Halo 3 and the Second Wave of 360 Games

conq writes "BusinessWeek has an interview with Microsoft Game Studios' Shane Kim in which he discusses the second wave of Xbox 360 games. When asked if Halo 3 is coming out this year, the answer was: 'It depends. If it's the game that everyone is expecting then, yes. For us it's about making a proper impact on the platform. It has to be something with huge significance, so we won't be rushed.'" If you know what that means, I would like to offer you a cookie, because I sure as heck don't.

Comments

Obvious

[Pi_0's don't shower]

It sounds like the clue train is coming in:

Last stop is you, Mister story-poster.

Alright, it sounds like he's saying that he "cares" about the "quality" of the "product".

This might be because he has a "reputation" and he doesn't want to "ruin it".

Any questions?

Why is halo so great again?

[IIDX]

I never understood why Halo was so head and shoulders above the other Xbox games. What makes it so great compared to other titles in the library?

Re:Why is halo so great again?

[Radres]

...maybe because the other titles in the library are crap?

Re:Why is halo so great again?

[Anonymous Coward]

This one's actually surprisingly easy to answer. It's the first console FPS that actually managed a default controller scheme that was not only as easy as using a mouse and keyboard; it was easy to pick up, and in some cases provided even -more- manouverability to a casual player than even a seasoned Quake 3 lunatic could manage.

Other than that there wasn't really much new or interesting about it. Hardcore Halo fans will try to impress you with its "sweeping, complicated storyline," but the truth is no one's ever really given a shit about what the storyline for a FPS is. It's about the best graphics and the most violence, period.

Re:Why is halo so great again?

[AlexMax2742]

If it truely was a terrible game, it wouldn't have gotten any play past the initial hype, everyone would have moved on to the next 'flavor of the week' htat the marketing execs perscribed for them. However, there are still tons of people playing Halo 2, and even the first game.

Even with mega-marketing hype, you can only impress the casual gamers for around 15 minutes. After that, you better play well. Take Madden '06 for the 360. It got a lot of hype, but nobody takes it seriously anymore becuase it was a terrible game, missing a lot of the features that made a good football game. If Halo and Halo 2 existed on hype, it would have suffered the same fate. However, you still have tons of people taking the game seriously, hell, even competatively.

Halo and Halo 2 were both good games. They might not have impressed you or even been your cup of tea, but they were both good games.

simple

[Traiklin]

If the PS3 is released this year, so will Halo 3.

if it's delayed till next year then you won't see Halo 3 till next year, simple as that.

notice the timing of these and the way he words it? "IF gamers want it bad enough then it will be released this year." what If is there to it? Halo 2 sold $100,000,000 in it's first couple of days, is he trying to say that people aren't hyped for Halo anymore?

Translating...

[RyoShin]

Babelfish doesn't offer a translation for "Microsoft", but I believe he meant that it will come out this year if it meets everyone's expectations. After all, everyone and their dog is expecting Halo 3 (while I haven't played Halo 2 all the way through, the ending was apparently a complete cliffhanger).

Basically, he's saying that Bungie (or someone) is working on it, and it could be complete this year, but they're going to give it the time it needs to be a "good" FPS.

So they're giving it the treatment that Nintendo is giving Twilight Princess, minus the sad fanboys, which is good, as the XBox 360 dearly needs some hit quality games.

Here's what I heard about the release date

[Rude Turnip]

I was at EB Games this weekend and saw a mock-up of a Halo 3 box on the "Coming Soon" shelf. I picked up the box to see if there were any screen shots on the back of the box. There weren't any screenshots, but I did find some valuable marketing intelligence. The back of the box said that Microsoft plans to release Halo 3 the same day as the PS3 comes out in an effort to out-launch Sony.

Re:Here's what I heard about the release date

[im_thatoneguy]

Said box was made by an employee of EB Games on his mom's Dell. And he knows less than he should, since that little rumour was squashed long ago. It's common practice to create fake boxes at game outlets to give a tangible item to look at and pre-order.

Give no bad news, lest customers wait for PS3

[ivan256]

If it's the game that everyone is expecting then, yes. For us it's about making a proper impact on the platform. It has to be something with huge significance, so we won't be rushed.'" If you know what that means, I would like to offer you a cookie, because I sure as heck don't.

It means they don't have a clue if they can finish it on time, but probably not because both of the previous games had historic delays... But please, please, please buy a 360, and don't wait for the PS3.

not enough units

[Anonymouse Cownerd]

It means that there is not enough units out there for them to rush through and release the game yet. Once there are more systems out there, then they'll release the game, and more people will buy, thus higher sales numbers.

It could also mean that they would release early if the future of the Xbox360 depended on it. Because we all know there are no real hits on the Xbox360 yet, thus noone is purchasing the console.

After reading the interview, still nothing there

[WillAffleckUW]

not a single reason why I should upgrade from my xBox, since I'm not shelling out money for HDTV until 2009 when the prices plummet.

Besides, by then, I'll be able to choose between NR, PS3, and xBox360, with actual real games that aren't just ports or FPS clones.

Wake me up when they ship Katamari on the 360.

That is Not What I Wanted to Hear...

[WeAzElMaN]

"When asked if Halo 3 is coming out this year, the answer was: 'It depends. If it's the game that everyone is expecting then, yes."

NO! Release a game when it's ready, not when the people want it. Too often, developers are pushing titles out because it's what the public wants right then and now; no more are the days when developers actually released games when they were ready for public consumption. If more developers stick to the "It will come out when it's ready" mantra, we'd have less crap on the market for games these days.

-WeAz

I want that cookie.

[antek9]

It's rather easy to decode this example of marketing lingo: if the release of Sony's PS3 will take place in 2006, then Halo3 will follow right after, or shortly in advance. Tackling the Playstation launch is the impact he's talking about, is what the rushed XBOX360 launch was all about, so go figure.

Don't know if this will qualify as being ironic (not in Alanis' sense anyway), but in the end the XBOX and Halo fanboys may thank Sony (or blame them, depending on how playable the game will turn out) for Halo...

Halo 3 is guaranteed to be in production...

[atomicstrawberry]

... but will it actually be developed by Bungie?

Halo 2 is one of the best selling console games ever, and MS would be insane not to have Halo 3 in development for the Xbox 360. That said, the big question is which team is handling it? After Halo 2, Bungie said that Halo 3 would not be their next title. Gates then came out and said something about Halo 3 releasing with the PS3 (in a more recent interview with him he said he'd made a mistake with that). As a result of that combined with the recent release of the 360, everyone has assumed that Bungie must be working on Halo 3 after all despite the fact that nothing has actually been announced.

Personally, I'm a long-standing Bungie fan, since I got Operation Desert Storm for my old Mac LC575. For me, Halo 2 was a gigantic disappointment. It is certainly a good game, but it feels almost soulless, lacking in those special, hard to describe qualities that had set their games apart previously. When you look at the dev team that worked on it, the reason is pretty clear: the original team is now far outnumbered by newer talent.

I would not be surprised at all if Bungie dropped an 'unexpected' bombshell at E3, announcing and demoing a new game that isn't Halo 3, but something completely new. Perhaps an entirely new genre? I'd love to see a talented group like them tackle an RPG, for example. There is absolutely no reason why a separate Microsoft studio couldn't be working on Halo 3 and having some of the Bungie team give them the nod every now and then. It's not unheard of in the game development world after all. For example, Bioware handed off Knights of the Old Republic and Neverwinter Nights to Obsidian so they could concentrate on developing new IP. There's no reason why Bungie couldn't still be involved in a creative capacity as well.

Allowing Bungie to work on something new while continuing to develop Halo as a brand would make sense in terms of long-term marketing too. MS at the moment have only got a few franchises that they can build on - Perfect Dark, Project Gotham, and Halo are about the shape of it. Bungie have proven that they have the ability to create franchises. If they produce something completely new, then there is a strong chance that it will end up becoming another large franchise for MS. The X360 should have at least another 3-4 years in its lifespan, and having an extra big franchise that they can push down the line when interest begins to wane would be good business sense for Microsoft.

Personally, I'd be far more interested in seeing something original from Bungie. What did that "Pheonix" project they were throwing around a few years back turn out to be, anyway?

Thanks for the cookie.

[neo]

If you know what that means, I would like to offer you a cookie, because I sure as heck don't.

Thanks for the cookies.

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