This information (and the rationale behind it) has been pretty well hashed-out in the past week, but Joystiq got an official response from Microsoft, so… to explain the release of Halo 3: ODST at the standard new-game pricepoint of $59.99 (US), Microsoft had this to say:

“We believe this standalone experience is much more than just an expansion. Halo 3: ODST provides a new campaign from the point of view of an entirely new character. Combine that with three new multiplayer maps, the entirely new cooperative mode called Firefight, and the complete Halo 3 multiplayer collection on a standalone disc, we feel this is a good value and tremendous addition to the Halo franchise.”

As an aside, the original “3-5 hour” playtime estimated for the campaign portion of ODST (over a year ago) is no longer accurate, according to several Bungie employees; I couldn’t get an exact value, but it seems that the standard player will find it not QUITE as long as Halo 3 – but not far off. So, while Bungie is not in charge of pricing the final product, most employees that I spoke to last week felt that fans wouldn’t feel ripped-off once they’d gotten their hands on all that ODST has to offer. And that’s a good thing.(Louis Wu 15:49:53 UTC)

GLewis stopped in with word of Podtacular 192 – E3 madness, MLG Halo news, and more. Just under 2 hours, 46 mb.(Louis Wu 15:26:53 UTC)

Bungie.net posted a new Breaking In article last night – Tim Williams, Production Engineer at Bungie, discussed how he got there (lots of testing, lots of Halo games), what he does there (jack of all trades, plus making Halo tricksters miserable) and how you can join him (be useful). Good read!(Louis Wu 15:21:46 UTC)

We heard from both jdars, of the Aesthetic Artist Interviews, and RandomSauce, of Director Dialogues, that there are some changes being implemented; AAI is switching to a bi-weekly release (so the next one will be next week), and DD is taking a break until the end of the summer. Everybody needs time off sometimes!(Louis Wu 15:08:16 UTC)

Not a lot of comic news for you today – Reclaimer’s on hiatus, The Catfish hasn’t been sending updates to Bungie.net, and Elnea seems to be busy. Bloogyo has hit Episode 100 for Rat’s Nest, though, and has created a montage to celebrate – find links in his forum post!(Louis Wu 15:04:48 UTC)

Speaking of Hawty McBloggy – it’s Friday, so she’s got her recurring Friday Caption Fun feature online… last week’s picture not only elicited some funny captions from the peanut gallery, it got Pete Cooper to turn an internet meme into an entertaining response. There’s also (of course) the new pic for you to play with. (Erm… caption. I meant ‘caption’.) Go look! Amazing… there’ve been 50 of these already!(Louis Wu 14:49:12 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy tried out the Haloscreenshots.com printing service – and wrote up her experience. Check out her review!(Louis Wu 14:44:18 UTC)

Five new pieces in the Fan Fiction section this week – go read ’em!(Louis Wu 14:40:14 UTC)

Terry Lamb let us know that HaloCharts.com is giving away free supporter accounts for their Halo Wars section for the next day or so. To get one, first play some Halo Wars, set up a Halowars.com account, then log in to HaloCharts.com and follow the Halo Wars Supporter link at the top!(Louis Wu 14:26:35 UTC)