Should Halo be Xbox only? PlanetXbox are running a poll with the question “Should Halo be Xbox only?”. Time to vote with your finger. Make your voice heard. Thanks to MakeMineRed for the heads up.

The Bungie Gathering in on! Freewill announces on our forums that they’ll be a Bungie fanfest to coincide with Macworld Expo New York. Details of the event can be found at bs.bungie.org. Alex Seropian, Max Hoberman, and Matt Soell are slated to appear as is Hamish Sinclair of theMarathon’s Story page all the way from Ireland.

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Mark Levin asked Matt Soell about the PCFormat quote on our forum… and Matt set the record straight. There’s no word yet on whether a PC version will ever come out. That’s not a no, it’s not a yes. It’s a resounding “We don’t know!”

Kudos to D’n’A for posting more info about the Halo preview in the July issue of PCZone Benelux (Dutch gaming mag). It’s going to have a monthly Halo diary featuring new and exclusive never-seen-before pictures and interviews with the designers. Here’s how D’n’A describes one of the new pics in the article:

There’s concept art showing the strange ambient lifeform we saw in the BTV day three movie…the rolling one(maybe it was day four). On it’s back there’s some sort of jet-engine so it may also be concept are of a still to be shown Covenant race.

Go read the full thing on our forums. Thanks D’n’A.

PCFormat Daily, the website of British mag PCFormat, suggests that at the very least, a PC version of Halo is still on the table.

Microsoft actually rang us yesterday to give us the bottom line on what’s going on. Bungie will *definitely* remain an independent group within Microsoft – getting access to the big M’s marketing clout and cash pile – whilst Gates’ company gets some top game talent. Halo will still arrive as planned on the PC – but will also be released on X-Box.

No word on Macs… but hey, it’s better than X-box only! Thanks to MoBill, who posted the link on our forum.

D’n’A writes to say that the new issue of PCZone Benelux is out, with exclusive Halo stuff. The Red Covenant vehicle firing, a new sniper-rifle-type Covenant weapon, and more. Info as we get it.

In an interview with MCV NowMicrosoft Games VP Ed Fries gives his views on the Bungie buyout and their “properties”. Here’s part of the interview:

No decisions have been made about which Bungie properties besides Halo will be developed for Xbox. As to whether Halo will be released for PC or Mac, Fries is coy, telling MCV that with the three teams moving to Redmond and work on the games continuing, no official decisions have been made concerning specific platform plans.

“Halo isn’t the only game we are making for Xbox, but to be honest, we haven’t decided which titles in the Bungie library will be released for any specific platforms. We will be deciding that later. I can tell you that one of the main reasons we decided to move the entire Bungie group in-house is that we want to have the entire Halo team close to the Xbox team,” Fries says. “We think that Halo has a lot of potential as an Xbox game, or we wouldn’t be interested in it. Both teams are excited about working together to make the Xbox a stronger platform.”

You can read the full interview here.

It’s official no Bungie booth at Macworld Expo. As reported on MacCentralBungie won’t have a booth at next month’s Macworld Expo according to CEO Alexander Seropian. They’ll be Bungie people there though. MacCentral report:

Bungie founder and CEO Alexander Seropian confirms that while his company won’t have a booth at the show, it will still exhibit — Seropian wasn’t able to provide specific details, however. “There will Bungie people at Macworld Expo,” said the Bungie CEO. “Oni will be shown.”

Spotted this on the MS page first.

As reported on r.net Bungie’s Joseph Staten will be moving to Redmond to head a fourth development team that will focus on creating all the cinematics for HALO and future titles. Here’s what he had to say:

In case you’re curious, I am going to Redmond. It’s a great opportunity for me. I’ll be heading up a fourth development team that will focus on creating all the cinematics for HALO and future titles. If you enjoyed the stuff Marty and I put together in the last year or so, just wait ’til you see what we’ve got up our sleeves. Metal Gear Solid 2 eat your heart out.

Good to hear.

Syburwolf wrote to Matt Soell with a couple of questions, and got this response:

 >Will the deal with Microsoft put the games(and thus the Macintosh versions 
>:->) into the main stream stores a.k.a. -Walmart, Best Buy- or will it just 
>mean an ugly (pardon my bias) Microsoft logo on the box...  Also, will you 
>be attending MWNY ?  

Obviously a big part of the appeal of this deal is Microsoft's 
distribution might.  Whether or not stores carry the Mac versions of 
titles is entirely up to the individual stores; not even MS can force 
them to carry titles they don't want to.  But we think they'll want to 
carry our stuff.  

We probably won't be exhibiting at MacWorld NY (although last-minute 
miracles have been known to happen) but at the very least some Bungie 
folk should show up at the fan gathering there to hang out with Hamish 
Sinclair.  

-Matt 

We got word from Freewill tonight, as well… the location for the fanfest is shaping up. Look for more info coming soon!

Worried about a Mac version? So is PlanetCrap. (Thanks to Luxor, of Halo Vault, for the heads-up.)

Matthew Rothenberg opines about the message Microsoft is sending to Mac users in an article entitled “Bungie’s Mac Ties” on ZDNet. Worth a read. Thanks to Jonathan Haas (formerly of the Myth II team) for the heads-up on our forum.

When we mentioned the petition to keep up Halo development for Mac/PC 6 hours ago, there were 196 signatures on the page. Now, that number has grown to over 6500, and continues to climb. It’s moved to a more stable server, to handle the incredible load. If you haven’t signed it yet, you might want to consider it. It might have no effect… but it can’t hurt to show Bungie (and Microsoft) just how much demand there is for a non-console version of this game.

An exclusive Halo shot has found its way into our inbox. You can see it here.

Stryker writes to tell us that Halo HQ is back online after a brief unscheduled outage.

Michael Maddux writes to let us know that a petition to keep up development of Halo for Mac/PC is online, and currently has almost 200 signatures. Stop by and let Bungie know how you feel! Pax.

Neko-chan points out the MacCentral interview with Alex Seropian, which is hard to read without serious misgivings about future Mac development of Halo. To recap, here’s a list of interviews, chats, and official releases over the past few days.

Bungie employee interviews:

• Daily Radar’s 2nd interview with Jason Jones
• PG IGN interview with Ed Fries (Microsoft) and Alex Seropian
• GameSpot’s interview with Alex Seropian
• Gamespy interview with Alex Seropian and Ed Fries
• Blue’s News interview with Doug Zartman
• Daily Radar’s 1st interview with Jason Jones
• MacCentral’s interview with Alex Seropian
• MacCentral’s interview with Take 2
• Inside Mac Games’ interview with Alex Seropian
• Q&As with Doug Zartman at Inside Mac Games

Chats with the fans:

• RHL Hotline Chat
• Bungie.net Chat
• IRC channel #bungie Chat

Press releases/info for fans:

• Letter to our Fans
• Acquisition FAQ
• Microsoft to Acquire Bungie press release

A secret CIA source who asked not to be identified sent along this aerial reconnaissance photo of the Microsoft complex in Redmond. Seems the Bungie offices have already been added. Pax.

The end is here. The Halo SETI Marines lost another big member today (DarthFlounder, with 1210 units), increasing the hemorrhage total to over 2000 units in 2 days. We’ve been processing stats for this team since late October of last year, and we’ve watched it grow from a small group of Halo fanatics to one of the top 50 club teams and one of the top 100 overall teams. That’s nothing to sneeze at… but we aren’t willing to chronicle the descent as people drop out. Therefore, today’s 24 hour stats are the last we’ll put up. The team is far from dead, and could conceivably continue to grow (if, for example, the Bungie team decided to merge with it), but we’re gonna go back to focusing on Halo news. Thanks to all for the last 8 months!

MacGamer’s Ledge have posted a feature called “Former Access Software Employee speaks out on Microsoft relationship”in which a former Access Software employee shares his own experiences after his employer, also a game developer, was purchased by Microsoft. Note: Bungie maintain that they have a different relationship with Microsoft and that Microsoft have learnt from previous disasters.