With no information released during the Microsoft Press Conference yesterday many assumed Bungie's hints at an announcement were teased to the community with no real purpose. However, as we reported earlier, Bungie.Net has been taken over by the mascot dubbed the Superintendent promising to clean up the server. A counter also appeared on the splash page that expires at roughly 7:07AM PT (10 AM EST) on Wednesday, July 16.
More teases at an announcement have been discovered since then. The image in Halo 3's Bungie Favorites has been updated with a corrupt file that displays a sadder looking Superintendent and the numbers 12:05:37:14 and a group of lights on the world map on Bungie.net seem to be shaped like the Superintendent logo near the district of Mombasa, Kenya -- a city with ties to the Halo universe.
For theories and speculation on the countdown, jump in!
The community has yet to crack the numerical code found in the Favorites image but some speculation is kicking around about Bungie's plans. The first, and most boring, is the speculation that the countdown could simply be a Bungie.net redesign (which actually looks quite different if you log in now) and the most intriguing new rumor is Bungie could reveal and release a new Xbox Live Arcade title. Considering the date in which the countdown expires and industry rumors that the Superintendent is a platforming game of some kind it is possible.This theory is supported by a few things, if taken out of context and bend in the right way. Currently the only XBLA title releasing this week is Coffeetime Crosswords, which we find suspicious considering this is the most important industry event right now. Also, the Shred Nebula dev team announced that a July 17 slot was open for release and its game would hit XBLA this Wednesday, but then apologized and retracted the statement. See, bend it the right way and a circle can fit through a square-peg. These new theories join others we've mentioned in the past.
Regardless, whatever Bungie announces this Wednesday we'll be watching. We just hope all the hype isn't about a few new maps. Also, most of the team will be playing Gears of War 2 -- just thought we'd pour some salt on your jealousy wounds. Sorry, you know we love you.
[Thanks, 7th Columnst for the header. Thanks, GeoNeo for the map find.]
