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"More Than Three Teams" Working On Halo Games
1Up reports on comments by Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft Game Studios, which indicated that several different teams are working on Halo projects at the moment. Quoting:
"When GamesIndustry.biz then pointed out that it puts the Age of Empires franchise in a similar position as Halo after Bungie departed from their partnership with Microsoft, that's when Spencer dropped this intriguing tidbit: 'Well, there's more than one team building Halo games right now. There are more than two or three teams building Halo things right now. Some of them we will own, some of them we won't. It's never been, for me, about who you own or don't own — it's about working with the best creative talent in the industry,' he said."
The Halo franchise definitely has more life to it ~ new places, new warlords, new rings. Forerunner tech. Plenty of options.
Whatever ends up being done, it won't have the same spark that the first Halo did, or the spunk that the second and third did. (even if #3 felt like the team was saying, "Let's get this done so we can do something fun") Bungie's people being at the helm made the series great, much as they did with their other works.
Seriously, how can you forget doing a triple backflip in the Warthog and having the Bob sitting next to the MC yell, "See that thing on the left? It's a brake! USE IT!"
I'm more interested in seeing what Bungie has coming up next than to see what Halo Wars looks like.
The Sims: Halo Edition
Halo Cart
World of Halocraft
Halo Tycoon
in FPS? Can we look forward to Halo 2009, Halo Golf, Halo Rookie Stories, and Halo Team Manager?
Milking.
The market will be so flooded with new 'halo' branded games that it will do nothing but dilute the brand. The RTS thing could be cool; hell, maybe like a space fighter could be cool. But if you start releasing shit like EA does (games are NOT something where release early, release often works well), you will end up with a diluted, or, worse, maligned brand. It's like that "The more you squeeze your hand the more it escapes your grasp" thing...
Show this to your friends and family that don't know what a real hacker is
It's never been, for me, about who you own or don't own
And here I thought owning was at the very core of the Halo experience.
Because until it does, I won't be playing it.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Hi Microsoft, I'm a dedicated Halo fan. Halo:CE is really the game that made me a gamer - I played it, and I was hooked. I absolutely love that game, and I really enjoyed Halo 2 and Halo 3. I think they're fantastic games; you may disagree, and I say, to each his own. Now, onto the next matter of business:
The milk is drying up. The horse is dead. Please, stop pissing on what was once a respectable gaming series. I don't give a damn if you think it will make you oodles of money - you keep bending the franchise over like you are, and it will lose it's touch. People will stop buying it. The fans will cease to be, and you will have a shell of a franchise.
Halo was pretty damn good, but don't go make the Master Chief the next Sonic. For FSM's sake, GO INNOVATE. That goes for the entire damn industry! I can't believe the day has actually come when EA is being more innovative (Mirror's Edge, Spore) than the rest of the industry.
I'm not saying retire the entire Halo series (I'd be infinitely happier if you would, but I'm not an idiot). I'm saying that if you don't stop abusing the legacy of the franchise that launched your console, that both you and the fans will regret it.
Halo was special. It was a revolutionary console game (that's an argument for another time, however). Please, do not make fools of yourselves, and moreover, fools of the fans. Take a page out of any book that isn't George Lucas' and leave the franchise intact. Stop pimping it out. Leave it be, or at least in the fewest, most capable hands you can, AND GO MAKE SOMETHING NEW.
For a while now, I've hoped that I wouldn't ever see another Halo game. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case. I fear that my favorite series is doomed to mediocrity.
I am personally waiting for Halo & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Halo Golf could be good too.
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
Halo was NOT revolutionary in terms of the game industry.
It WAS revolutionary for the X-Box, however, and has done wonders to sell it and the 360.
Now Microsoft has a decision. Another smash hit or something to pay the bills. Most companies would prefer the last one, although, without some major innovation, the Halo series is dead. The only thing they can do at this point is make minor improvements like the sports games do and add a new item here or there.
Why not a Halo RPG, based on someone's life after the apocolypse? Not Fallout, but immediately after things turn to shit. More like parts of FFX. Or, maybe a game where you're with the police force back on soil? You could use the Halo name for a lot of games that would work, or you can use the Halo name for the same damn thing.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
Four.
I record my sleeptalking
Someone on slashdot doesn't like microsoft product! Weather and sports up next!
if you include Aleph One.
"We here in the Microsoft Games Division have this one really big basket, and we've got three different farmhands out in three different coops collecting eggs, so we'll be able to put all our eggs in the one basket very efficiently."
I'm glad that they've got it working, but the maps really seem designed for two teams at most.
So, we know that Halo Wars is coming, that's one; we know that Peter Jackson is still working on his Halo-related game project, that's two. Bungie has said that they're not done with the halo franchise, and that they have 2-3 projects in the works, they're being cheeky with the are-they-aren't-they, but I think its safe to assume that's three; Gearbox is rumored to be working on the 4th installment (which, honestly I hope isn't true), but that could be four; Halo 3 has yet to appear on PC, but it surely must be coming, and that makes five.
The Halo series is one of my all-time favorites -- Just ahead of Half-life series, and in a dead-heat with the Ninja Gaiden series (NES through 360) -- The universe has a lot of leg left, there's a pretty rich history to dig into and a lot of mystery left to explore. The tie-in with Marathon. The Arbiter's story. The now-fractured Covenant (assuming some survived on their own home-worlds) and their power-vacuum. The Chief and where he wakes up next. Or will he be lost to the enemy?
The source material can support plenty more games without getting stale, the question is whether any studio outside of Bungie can apply the same touch that they have. Despite the fact that a lot of people around here will say that Halo isn't anything special, its simply not the case; Bungie has developed a very special recipe with the Halo series -- its a combination of subtle things you may not have even noticed being quietly slip-streamed in many other popular shooters since as well as not so subtle things. It took things piece-meal from shooters that had come before, shined them up and melded them into something cohesive and great.
Besides, any real Bungie/Halo fan knows that there must be precisely 7 Halo projects in the works.
Seriously? I didnt even finish Halo 3. I got to the impossible flood levels, you know the ones where you have to jsut run through... after about 10 tries of attempting to kill everything then realizing most people have to just run through, I ejected the disk, chucked it across the room and laid a curse upon Bungie/MS.
Good-bye
This isn't really all that newsworthy. The already-doomed Ensemble Studios is working on "Halo Wars", Peter Jackson's studio is working on some as-yet-unnamed Halo project, and the folks at Bungie are still doing Halo 3 updates and downloadable content work. Those are assuredly the three "teams" he's referring to, and none of that's really anything new.