It looks like Bungie might have started testing the Halo 3 multiplayer already, with known employees being seen online playing "Pimps at Sea".
Pimps at Sea is an old April Fools joke that started way back in 2001 at Bungie, and is something they are known for repeating each and every year.
With a public beta of the Halo 3 multiplayer recently announced, it would definitely make sense for Bungie to be testing it online already, and indeed this is reflected in the Xbox Live status of the 2 known Bungie employees Evil Otto and New0001, who have had the following in their profiles:
Playing Pimps At Sea (Alpha)Alpha refers to an early version of the game code, and is the stage of development before beta. You can check out all the details on the public beta and get information on how to participate
here.
Update - As noted by Rocker22, Bungie have now confirmed what we all knew via their weekly news:
Obviously Pimps at Sea is a codename for something else right now (Halo 3, dur). So when we do actually begin work again, on the epic life-changing experience that the “real” Pimps at Sea promises to be, nobody will believe us. The Bungie who cried wolf.
