If I remember correctly, they stated that four-player co-op wouldn't/couldn't work. There will be 4 player co-op over LAN just not LIVE. They also went on to say that it would not be ruled out as a possible free download update.

This letter is about online co-op, not lan...

Haze has 4 player co-op online and its confirmed.

Bungie can't figure out a way to get Halo 3 to work? Really?

And yes, as I said in my letter to the Halos it is a rumor...

Xav - spot on sir. The concern I've been hearing out of the Bungie camp was that one player can be one place, while the other can be more than a mile away.

...so? If two people aren't capable enough to stay together on the map, how is that the problem of gamers who know what the hell they're doing?

The same problem could be said about Crackdown, but that didn't take away from it being a stellar co-op experience.

I think anything Bungie says between now and September is code for "co-op's broken from a tech standpoint, and we're not going to get it running before launch. Enjoy it as a free download six months from now when we pretend like we're only adding it because of customer demand."

I think what web_man_dan was saying is that it might just be that it won't work well.

Which is a valid point.

The argument that people will get away from each other makes no sense to me. In Halo offline co-op if someone strayed too far from the other person they would be teleported back near their friend...

How would that break Halo 3?

Straight from the horses mouth (This week's Weekly Update at Bungie):
"The Internet’s hair was lit on fire this week and in between running around the kitchen screaming and waiting for the faucet to fill up with the cool water of logic a bunch of hair got torched. Have you ever smelled burnt hair? We’re not recommending you go out and try and A) burn your own hair or B) burn someone else’s hair, but just take our word for it – the smell of burnt hair is the smell of a thousand failures being vomited from the gullet of a tentacled creature hiding in a wet hole. It’s gross.

We didn’t start the fire, but a series of reports that spread from an unfortunate leak of an upcoming issue of U.S. enthusiast magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly spiraled out of control and suddenly reports on the Internet included salacious headlines like “Halo 3 Co-Op Heads Offline” and heads needed to be dipped in ice water in order to prevail.

All we confirmed to EGM for their sweet, mind-twitterpating Campaign reveal (and other massive feature reveal) regarding Cooperative Play in Halo 3’s Campaign is that System Link co-op will be included in Halo 3. Just like we told EGM, we’re aware that people want co-op online but the challenge of getting our complicated A.I. systems, huge game world, and gargantuan encounters neatly packaged and transferring across the Interwebz is a mythic undertaking. Nonetheless, like other elements of Halo 3, online co-op is a feature we’re wrestling with somewhere in a muddy and muggy Florida swamp against a ton-toothed Alligator, but, what we haven’t really talked about is how big the knife we brought to the wrasslin’ match is.

All that said, EGM doesn’t really know whether or not Halo 3 will ship with online co-op, only Bungie knows. The only thing they did know is that co-op was available for split-screen and System Link. As we approach the tail end of development, we will have a clearer picture of whether or not that online feature will be included. Assuming either way would be foolish at this time. We will say more when we feel it’s prudent. Because that’s how we roll."

All I gotta say is, it better be there. They're owned by MS, and I would think that the 2nd gen of Live was built to do whatever Bungie needed it to do. So, they need to do it. And like Xav said, even Haze has 4 player co-op online and that's on the PSN! They gotta pull it off.

[...] Oh, diese Leseschwäche… Förmlich im Minutentakt erscheinen nun auf DIGG, n4g.com und allen möglichen Foren die abstrusesten Meldungen und Analysen. Vom Niedergang des einstmals großen Bungie ist dort zu lesen, von systembedingten Problemen mit dem gewählten Online-Netzwerk; es wird spekuliert, an den Haaren herbeigezogen, Vorbestellungen werden gecancelt (schön blöd, hehe), die einen fühlen sich betrogen, belogen und verraten, die anderen zweifeln an allem, nur nicht an ihrer Wahrnehmung. Dass alle Welt über eine Geschichte diskutiert, die aus illegal erworbenen Vervielfältigungen von Probedrucken stammt (und letztlich auf einer Fehlermeldung basiert), findet wohl nur in einsamen Blogeinträgen eine Erwähnung. Underground, ick hör dir tapsen… [...]