DEVELOPMENT OF Halo: Reach has finished and it is still on track for the 14 September release date.

The Vole's bean counters will be rubbing their palms with glee now that Bungie hasn't slipped on development. Apparently it's quite a popular franchise, having taken in a lot of money over the past ten years.

Halo: Reach executive producer Joe Tung posted the update to the Reach developer blog.

"A few days ago we released Halo: Reach to Xbox Certification. Assuming things go well in certification, that means the only things standing between you all and Reach are the manufacturing process and shipping the discs to stores.

"It's been a long haul getting the game to this point but the team is incredibly proud of the game and can't wait to play with everyone on September 14^th," Tung continued.

Xbox certification means there will be nary a tweak to add because development has gone gold. It is as good as it's ever going to get.

Reach will be the last Halo so fanbois expectations are at fever pitch for Bungie to deliver one last blockbuster title before the final curtain falls.

We came, we saw, we kicked butt on the beta version of Reach back in early May.

While the beta was short there was no lag and we loved the updated feature set. We gave it two thumbs up and Bungie must have ironed out any issues from the beta to hit Xbox certification. µ