We have no confirmation that the beta is hitting the exact day ODST comes out. In fact, there's more than a strong possibility that we wont see a beta until spring 2010, though I can see it maybe in the winter of 2009/2010. Just don't expect it day one.

that way, people will keep there disks, so less people can buy used, so Bungie makes more money. It is a really good strategy.

If Bungie had confirmed that, it would be all over Bnet. They have not confirmed for 09. They wouldn't confirm for that reason anyway. The people that want the beta will keep it until it comes out or buy a used copy when the time comes.

Both consoles are of about equal performance, says IBM, the guys who designed both hardwares.

The difference between Sony and Microsoft is how they approach their hardware.

Sony has a lot of first party studios under their belt so they didn't give third party support full priority because they didn't need to. Instead, Sony charged their major first party guys to create engines on the PS3 that would make full use of its capabilities.

Microsoft doesn't have a lot of first party studios and therefore wanted their hardware to be very conventional and easy to work with, thus drawing the attention of all major third party developers. Third Party developers don't use proprietary engines all that much, and whenever they do they always make the engine multiplatform, which means it doesn't make full use of either console's resources in an efficient manner. Case in point, the Unreal Engine 3. The Xbox 360 is capable of a lot more than we have seen.