Halo 3: ODST seems to be turning into a flop without even launching properly, and now we found out that the game was already locked and loaded for distribution way back in May. It has since been held back by Microsoft, in order to rake in more dough by selling it towards the end of the year.

Community Director and Bungie, Brian Jarrard has confirmed that the game was done before E3 and that the entire development process took only one year. The reason behind this is the fact that the “new” game uses the “old” Halo 3 engine, making it more of a designer game than a new game. Microsoft will be shipping ODST with a multiplayer beta component for Halo: Reach, which in Microsoft’s world makes such a move alright, I guess.

We’ve come across a certain leaked review which, among other things, calls Microsoft’s new Frankenstein "underwhelming" and you can check it out here. In case you’re more keen on seeing how the game looks and behaves, you can check out the videos here, but don't get your hopes up as the only thing that kept us watching was noticing the level similarities between this game and the old Duke Nukem.  

Mr. Jarrard also said that when the ODST is complete, the dev team will move to Halo: Reach, which uses a new engine. Just in case you missed it, Halo 3: ODST launches on September 22nd.