Microsoft: "We lost our way" with Halo
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Microsoft has admitted losing its way with Halo following the release of Halo 3 in September 2007.
Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach both lacked one vital ingredient: "Playing Master Chief," said Microsoft Game Studios boss Phil Spencer to OXM.
"We kind of lost our way a little bit, I'll say. And that's why I wanted to make sure that at the unveiling of Halo 4, you knew you were playing Master Chief, that John was back - because Master Chief is the John Wayne character of that universe, and that's who you want to play."
Spencer said Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach "made sense" to fans of Halo 1, 2 and 3. But Microsoft wants Halo 4 to appeal beyond those boundaries.
"Fundamentally there are a ton of players on our box right now that didn't start with Halo 1," Spencer commented.
"If you were new to Xbox 360 - 360 is where you started playing on Xbox - you understood what Halo 3 was. ODST and Reach, maybe you weren't as centred."
"The game has a history now," he added, "and it's about bringing new customers into the fiction."
Another way Microsoft hopes to broaden the Halo fan-base is by remastering the very first Halo game for Xbox 360. Nearly all of the old texture work will be slung away in favour of new, high-definition appearances. Microsoft will also add Kinect support to the game.
Halo 4 was unveiled at E3 in a video that showed an altered Master Chief rescuing AI companion Cortana before jetpacking through an exploding spaceship to safety. Halo 4 will be the first game of a new Halo trilogy - does that mean there will be more questions before we get answers?
Microsoft may be keen to get back to Halo's roots, but what effect will the departure of series creator Bungie have - can 343 Industries live up to the hype?
Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach both lacked one vital ingredient: "Playing Master Chief," said Microsoft Game Studios boss Phil Spencer to OXM.
"We kind of lost our way a little bit, I'll say. And that's why I wanted to make sure that at the unveiling of Halo 4, you knew you were playing Master Chief, that John was back - because Master Chief is the John Wayne character of that universe, and that's who you want to play."
Spencer said Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach "made sense" to fans of Halo 1, 2 and 3. But Microsoft wants Halo 4 to appeal beyond those boundaries.
"Fundamentally there are a ton of players on our box right now that didn't start with Halo 1," Spencer commented.
"If you were new to Xbox 360 - 360 is where you started playing on Xbox - you understood what Halo 3 was. ODST and Reach, maybe you weren't as centred."
"The game has a history now," he added, "and it's about bringing new customers into the fiction."
Another way Microsoft hopes to broaden the Halo fan-base is by remastering the very first Halo game for Xbox 360. Nearly all of the old texture work will be slung away in favour of new, high-definition appearances. Microsoft will also add Kinect support to the game.
Halo 4 was unveiled at E3 in a video that showed an altered Master Chief rescuing AI companion Cortana before jetpacking through an exploding spaceship to safety. Halo 4 will be the first game of a new Halo trilogy - does that mean there will be more questions before we get answers?
Microsoft may be keen to get back to Halo's roots, but what effect will the departure of series creator Bungie have - can 343 Industries live up to the hype?
Comments
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? that... I liked Noble Six way better than Master Chief since he was my own character.
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? that... I liked Noble Six way better than Master Chief since he was my own character.
In a way I do agree...the customization was ill
but I think they really lost their way with the campaign mode period. Halo had epic action combined with epic music. I just think they needed to get back into the philosophy of doing epic ? and nothing else -
In a way I do agree...the customization was ill
but I think they really lost their way with the campaign mode period. Halo had epic action combined with epic music. I just think they needed to get back into the philosophy of doing epic ? and nothing else
Im sorry...did you actually play through Reach? -
? that... I liked Noble Six way better than Master Chief since he was my own character.
i agree, gettin all those mods and acheve ment made me happy........get @ me on sum halo......................................gamer tag, JAK SLATER -
In a way I do agree...the customization was ill
but I think they really lost their way with the campaign mode period. Halo had epic action combined with epic music. I just think they needed to get back into the philosophy of doing epic ? and nothing else
the campaign on reach was good to me... still not seeing halo 2 though.
