For various reasons it's been hard for me to keep up with news posting lately; many thanks to trav himself (formerly Sistimatic) for picking up the slack. Here are some recent items of note:

• Film Force carries supposed confirmation of the Fox-Universal Halo movie deal. Meanwhile, IGN posts some comments from their staff and Halo fans on what should be in the Halo movie. (The list makes Baby Jesus cry--Ed.)
• BDGamer says the Xbox 360 launches this December in Japan; earlier reports have cited 20 games at launch in that market, which will be key for Microsoft this time around, as it was quite weak for the Xbox compared to Europe and North America.
• Xbox365 says Microsoft's Robbie Bach is being brought on board the Windows Media Player 11 team to take on Apple' iPod/iTunes dominance in the online music arena. (No, this is not a joke. Or maybe it is--Ed.)
• Wil Wheaton's blog talks about what game voice talent sought from their recent lobbying, but didn't quite get.
• Major Nelson points out a How Does Bungie.net Work case study at MSDN.
• Kotaku suggests that Blizzard's World of Warcraft MMORPG might be ported to Xbox 360. (A welcome addition to fill the gap left when True Fantasy was cancelled--Ed.)