The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft
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.
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.
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.
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.
>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!
Bungie employee interviews:
Chats with the fans:
Press releases/info for fans:
With the recent announcement of Microsoft buying Bungie we can all look forward to playing Halo on the Xbox! With Halo becoming an X-box title,will it make it to PC at all? Word from inside the company is that Halo will be an X-Box exclusive for a few months, before being released for the PC at a later date.
News to us.
