Halo video game series: Encyclopedia II - Halo video game series - Future Video Game Releases

Halo video game series - Future Video Game Releases

Halo video game series - Halo 3

The cliffhanger ending of Halo 2, as well as the success of the Halo franchise, makes a sequel extremely likely. It is speculated that Halo will become a trilogy, after which Bungie may be done with the series. Sources from inside both Microsoft and Bungie have made contradictory claims regarding whether Halo 3 is currently in development.

Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft, was quoted as saying that Halo 3 was in development alongside Halo 2; however, this quote was recognized as a slip of the tongue and debunked before the release of Halo 2. Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, stated in a May 2005 Time Magazine interview that Halo 3 would be released in the "second wave" of Xbox 360 titles in 2006, as close to the PlayStation 3's launch as possible, to divert sales. "It's perfect," Gates said, "The day Sony launches [the new PlayStation], and they walk right into Halo 3."(Time.com article, registration required; relevant quotes on Gamespot.com). When asked shortly afterwards however, Microsoft senior vice president Robbie Bach was less definite, saying: "We haven't announced anything on what Bungie is doing or where we're going with the future of the 'Halo' franchise... With all respect to Bill, I don't run Bungie's studio, and neither does he. We'll work with the Bungie guys and let people know [when they have something to announce]".

Bungie has not denied that another Halo game is in progress, but they have not officially announced the game. However, the studio is known for being highly secretive and even occasionally misleading regarding development of their games. Bungie has recently made regular references to "our next project" in their website's weekly news updates. Though no official statements have been made regarding what that next game is, most believe it is indeed Halo 3, and that Bungie is just being coy about the project in typical Bungie fashion. Bungie has also recently stated that Sapien and Guerilla, custom-made programming tools used to build Halo and Halo 2, are being worked on.

An article in Game Informer in November 2005 reports that: "Halo developer Bungie is so paranoid about the storyline for Halo 3 leaking out that two different storylines are being worked on so that even the company's employees are in the dark as to the plot of the game."

An alternative possibility is that, following the precedent of Marathon Infinity, either an outside agency or a contractor to Bungie is developing the content of Halo 3 and using the existing engine, or possibly porting the engine to the Xbox 360. This view could explain Bungie's reluctancy to speak on their next project, as if they have indeed handed Halo 3 to a third party, the two announcements (of Bungie's next project and of Halo 3) would likely be made concurrently. Wideload Games has been suggested by fans as a potential such outside developer, reasoning that the third Marathon game was developed by a company which was, like Wideload, founded by former Bungie employees.

Soon after the Xbox 360 was unveiled in May 2005, EB Games and FYE started taking pre-orders for "Halo 3", despite having no official word from Bungie on whether they would make another Halo game. The pre-order page has since been taken down, but other retailers have followed suit.

On October 4, 2005, ivanjrn, a user at www.richeswillrust.com deployed a fake script for Halo 3. Bungie said in this news article that the script was in fact fake. Since the posting of the script, the message board has been closed down.

• The Master Chief and Truth face off in "The Ark". In early storyboards, Master Chief and a character called "Dervish" (an early name for the Arbiter) were to both be present at the Ark.
• Sgt. Johnson, Commander Miranda Keyes, and the Arbiter escape from Delta Halo.
• Cortana has talks with the Gravemind. This will show either Gravemind's side in the war, or another hint at Cortana's rampancy.
• The outcome of Earth's biggest battle will be revealed as the Master Chief arrives hidden in Truth's ship to see Earth near the brink of defeat.
• The civil war between the two Covenant factions (Hunters, Elites, and Grunts vs. Prophets, Brutes, Jackals, and Drones) will reach its zenith.
• Secrets behind the origin of the Gravemind are revealed.

Halo video game series - Halo Gizmondo/mobile

A Halo mobile game was announced for cellular phones, while strong rumors of the deal between Tiger Telematics and Microsoft, which will make 5 games for the system, the rumor states the possibility of the contract outlining a Halo. Bungie, to this point, has denied a Gizmondo Halo, but it may still be pending, seeing how Microsoft controls the contract, not Bungie.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Future Video Game Releases", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki