Next week, thousands of retailers will be hosting midnight launches for Halo: Reach. If you live in New York or Seattle, you'll have even bigger celebrations to look forward to.

The Best Buy Theater in Times Square will be the city of NYC's marquee launch event. Attendees will get to play Halo: Reach before it goes on sale at midnight. They'll also have the chance to win Halo prizes, meet members of the development team, and take in a surprise musical performance.

Seattle's launch event will occur at the Experience Music Project | Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame. Gamers at that party will also get to play the game early and meet some of the minds behind Halo. The organizers will be holding tournaments, too, with Halo-themed rewards going to the winners.

To build up anticipation for the launch, Warner Bros. will release five special webisodes of the show Chuck. The characters Jeff and Lester embark on a quest to get their copy of Reach. Hilarity and stealth marketing ensue. The first episode went live on TheWB.com, Xbox.com, and Xbox Live today.

For the week after the game's September 14th launch, Microsoft will be holding a series of promotions. "Invasion Week" will feature the following events:

• Connect to Xbox LIVE and receive a free “Halo: Reach” Invasion Week theme
• Game with Developer: Bungie will play with fans on Thursday, 16th from 5PM-7PM ET in the US, and Friday the 17th 8PM-10PM BST in the UK.
• Play & Win: Play “Halo: Reach” any time during Invasion Week and you will be entered to win tickets to the upcoming UFC 122 Fight[1]
• Community Events: Themed nights hosted by the community team to play “Halo: Reach,” including “Co-op Night,” “Xbox All Nighter” and “Community Playdate