Bungie coy over next project – Game confirmed as running
Halo 3? Must be... Surely...
Bungie has spoken on the progress of its latest game, though the studio is still refusing to confirm its title, fueling talk that a non-Halo outing may precede the third incarnation of Master Chief.
“This week, every day has felt like a Friday,” the studio commented in its weekly update. “We did a thing called the “Bungie Fair” which as really a big show and tell where the various groups – art, design, engineering, all showed off their work from our next project, some of it in the form of multimedia presentations, some of it in very real, discernable graphics, running as actual gameplay with placeholder graphics. Some of it even had sound effects and music.”
Somewhat cryptically, the update continues, “Naturally most of the stuff is still shrouded in secrecy, but I did get to see a taste of a lovely user interface. It’s amazing what you can do with higher resolutions and lots more power. My favorite UIs ever include TiVo, PSP and of course the 360 “blade” interface. The UI I saw during that demo was every bit as elegant and in some ways, more dramatic than any of those. And simply because of the nature of UI – it looked “finished.” Which was kind of shocking, although in reality, it was very early, and it will probably undergo many, many complete overhauls before it ships. But ironically, the way we’re prototyping aspects of this next game mean that even some gameplay tests, demos and experiments, are surprisingly polished and playable. We’re all in the giddy position of being “forced” to play moments and elements from the next project.”
As you'll probably remember, similar talk of Bungie developing a game that wasn't Halo 2 was rife, right up until Microsoft's 2004 E3 show, at which perhaps the loudest hollering and whooping ever in videogames was heard. A bold claim, though one we stand by. Of course, it turned out Bungie was indeed exclusively coding its new Halo game, though it would be fair to surmise that the situation is somewhat different today.
Bungie has been absorbing staff at a steady rate, with the studio presumably able to cope with two projects simultaneously as things stand today. Releasing a new game before Halo 3 would also make complete sense for owner Microsoft. Almost everyone owning an Xbox 360 will buy a new Bungie game, of this there is no doubt. So why not keep them waiting, release two games instead of one and spawn a brand new cash calf in the meantime?
“This week, every day has felt like a Friday,” the studio commented in its weekly update. “We did a thing called the “Bungie Fair” which as really a big show and tell where the various groups – art, design, engineering, all showed off their work from our next project, some of it in the form of multimedia presentations, some of it in very real, discernable graphics, running as actual gameplay with placeholder graphics. Some of it even had sound effects and music.”
Somewhat cryptically, the update continues, “Naturally most of the stuff is still shrouded in secrecy, but I did get to see a taste of a lovely user interface. It’s amazing what you can do with higher resolutions and lots more power. My favorite UIs ever include TiVo, PSP and of course the 360 “blade” interface. The UI I saw during that demo was every bit as elegant and in some ways, more dramatic than any of those. And simply because of the nature of UI – it looked “finished.” Which was kind of shocking, although in reality, it was very early, and it will probably undergo many, many complete overhauls before it ships. But ironically, the way we’re prototyping aspects of this next game mean that even some gameplay tests, demos and experiments, are surprisingly polished and playable. We’re all in the giddy position of being “forced” to play moments and elements from the next project.”
As you'll probably remember, similar talk of Bungie developing a game that wasn't Halo 2 was rife, right up until Microsoft's 2004 E3 show, at which perhaps the loudest hollering and whooping ever in videogames was heard. A bold claim, though one we stand by. Of course, it turned out Bungie was indeed exclusively coding its new Halo game, though it would be fair to surmise that the situation is somewhat different today.
Bungie has been absorbing staff at a steady rate, with the studio presumably able to cope with two projects simultaneously as things stand today. Releasing a new game before Halo 3 would also make complete sense for owner Microsoft. Almost everyone owning an Xbox 360 will buy a new Bungie game, of this there is no doubt. So why not keep them waiting, release two games instead of one and spawn a brand new cash calf in the meantime?
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Comments
fluffstardx 19 Dec 2005 14:10
1/5
Didn't they say, absolutely ages ago, in one of those very updates, they were taking a break from Halo? Did nobody ACTUALLY READ THIS?
They also said Halo 3 won't precede the movie, so there ya go.
They also said Halo 3 won't precede the movie, so there ya go.
VastikRoot 19 Dec 2005 14:20
2/5
It's the Pimping Pirates game!
Bill Gates says halo 3 will launch on the same day as PS3 so they must be working on it ;)
Bill Gates says halo 3 will launch on the same day as PS3 so they must be working on it ;)
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LUPOS 19 Dec 2005 15:12
3/5
SPOnG wrote:
Almost everyone owning an Xbox 360 will buy a new Bungie game, of this there is no doubt. So why not keep them waiting, release two games instead of one and spawn a brand new cash calf in the meantime?
cause if its s**te people will be less likely to buy halo3 without question. The safe bet would be to release halo3 and then a dif bungie title after cause people may say, well H3 sucked... but thats cause MS was forcing them to do more of the same... now they have a chance to be creative again!... and so they will give them another chance.
________
vault 13 19 Dec 2005 15:54
4/5
LUPOS wrote:
cause if its s**te people will be less likely to buy halo3 without question. The safe bet would be to release halo3 and then a dif bungie title after cause people may say, well H3 sucked... but thats cause MS was forcing them to do more of the same... now they have a chance to be creative again!... and so they will give them another chance.
I'd rather see them produce a turd and then publish Halo 3 and have it be fantastic rather than have to get into a new franchise after crying for days over S**tlo 3. 2 was bad enough for gaming for a while. They can be more creative with Halo 3 and add things like a "grabbing type gun", super realistic physics, enemies from "hell", teammates named Sam who are VERY serious, and rehashed gameplay from 5 years ago. That would so add to the canon of Halo and rock so much.
OptimusP 19 Dec 2005 20:26
5/5
Maybe they're making the real Halo game which was actually a huge 3D RTS with squads and everything.
Or they'll be making the real Halo FPS that supposed to have featured huge squads and was kind of a mix between battlefield and Battalion Wars.
To bad they're MS' bitch now. And Halo 3 will launch when MS wants it to launch, if that means cutting a third of the game and have a even more sucky ending and then sell the last levels for 25 euro's, well...
Or they'll be making the real Halo FPS that supposed to have featured huge squads and was kind of a mix between battlefield and Battalion Wars.
To bad they're MS' bitch now. And Halo 3 will launch when MS wants it to launch, if that means cutting a third of the game and have a even more sucky ending and then sell the last levels for 25 euro's, well...