During Microsoft's E3 press conference a few weeks back, the company teased Halo fans with an ambiguous trailer that featured a cloaked Master Chief.
IGN asked Microsoft Game Studios vice president Phil Spencer whether or not this teaser was effectively an announcement of Halo 5, to which the MS exec offered a slightly puzzling answer.
There was no ambiguity in not putting a number after the game. For me, what we showed wasn’t the game. Nobody should be confused on that. I didn’t really want to try to show something that was clearly a thought piece by the studio around where Master Chief is in his journey, and then drop the name after it and be somewhat disingenuous about that being the game.
But I did want Bonnie to come out and say, ‘First-person shooter. Master Chief.’ Because they’ll get the questions – ‘Hey, is this ODST? What are you guys doing?’ Bonnie comes out and reaffirms that 343 is building this game. It’s Master Chief. It’s a first-person shooter at 60 frames per second. It’s coming in 2014.
The outlet then followed up by asking why the company even bothered teasing Halo if they weren't ready to formally announce a game. “If you go back in Halo history, and I’ve been around all of the Halos since Halo 1… Halo usually has two E3s," he responded.
Since a new Halo game is coming next year, the question as to whether or not MS will release a Halo 2 HD remake for its tenth anniversary in 2014 remains all the more relevant. To this, Spencer explained:
I’ll be open. We have discussions about it. It’s more about the right time and making sure that we really would do the right thing for the franchise.
The Halo Anniversary that we did was as much about the launch of the first Xbox as well. It was a culmination of many things coming together. It would probably run out of steam if we were trying to think about, ‘Okay, what’s 10 years old now?’ It’s definitely more from the game itself, the experience that we’re able to bring to market. Less about ‘Is the last digit a zero?’ in terms of its anniversary.
What do you make of Spencer's statements? Are you excited about the future of the Halo franchise on the Xbox One? Let us know in the comments below.
