their products. Even NASCAR is getting into the frenzy with the No. 40 car at the Dover 400 Nextel Cup Series race featuring a Halo 3 paint theme in today’s race.

With billions of dollars up for grabs all based on the perception of who’s winning the next gen console war is it any wonder that representatives from Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft will use every chance they get to drop sales figures to the press? The latest salvo comes from the big M touting their Xbox 360 horn. According to gaming mag Next Generation Microsoft has sold 11.6 million consoles in 37 countries and more 360 games have been sold (24.3 million units) than all of the PlayStation 3 and Wii games combined (19.8 million units.) The company’s Xbox Live service is the largest social network in the living room with 2.6 million IM, text and voice messages sent over the service every day. To underscore their bragging rights, a new Xbox Live subscriber joins the network every 8 seconds.

Microsoft also provided the top ten most played Xbox Live games, the most downloaded demos and the most popular arcade downloads. We’ll show you the top ten most played Xbox Live games but to find out who made the top of the charts for the other two you will have to follow our link to the source site after the jump.

The PlayStation 3 needs a killer game. Fighting with low sales (Nintendo’s Wii currently sells more units than the PS3) and increased competition from Microsoft (”Halo 3″ is easily the biggest game for the fall/holiday season) Sony had been hoping that its “Home” social gaming network would be ready for the fall and generate some needed excitement amongst gamers. Unfortunately for Sony “Home” isn’t ready for a Q3 launch and has been moved back now for a spring 2008 debut so that it can “improve product quality.” Citing the need to make environments that fulfill the needs of America, European and Asian gamers, Sony chief executive Kazuo Hirai said “We aim to launch this as something that can meet expectations of people all over the world.”

The first rumor of a new Zune in development came our way in June and then last week a photo suggesting that a second version Zune was soon to be a reality surfaced. Now comes the biggest bit of gossip yet about the reality of Zune 2 courtesy of Zune Scene: their inside source tells them that Zune 2 will go on sale starting October 16. Isn’t that less than one month away? Hey Microsoft, you better wake up and announce this thing officially or …

How much money is Microsoft expecting to make from “Halo 3“? The highly anticipated final chapter in the best-selling “Halo” gaming franchise arrives on game shelves a week from today and everyone knows that it’s going to be a sellout, but really, how much is it going to earn for the big M?

According to Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian “Halo 3″ could stand to make for its owners $200 million dollars alone on launch day and establish a new record for the best-selling video game ever. The current champion is Blizzard’s “World of Warcraft” expansion pack “The Burning Crusade” which came out early this year. In its first 24 hours in release 2.4 million copies of “Burning Crusade” were sold to players inhabiting Azeroth. There are no records as to how many bags of Cheetos or cans of Mountain Dew were consumed on that day but we’re guessing that share holders of those two companies were as pleased as their Microsoft counterparts.

Once again, Nintendo appears to be the clear leader in game console sales for August beating out rivals Microsoft and Sony, according to the latest NPD numbers for United States sales in August.

The Kyoto-based company last month sold 403,600 Wii game consoles, along with 383,200 units of the Nintendo DS handheld game console. According to the Financial Times, the Nintendo Wii is now also the number one best selling “next-generation” game console in the world, pulling ahead of …

The desire to have the ultimate home theater room can sometimes overwhlem a budget, but for those with the cash the products exist to make your movie watching dreams come true. One product trying to fit this mold is the Runco CinemaWall XP-103DHD, a 103-inch 1080p plasma display recently announced which will be available in December for around $100,000.

The Runco XP-103DHD offers up 1920 x 1080 resolution as well as DVI with HDCP and RS-232 inputs. It also includes a DHD digital controller with inputs and switching that hosts an advanced digital video processor. This controller also offers high-end aspect ratio control and the ability to convert 4:3 video to the 16:9 of the display.

Sticking to their plan they announced in July, the Chat Pad accessory for the Xbox 360 game controller is set to start shipping next Tuesday, September 4. The Chat Pad will come packaged as part of a Messenger Kit that will come bundled with a headset for $29.99 from Microsoft. Be sure to remember when ordering that this kit doesn’t include the controller, just the Chat Pad and the headset.

For gamers who have been waiting for the third and final chapter in Bungie Studios’ immensely popular FPS “Halo” series for the Xbox you can start counting the days left until it’s in your hands. Microsoft reports that “Halo 3″ has gone gold and the master copy is off to the manufacturing plant to be turned and burned into millions of Xbox 360 game discs. The release date for “Halo 3″ is slated for Tuesday September 25. Barring an act of God there is nothing that …

Microsoft let it be known today pre-sales of the three Halo 3 editions are on fire at the moment, having soared past the 1 million mark. The game debuts Sept. 25.

Halo 3 preorders are so intense, said Microsoft, it expects the Legendary Edition to be sold out by the time the game launches. Retailers such as Gamestop and Best Buy have indicated that presales are among the fastest in video game history.