As you’re probably aware, my boss and studio head for 343, Bonnie Ross, officially announced the next installment in the Halo saga: Halo 5: Guardians, coming in fall 2015 for Xbox One. I will be up front and admit that I don’t have much more detail to add, but here at Waypoint, our conversations tend to be a little more insider, a little more familiar. And this is no exception.

Last year at E3, Bonnie famously said, “Your journey begins in 2014…” Wait – hang on – you thought: “What journey is she talking about and why is Chief wearing a poncho?” Okay, some might call it a cloak, but the fact remains – you knew something more nuanced was afoot. So it’s quite likely that Bonnie’s 2015 release announcement today surprised no one in the Halo community. In fact, I suspect most of you who read the Halo Bulletin regularly anticipate there’s even more to come.

Well you might be right, but we’ll have significantly more to say about that at E3 and beyond. Suffice it to say, another shoe has yet to drop.

But getting the Halo 5: Guardians announce out of the way is a big weight off our shoulders. This audience has correctly stated and assumed that you can’t necessarily squish a full Halo game into anything less than a three year development schedule – and at least up to and including Halo 5: Guardians, that’s more or less true.

But we’re not just making a new game in that three year span, we’re also making a new engine. During the development of Halo 4, we pushed the Xbox 360 and the engine to its limits, and we were happy with the way we were able to make the Halo universe look. The Xbox 360 still has a few tricks up its sleeve, even now. We are moving to a whole new platform with the Xbox One – a new architecture, new graphics hardware and bluntly some new ways to think about gaming, period.

Bonnie also called out 60fps and dedicated servers last year – attractive, desirable, and possibly expected upgrades to the Halo experience. After all, we won’t be the first 60fps shooter out there. That said, these must-haves are not necessarily easy to achieve.

Previous Halo titles, Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 for example, strove to push the entire ecosystem forward – dual stick FPS with big open spaces in the case of Combat Evolved, and broadband matchmaking in Halo 2 – are just a couple of examples of the series innovating or amplifying ideas. So in building Halo 5: Guardians, we want to push the ecosystem as well as the universe. And we’ll have some surprises in store for new and loyal players of the series.

So that’s it for now, but E3 is just around the corner. So if you bide your time and hold your breath, you won’t have to wait too long to hear about the next steps on this Great Journey.

Frank O’Connor
Franchise Development Director
343 Industries

Click here to get Halo 5: Guardians wallpapers

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Spartan Laster

By April Martin

Spartans, it’s time to vote on what you’d like to see in Matchmaking! We have listed three different game types below, and after tallying all the votes from the Halo community, YOU will decide which game type is playable on May 26. So, vote for your top choice, and stop by next week’s Bulletin to read which option is the winner. This week, we’re asking you which game type you’d like to see added to King of the Hill.

Shotgun King
In the same family as Shotgun Ricochet and Shotgun CTF, Shotgun King equips players with Thruster Packs, Plasma Grenades, and a Shotgun. Get ready for some up close and personal combat.

Rocket King 
Rocket King is not a game type for the faint of heart. Players willing to get in the Hill in this game type need to be ready for immediate explosions as well as lots of respawns.

Mosh Pit
A game type that will be familiar to Halo 3 players, Mosh Pit uses one central Hill that doesn’t move, and provides players in the Hill with increased shields. There is only one rule: if you’re killed, just head back to the Hill and jump right in.

Head here to vote on the Halo Waypoint forums, where voting will be open for approximately four days. Check back next week to find out which game type is the winner and will be included in the playlist!

The weather in the Pacific Northwest over the past few days has been fantastic. The sun is shining each and every day, we’re into the 70s, and there is no rain in sight. I know this because I’ve been checking the weather forecast on my computer from inside the studio, where we are prudently planning for things ahead, one of those things being E3. By the time everyone leaves the studio each evening, the sun has likely gone down, but we move closer and closer to being able to share things with you early next month in Los Angeles. Many of you have been sending us countdown tweets or reminders for the past few weeks (and for many of you, months) which generally read something along the lines of “100 days until E3 (insert really excited exclamation here!)” and while we’re excited to see the event draw nearer, we realize we now have less than 30 days before the show. This preparation has us quite busy, so we have a lighter Bulletin today, but I managed to bother the Franchise team to answer some lore questions, and we’ve got a few Matchmaking goodies to talk about. Let’s get into it!

Below, you’ll find the final top 200 players in the Proving Ground playlist for the latest season, which ended on May 12! We’d like to congratulate the top players for their performance over the past eight weeks. You can track your CSR (Competitive Skill Rank) for the playlist by visiting your Halo 4 Service Record. To learn more about CSR, head here. Only CSR 50 players will have a progress bar next to their ranking, which will allow for direct comparison between other CSR 50 players. Stay tuned for next season’s Top 200 leaderboard!

Rank	MVP	CSR
1	Bi0h
2	Twissted Mindss
3	FlawlessNSP
4	ElBurgerWeiner
5	DHGBR0 821543
6	Infinite sweat
7	Skiperior
8	MISS SKIP
9	ZeuCifer
10	Dirtying
11	NadeFame
12	Alanimaul
13	Sour Onion
14	GooN iZz BacK
15	xXBOXx L1VE
16	Gamble007
17	Honest Paradox
18	Smoke Yadig
19	I Shoota I
20	WhyIsMyButtSore

Every two weeks we update Halo 4 Matchmaking with exciting new game types, playlist changes and more. You can see what we have planned in the months ahead by visiting the Matchmaking Playlist Calendar, but below you can get details on what’s now available in today’s Halo 4 Matchmaking Update.

Dominion Light

Today, Dominion is making a lean and mean return to Halo 4 Matchmaking as Dominion Light, which features 4 vs. 4 gameplay. The updated game type will feature a faster pace, modified scoring, smaller resupply drops balanced for smaller teams, and a new custom map list. 

Team Ninja Assassins

Ninja Assassins is back in Matchmaking! Need a refresher on how Ninja Assassins works? Check out the previous Matchmaking Update here.