Star Wars is finally going to be released on Blu-Ray. The date is set for September 2011 and fans are now able to pre-order the Star Wars: The Complete Saga starting now.

“With all six episodes available for the first time in one collection, this is a great way for families and home audiences to experience the complete Saga from start to finish,” said Doug Yates, Vice President of Marketing, Online, Distribution, Lucasfilm Ltd. “And with the quality of high-definition, Blu-ray provides the most immersive home experience possible.”

The Complete Saga includes all six films, there is also a Prequel Blu-Ray Trilogy which contains episodes I-III and the Original Blu-Ray Trilogy which contains episodes IV-VI.

There are more than 30 hours of special features which include never before seen deleted and altered scenes.

“The Star Wars franchise has been one of the most anticipated Blu-ray releases by Amazon’s customers,” said Bill Carr, Vice President of Music and Video at Amazon. “We think that Star Wars will be incredibly popular with our customers, and we expect pre-orders to be very strong.”

The Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Blu-Ray will be $139.99 US/$179.99 CAN. The Star Wars: Trilogy sets will be $69.99US/89.99 CAN.

And when it comes to the monster epic series for gaming, it’s hard to argue that Halo doesn’t stand alone. Quite simply, there’s no other IP with the expanse of titles and updates as the Halo universe. Add in the soundtracks, novels, comics, action figures and other Halo-related merchandise and arguably only George Lucas could possibly grock the kind of fan frenzy that a new Halo game can garner.

Title: Halo: Reach
Developer: Bungie
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Release date: 2010

At X10 in San Francisco last week, Bungie Studios announced Halo: Reach, the latest addition to the Halo universe, would open its multiplayer beta on May 3. No word as to when the full title will officially release, but that didn’t stop Bungie community and PR director Brian Jarrard from showing off the pre-alpha build and giving us an eyeful, and an earful, of what’s in store for Halo fans.

First, the basics:  Halo: Reach will be set in 2552 in Reach, the United Nations Space Command’s military command base. As a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, it occurs just days before the original Halo begins.

“Everything has been rebuilt from the ground up to expand the scene and the scale” of prior Halo games, Jarrard explained, promising that Halo: Reach will be biggest, best and most ambitious Halo to date.

“We don’t want to mess up what makes Halo “Halo,” but we’re definitely bringing something different to the table,” he said.

Proving his point, he showed us the level of detail available in Halo: Reach. One minute you can zoom out to see grains of dirt and grass pelting up from a bullet strike. The next you’ll look at your weapon and be able to zoom in to even the smallest engraved lettering on the side of your gun.

Bullet impacts have been improved, he said, to help players get a better sense of accuracy and targeting — something he admitted was a challenge in prior Halo games.

Jarrard also points out that the amazing, realistic and engrossing graphics won’t be the only improvement: Sound will play a far greater role in game play.

“We put an emphasis on sound design to make it feel as real as it can possibly get,” he said.

Fans of the series will be thrilled to see some old favorites making a comeback in Halo: Reach. The original Halo pistol (the M6D), cut from the inventory of Halo 3, will make a return in Halo: Reach. And some new friends will emerge. Jarrard debuted the new Needle Rifle, a medium-to-long range weapon with powerful anti-shield damage. It allows zoom and promises to be awesome for headshots.

Another major difference will be the armor capabilities in Halo: Reach. In prior games, once a shield or active camouflage was used, it was done. In Halo: Reach, active camo will recharge and portable shields can be reused. This will allow teams of players to mix, match, and balance their armor, shield and combat abilities among the team.

As for the beta, Jarrard says that Bungie is doing everything it possibly can to avoid demand issues that plagued the Halo 3 beta in 2007. When that game debuted as a bonus to Crackdown, millions of Halo fanatics pummeled servers, slowed game play and, sometimes, completely crashed the system. This time, Jarrard says, Bungie hopes it will be different.

“The issues we had with Halo 3 were about fulfillment,” he said. “If it’s a rocky start, we’ll definitely work on the back end, but we’re working for a smooth start,” adding that he expects upwards of 3 million users to participate in the beta.

The beta will reportedly include “a few maps,” he said.

Twice? Really?

If the term “fangirl” is appropriate here, I’ll take it, but I truly had faith in Microsoft fixing my Xbox when it broke the first time. I didn’t know the word “fixed” meant, “yeah we got it working, but it’s hugely likely that it will break again next year”.  Just like I’ve accidentally bought almost every Nintendo system without even realizing it, I make sure that if there’s a choice that I go with the Microsoft version of whatever is being offered. I traded in my iPod nano for a 30g Zune, I bought a new PC instead of a Mac, and I staked my claim in the 360 being superior to the PS3. These decisions have been based on how I perceive Microsoft as a company. I liken this to people talking about how Star Wars is so widely popular because of the potential appeal that universe has. No matter how badly George Lucas abuses and embarrasses his fans, they come back because it could be good again.

Perhaps it’s an unfair and far-fetched comparison (because George really needs to just knock it off), but when you’ve spent your whole life continually buying a product that breaks, maybe there is something wrong with loving an ideal. And it’s not even that the products break, but having a support system in the absolutely likely event that something goes down seems like common sense. December 31, 2008 (better known as Dead Zune Wednesday), all 30g versions of Microsoft’s Zune went into a day-long loading mode. I guess when you’re designing something that has dates in it, you’d better make sure it can process the idea of a leap year. When the Zune couldn’t, it simply stayed in its loading mode until the batteries died. The response from Microsoft? “Oops. Wait until tomorrow, it should be fine by then”.

Really, Microsoft? One day the Netflix service on Xbox Live was acting a bit glitchy, so guess what? The very next day Netflix offered a 2% discount off of the current monthly bill due to its customers not being able to use their service. They didn’t have to do this, but they did because they value their customers and are apparently not beyond admitting when a mistake is made, followed by doing their best to make up for it. It’s like some kind of commercial alchemy, where if a customer doesn’t receive what is promised, you offer something equal to make up for it.

Pictured : Things that break.

Now, Dead Zune Wednesday was a disaster for those of us who rely on their mp3 player to make it through the day, and Microsoft’s apathetic response to the glitch (I didn’t know “wait it out” was a customer-friendly option?) was different than their response to a broken Xbox; at least when you Red Ring, you receive a month of free Live service every time. But has this ever been a problem for Apple? Or Sony? Or even Nintendo, for crying out loud?

All of this brings me to my main point : Why keep buying broken products? I’d like to blame the console wars, which create an environment where a speedy delivery is favored regardless of how faulty the product turns out to be later. But then what about the Zune? And why can’t Windows Vista go into screen-saver mode when someone uses it with a wireless mouse (which I might add was purchased directly from the Microsoft store)? Do people and departments at Microsoft even talk to each other?

In the end, I suppose all of this complaining amounts to nothing; I’m still going to invest in the lesser of two evils, which in my opinion is Microsoft’s family of technologies. As consumers, do we have an obligation to hold corporations feet to the fire and demand a better product? I WANT to buy Microsoft… I think Xbox Live is pretty much the greatest thing ever. My Zune is superior to an iPod in every way that I’m interested in. I enjoy getting more computer for my money than I would with a Mac. I don’t think it’s too much to ask that my experience in even one of these venues be fail-free.

PS – Disagree? Let me know. I’d love to have a discussion about this.