There’s an embarassment of riches in Halo-related news out of X06:

• Kotaku: Jackson Working On New Halo Game


• Kotaku: Halo RTS Announced


• Joystiq: X06 Live Blog


• Major Nelson: X06 Live Blog


• Gamasutra: New Halo Releases, Partnerships
  


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  GameSpot: Wingnut Unscrewing New Halo Franchise
  


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  GamesAreFun: Bungie and Ensemble team up for Halo Wars (360) RTS
  


• 
  Xbox.com: Microsoft announces partnership with Peter Jackson
  


• 
  Slashdot: Jackson Making Halo Game
  


• eToyChest: X06 Impressions Day One


• Next Generation: Peter Jackson Forms Another Halo


• Blue’s News: Microsoft’s X06 Announcements


• Voodoo Extreme: Halo Wars Announced


• PlanetXbox: Get Ready For Halo Wars

Xbox.com has put up an item on the Halo Wars announcement; there’s one particularly interesting tidbit there that places the game at the beginning of the human-Covenant conflict:

“Halo Wars” places the player in command of human UNSC armies as they deploy for mankind’s first deadly encounter with the enemy Covenant forces.

Given that the novels tell us the Spartan program did predate this conflict, it certainly doesn’t preclude them from being in the game– and the trailer does show them.

Since real Bungie fans don’t trust a word that is said about the Halo franchise, or indeed any Bungie game, unless it comes straight from Bungie, KP has now posted at Bungie.net to give the official imprimatur to the heretofore scurrilous rumors spread in Spain by Peter Moore and Peter Jackson.

To wit:

• Ensemble Studios is making Halo Wars, an RTS game for the Xbox 360.


• Wingnut Interactive is working with Bungie on an as-yet unrevealed Halo project.

The latter is being referred to as a “new chapter” in the Halo series; no doubt this prevents any conflict with the idea that Halo 3 will be the “end” of the Halo story, as it will only end that particular story arc. Where or when these new games take place isn’t yet known.

In addition to the projects mentioned above, Wingnut is also working on original intellectual property.

Major Nelson did a backstage interview with Peter Moore before the press event. Despite the latter’s predilection for annoying golf claps punctuating his presentation, he does redeem himself with his good taste in beer, mentioning that Bass ale is one of his green room requirements.

A link to the video interview can be found here:

mms://wm.microsoft.com/ms/xbox/video/x06/Peter_Backstage_300k.wmv

The press event saved the best for last, in an almost Steve Jobsian “just one more thing” sort of way, with a trailer for Ensemble Studios‘ upcoming Xbox 360 title, Halo Wars.

It features a battle between Human and Covenant forces, as well as Spartans other than the Master Chief. The latter, of course, has been a fan request for nearly five years; and the former, I can only assume, means either the game is set in a time period before the close of Halo 2, or that the postulated human-Covenant alliance against the Flood never actually occurs.

No indication of whether or not the Spartan group referred to in the trailer as “Omega” bears any relation whatsoever to the RvB character of the same name.

The trailer has a link to www.halowars.com. Some users have reported problems with the site, but so far they have pages for downloading their trailer and a FAQ, which mentions that Halo Wars is an Xbox 360 exclusive, not a PC title as well as I posted earlier. There are also forums and a gallery of screenshots.

Peter Jackson has just been on stage with Peter Moore to announce the formation of Wingnut Interactive.

I really believe that there is a new form of entertainment that is not a film and is not a game. I am not a game designer. But what I am really interested in is in the idea of taking games and stories that could be films, but might not be films.

According to Jackson, the games this new studio will be working on are not going to be traditional games, but new “blends” of entertainment with the emotional impact of a film and the interactivity of a game.

Moore says that Jackson is working with Microsoft beyond just the Halo movie, and “Bungie is working on content beyond Halo 3”.

Moore closes the Wingnut Interactive segment with a bullet list, indentifying Wingnut with a new Halo series produced by Bungie and Wingnut, and a new, original property to be developed by Jackson and Fran Walsh.

Halo still hasn’t gotten more than a token mention in the press event so far, except for Moore’s statement that fans should expect something new related to Halo 3 “before the end of the year”.

Those of you who thought that behind the closure of the Halogen project, a three-year-long attempt to make an unofficial mod for Command & Conquer Generals, lay a more sinister purpose, your suspicions have been confirmed. Ensemble Studios, creators of Microsoft’s real-time strategy series Age of Empires, has announced Halo Wars, a real-time strategy game set in the Halo universe. The game will be developed in collaboration with Bungie and released for the PC and the Xbox 360.