It’s been a while since we’ve seen Master Chief in action. The Spartan cyborg, to which Microsoft arguably owes the success of the Xbox and 360, hasn’t starred in a new game since Halo 3 graced the scene nearly five years ago. Last year at E3, Microsoft blew the lid off the first non-Bungie developed mainline Halo game with the surprise announcement of Halo 4 and today we finally learn when we’ll be able to get our mitts on it.
According to a press release from Microsoft, Master Chief will return beginning November 6, 2012. The game will be set four years after the events of Halo 3 and is being developed by 343 Industries.
Phil Spencer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Studios, indicates that this chapter is merely the beginning of “a journey that will encompass the next decade of ‘Halo’ games and experiences.”
Late night television is getting in on some of the Halo action as well, with Conan O’Brien hosting a special segment on his show “CONAN” tonight on TBS. It’s unclear whether this means that there will be some sort of official unveiling tonight, or if the comedian will just be doing a skit of sorts. Perhaps we’ll get lucky and it will be a little of both.
Master Chief Returns With Worldwide Launch of "Halo 4" Beginning Nov. 6Yea screw the election, I have a threesome with Cortana and John to get to. Lots of great games coming out this year that I'm going to love, but Halo and I are best friends forever.
I've gotta say, I'm pretty surprised. I was almost certain that this game would get pushed back and end up becoming a launch title for the next Xbox.
@Julian. I remember you saying that one time and I agreed with you at first. I wouldn't mind waiting another year or two to see a Halo that takes advantage of some next-gen hardware and engine work, but lately I've realized they will inevitably end up giving us both, and it could be the best of both worlds. Halo 4 is part one of the new Forerunner Trilogy, and it would make perfect sense for this game to come out and capitalize on the huge user base of the 360, the excitement people have, and the holiday season it'll be releasing in. There's not really an apparent achilles heel to launching it on 360, so it would seem.
Once Halo 4 ships and banks in on holiday 2012 for 360, it will free up the whole team to get to work on Halo 5 which will most certainly be for the next-gen. I would even speculate that a small team may already be doing some brainstorming on Halo 5. From what I've heard, 343i is squarely in crunch mode on Halo 4 right now, but it seems like they are a lot closer to finishing than most people would think. As more groups finish, more people will be able to be allocated to Halo 5 (if that's the kind of workflow they operate, this is.) I'm not saying Halo 5 could or should be a next-gen launch title in 2013, but there have been rumors that Microsoft might want to make Halo do yearly installments. However, Frank O'Connor, franchise director at 343i, denied that. So for now, yearly installments don't seem likely.
At the very least, Halo 4 should do great this holiday season on 360, and the next 2 titles in the trilogy will most likely take advantage of next-gen. There may or may not be work on Halo 5 happening, they may even just take time to build the new engine for the next-gen entries, or maybe all of the above. I honestly can't recall the resources Mircosoft stocks 343i with, but it's most definitely huge (like 200 or more people) and Halo is their bread and butter, so I wouldn't be surprised if they're pulling out all the stops and being ridiculous with their workflow, budgets, manpower, etc.
Financially, it makes way more sense to release Halo 4 on the 360 than a new console for sure. I was kinda hoping for it becoming a launch title simply because the big "killer app" launch game seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur. The Dreamcast and the Xbox had them, but PS2, Gamecube, 360 PS3, and Wii didn't have that "must purchase" game day one. And no, Twilight Princess doesn't count, because it was also on Gamecube.
That being said, Halo 4 does look amazing. The Halo 3 engine was getting long in the tooth, and what I've seen so far, the graphics are impressive.
It depends on what you define as "killer app". Are we going by the definition of sales numbers, or what one can subjectively call as the title that makes the individual buy the console at launch?
I'm talking about that game that everyone is talking about, and causes people to go out and buy the system just for that game. I suppose a case could be made for Wii Sports, but I always considered that more of a tech demo than a game. But lots of people bought the Wii just so they could play Sports and didn't really buy anything else.
Just wanted to point out that Reach used a newer/different engine than Halo 3, and looked considerably more advanced. Many thought it still wasn't up to the standards set by contemporaries, but I don't think anyone thought it was too far off. I thought it looked mighty fine.
I agree that some sort of Halo game would be perfect to help the launch of the next Xbox. I'm with Julian that having a huge franchise game release with a console is a key factor that has been lost the last 2 generations.
Travis is right, Bungie built up a new engine for Reach. I thought Reach was gorgeous, it still is actually. When I played Crysis 2 it took things to the next level and CryEngine3 made many of the effects in the Reach engine look like child's play, but still, Reach is amazing.