Major Nelson points out in his blog this Wired interview with J Allard.

The article clearly places Bungie's Halo and Halo 2 in the proper pivotal place in the Xbox's history:

Halo.fr is touting a rumor found by an intern that speculates Halo 3 will be out in March 2006. Move along, or check the Babelfish translation if you must.

Halo 3 garners a mention in today's Penny Arcade cartoon, as a pawn in the ongoing chess match between Microsoft and Sony over the next-generation console launches.

Eurogamer has a story quoting Shane Kim at Microsoft Game Studios that the Xbox's most popular franchises, including Halo, Fable amd Project Gotham Racing, will be making their way onto the next console:

"Without giving away all the surprises we have in store, gamers that love franchises like Halo, Fable, and Project Gotham Racing can safely assume we will continue to invest in them as we move into the next generation."

Spong, featuring a new Googlified logo, put up a story late last night (so it's not an April Fool's joke, at least not a fair one) that says the Xbox 2 will have downloadable demo content right at launch.

In other news:

Robert Valdes has written a Halo 3 Wish List for the Games section of Stuffo, a part of the HowStuffWorks website.

Just as other sites (DailyGame, TeamXbox, SPOnG) are picking up the same rumor promulgated by a quote of Microsoft's J.

Microsoft's J. Allard commented rather off-handedly, in an article about the size of Microsoft Game Studios, that Bungie will double in size (currently 65 people) in order to work on the "next installment" of Halo. Thanks Louis Wu at HBO. (Remember, though, Allard isn't technically Bungie, even if Bungie is technically Microsoft --Ed.)

IGN is spreading a rumor that Bungie is already hard at work on Halo 3, and that it will be timed for simultaneous release with Sony's next-generation console, the PlayStation3, just to try and steal the wind out of Sony's sails. A nice idea, but not much other than unnamed sources to back it up. Thanks HBO. (Pass the sodium chloride. Also, do we now have to officially start calling the Xbox a 'this-generation console'? --Ed)

Joystiq has a whole slew of rumors regarding Xbox 2 and Halo 2.5/3 today from an unknown individual or individuals claiming to have special knowledge. Toss some salt over your shoulder and get out your asbestos underwear. (A lot of these predictions are waaaaay out there --Ed.)

At the Halo Story Page, Mnemesis interviewed Bungie's Joe Staten on the Halo storyline, setting to rest some old debates, such as who really released the Flood, where the other SPARTANs are and whether or not it's important, the relationship between the Forerunners and the Flood, and time travel. Joe also adds some information about the HSP Timeline. A must-read.