Bungie Offers Look Into <cite>Halo</cite>'s "Iris"

When the mysterious Halo email arrived last week, everyone pretty much figured we were headed for another viral marketing program a la "I Love Bees," and it turns out that we were right. A Microsoft rep gave Eurogamer a few details about the plot of Bungie's newest way to mess with our heads, called Iris:

Iris is a spiral campaign designed to take gamers on an incredible journey through the Halo Universe. Led by an 'unknown' hand, users will discover bits of previously unknown information about the Halos, the Flood, the Forerunners, and the true origins behind the Halo trilogy.

Bungie's Frankie O'Connor wrote most of the material, with help from community manager Brian Jarrad and artist Aaron LeMay.

Does this seem just a tad too easy to anyone else? We wonder for just a few days what's going on, and then Microsoft just up and tells us? Sure, after I Love Bees, we were all pretty much waiting for something like this anyway, but doesn't it kind of defeat the purpose, or at least the spirit, of a viral marketing campaign to say, "Welp, here's our viral marketing campaign, folks. Enjoy!"?

MS explains Halo viral campaign [Eurogamer]