Just wanted to remind everybody that the remake of one of the greatest Shooters of all time is releasing next Tuesday. Is it just me, or does it seem like Microsoft has devoted like $100 total to this game’s marketing campaign?

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That should clear it up. Looks thoroughly uninteresting, useless, and redundant. But I’m sure a bunch of 12 year old Halo fan boys with way too much time on their hands will make it a success.

Speaking of not having enough time on my hands, I’m trying out something new for IB. It’s called, “Post links to news stories that you should read but I’m too lazy to properly report.” I figured the best place would be in this completely unrelated post about the Halo Waypoint.
Microsoft to Raise Xbox Live Subscription Fee, says Pacther [1UP]
Peter Moore Says Core Videogame Business Model is a “Burning Platform” [1UP]
New Modern Warfare Matchmaking Service Will “Definitely” Reshape PC Community [Kotaku]

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Fat Peter Jackson was so much cooler than skinny Peter Jackson.

According to 1UP (via Joystiq), the famed Lord of the Rings director has confirmed that his take on the Halo universe, known only as “Halo Chronicles,” is “no longer happening.”

In an interview with Joystiq he said “That Halo project is no longer happening, it sort of collapsed when the movie didn’t end up happening.” Going on to speak about the movie, the Oscar winner said, “that fell apart because of internal politics at Fox and Universal. It had nothing to do with the budget or anything else. In fact, we hadn’t even been greenlit at all at that point…Microsoft has a whole strategy with the Halo property, and when the rights expired with the two studios, that sort of ended my involvement with the project.”

Initially announced in September 2006, the Halo Chronicles project always sounded exciting to me. Mr. Jackson was said to be working directly on the game, and it was supposed to be a brand new interactive-movie experience like nothing else. It was also rumored that Metal Gear Solid 4 producer Ryan Payton was put to work on the project when Microsoft hired him last year. But considering that Jackson isn’t interested in developing the game without the Halo movie as a crutch, it probably wouldn’t have been very good anyways. Hopefully Microsoft’s newly minted 343 Industries is working on something else cool. And hopefully Peter Jackson is working on something else too since he hasn’t done anything good since Lord of the Rings.

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Developed, published, and whored out by 343 Industries

Lots of Halo news this week, folks.

Hidden in the announcement for the new Halo anime, Halo Legends, was the news that Microsoft now has their own internal division dedicated to everything Halo, and it’s called 343 Industries. There was some speculation earlier in the week when it was revealed that Microsoft trademarked the name, and now it’s confirmed.

As Kotaku points out, one of the defining factors of this new division is their involvement in everything Halo. Not just the games, but all of the merchandise that will spawn forth from the revered franchise. As Microsoft puts it, “343 Industries is the publisher of the blockbuster “Halo” series of videogames and, as part of Microsoft Game Studios, oversees the ‘Halo’ franchise, including novels, comics, licensed collectibles, apparel and more.” Did you hear that? “And more!”

And it looks like 343 Industries will probably be working on the next Halo game as Bungie recently announced that Halo: Reach will be their last Halo related video game… on the 360 at least.

In an interview with CVG, Lars Bakken, senior designer at Bungie, had this to say when asked about Reach being their last Halo game for the 360: “In terms of a platform for Halo games made by Bungie, yes. I can’t answer that question for Microsoft though. Whether they have something in the works or not, I don’t know if they’re actually ready to talk about it yet, but in terms of Bungie-produced Halo games, ODST and then Reach is probably all you’re going to get.”

I’d actually like to see this be Bungie’s last Halo game ever. Don’t get me wrong, Halo’s great and Bungie does a great job with it, but let’s see what else they can do.

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