Microsoft will make two major announcements tonight (Tuesday) and Wednesday night at 11PM CST. These announcements are supposed to be the biggest announcements since CES. The announcements will be in the form of video at on10.net a Microsoft nerdie hangout.

The announcements may or may not be related to gaming or the XBOX platform. However, XBOX Live was down for maintenance today. Was the maintenance related to one or both of these announcements?

Is the HALO 3 beta related to the XBOX Live maintenance and/or these announcements?

For the record, I think we'll be getting HALO 3 beta news on April 1 which is when Bungie does something with their "Pimps at Sea" title. "Pimps at Sea alpha" is the code name for the HALO 3 alpha build on XBOX Live.

Details from on10:

"Two of the coolest Microsoft annoucements since CES are going to be breaking tonight and tomorrow night, and we have exclusive video for both of them. So if you are online at 9:00PM PST tonight (midnight on the east coast) check in to get a full scoop on what your friends will be talking about tomorrow.

And the same goes for tomorrow night, stop by at 9PM PST to see the first official look at a very cool announcement. Feel free to leave your best guesses in the comments, but fair warning; we've hidden Tina's keyboard so she can't spill any secrets. ;)"