Bungie officially says goodbye to Halo and its long-time fans. Sniff (sob).
See you starside, writes Bungie in its official farewell to the Halo franchise. The studio said that management of the Halo multiplayer playlists will be handed over on August 2, thus severing its last connection to the popular franchise. The Bungie website will thus shed any signs of Halo in a complete makeover, and then the studio itself will "go dark" as it focuses on creating a brand new universe for parent company Activision-Blizzard.
"As we prepare to become fans of the universe our studio began creating more than ten years ago, it's nice to know that we'll be counted among such esteemed company," the company writes. "Some might consider the upcoming transition a bittersweet occasion punctuated by a sense of loss and sadness. We feel otherwise. Halo is in great hands…yours."
"These last two weeks have been a celebration for us – a reminder of just why these last two decades have been so uniquely special for Bungie," the company adds. "More than ever we are humbled by your dedication and your loyalty (and now, even by your Halo: Reach skills…ouch)."
Bungie will release a ViDoc on August 2 called "O Brave New Worlds" which will offer the studio's parting thoughts on the last twenty years. That's right – Bungie has been around since 1991, originally founded by University of Chicago undergraduate student Alex Seropian. The studio managed to squeeze out a few Marathon and Myth games before taking on the FPS genre with the release of Microsoft's original Halo: Combat Evolved Xbox and Windows PC game in 2001.
"Our next project demands an unwavering focus," the studio writes. "We owe it to ourselves to make something better than we ever have before. We owe it to you, as well. So, this isn't a goodbye. It isn't The End. Instead, it's the very beginning of a new journey that will stretch the limits of what we are capable of.
Hmmm. Bungie's new franchise for Activision-Blizzard wouldn't be Starside, would it? Details surrounding the new project are scarce at best save for a few tidbits reporting that it’s another FPS with MMO elements. This new franchise is also supposedly set in a science-fiction setting and slated for the Xbox 360 and Windows PC simultaneously.
As reported back at E3 2011 in June, Microsoft will release a revamped Halo: Combat Evolved (aka Halo: Anniversary) for the Xbox 360 in November. Under Microsoft's watchful eye, 343 Industries, Saber Interactive and Certain Affinity are rebuilding the classic shooter from the ground up using an in-house engine while also throwing in support for Kinect.
“It’s no surprise we’re exploring ways Kinect can enhance game experiences in authentic and meaningful ways,” said Microsoft Game Studios head Phil Spencer in an interview. “The Kinect features we’re exploring with Halo: Anniversary are additive and will not affect the core gameplay experience or alter our mission of delivering a faithful recreation of the original game. That said we have nothing else to share just yet.”
But no Halo: Anniversary for the PC? Lame.
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Sounds like a lot is still unknown to the general public about Bungie's next franchise, but I would welcome them into the PC world.
Many of the long-time PC franchises have since moved on to consoles, leaving PC players with nothing except bad ports of console games that originally started on PC (Call of Duty, Rainbow Six, etc.) So maybe a console developer coming to the PC world would leave PC players with something amazing. Who knows.
Too bad, Halo: Reach was a good game, sad to see the franchise go
Too bad, Halo: Reach was a good game, sad to see the franchise go
The franchise will still live on. This was a rare case of Bungie getting bought out by Microsoft and then Bungie getting tired of only working on Halo and being treated rather poorly divorced their parent company Microsoft. However Microsoft kept the rights to Halo as part of that deal.
Of course everyone raised a eyebrow when they then joined up with Activision which is known to also treat employees poorly and waste talent and creative ideas by endlessly milking franchises themselves. Just look at Call of Duty. They have basically switched from bathing in a pit of lava to a pit of acid and you know full well that Activision will not be so generous to make a deal like Microsoft did.
Call of Duty should do the same xP
all things are fleeting. nothing is everlasting.
"Under Microsoft's watchful eye, 343 Industries, Saber Interactive and Certain Affinity are rebuilding the classic shooter from the ground up using an in-house engine while also throwing in support for Kinect."
Kinect? This is the first I've heard about the new Halo Anniversary edition including kinect. I'd like to hear more about that. Will it include the option to switch back and forth between Kinect and regular or will it have specific scenes or sections for Kinect use or what?
What DX tech will it be 11? Isn't it about time for DX 12 to come out? What DX will the new XBox 720 have 11 or 12?
man they better not "force" kinect on this , as it stand i ahve to repalce my borken 360 already , i barely have money for that replacemnt and wil have to use a trick to use my old hrad drive on the new slim system (old drives to work you just have to pop them out of thier cassing ) . all that said and done i doubt i'l have money for kinect , so there better be an option to play with out kinect on this,
It wouldn't be too hard for Microsoft to improve the game to XBOX 360 standards since they're playing around with 2005 class hardware anyway. Still I wish Bungie the best maybe they can give some tips to the COD team on how to make a better FPS.
Who can answer this question at Wiki's XBox 360 article?
What specific DirectX technology came with each XBox console and at what date?
Original Xbox
Xbox 360 Core
Xbox 360 Pro / Xbox 360 Premium
Xbox 360 Elite
Xbox 360 Arcade
Xbox 360 Super Elite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk: [...] ectX_specs
Sounds like a lot is still unknown to the general public about Bungie's next franchise, but I would welcome them into the PC world.
Where they should have been in the first place.
Who can answer this question at Wiki's XBox 360 article? What specific DirectX technology came with each XBox console and at what date?Original XboxXbox 360 CoreXbox 360 Pro / Xbox 360 PremiumXbox 360 EliteXbox 360 ArcadeXbox 360 Super Elitehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk: [...] ectX_specs
Is this a serious question? The 360 doesn't exactly support DirectX at all. It has its own API with capabilities somewhere between DX9 and DX10. The core/pro/whatever distinctions are only storage related.
They were on PC, at one point (Marathon 2: Durandal, the two Myth games they did, Oni).
As for taking on the FPS genre, they did so before Halo. The Marathon trilogy was great, despite being primarily Mac-based, and they did Pathways Into Darkness prior to that.
Good riddance...!
@MooseMuffin hey buddy learn your facts "When Microsoft later set out to develop a gaming console, the X was used as the basis of the name Xbox to indicate that the console was based on DirectX technology." hmmmmmm that sure seems like xbox uses DirectX but prove me wrong.
Also JoseJones if you look up the DirectX wiki page which is where I got that quote you will find that the original xbox used DirectX 8.1 and the 360 uses DirectX 9.0
Thanks pythonic13, I knew the original XBox was DX 8.1 and I did read that DX Wiki article but it was not very clear on the later ones. I thought the most recent XBoxes were DX 10.
Is it fair to assume that the new XBox 720's will be DX 11 or will DX 12 be out by the time the new XBox 720 rolls out? Isn't time for DX 12 to come out? DX 11 has been out for a couple years now.
I am not positive on this note but I would assume that all the versions of the 360 use DX9 since all the games created have to support DX and it seems like it would be bad business practice to force game companies to create games with multiple DX versions if it could be avoided.
With regards to the 720, I am betting that it will be DX11 unless DX12 comes out soon and is a much more efficient version.
So what is going to happen with Halo 4?
I m not happy because they released Halo 1 and 2 for pc, then they released the others for Xbox only.so I'm kinda would like to know how Halo 3 continues from halo 2.
I would definatly get the remastered version if they make it for pc,it sucks.
Seriously, you people are debating the DirectX capabilities of the Xbox past, present and future? Who cares?
This is all you need to know. Whatever the capabilities of the next generation Xbox are, they will be inferior to what a PC is capable of and will continue to hold back the gaming industry from taking advantage of newer and/or better technology.
Back to topic, while it is always sad to see a software company have to part company with a franchise that they created, this is Halo we're talking about. It may have helped put the Xbox on the map but it is inferior to many other FPS out there both past and present. Unless you are a Halo myopian, who really cares?
@JoseJones
Microsoft has been tight lipped regarding Windows 8 and a possible next gen Xbox 720. My guess, there will be no DX12 anytime soon. DirectX11 already has lots of tools and resources the next gen console will likely use. (So no DX12 on windows 8 either)
@pythonic13
Yes DirectX was the inspiration for the Consoles name, but it still uses additional custom APIs unique to the console. If it was strictly just DX9 API's, developers would have been able to easily port much more to the PC (or modders would have been able to make ports to the PC)
Why does climbing DirectX version number need to matter so much?
An engine can still look fantastic in DirectX 9 with powerful enough hardware. Pixel/vertex shader model only forms a very small part of the equation.
because coding under Dx11 is way more efficient than Dx9 code path using the same functionality. Adding a moderate amount of tesselation and superior anti-aliasing doesn't affect frame rates that much and improves I.Q.
Does this mean they are not MS's bitch anymore.
because coding under Dx11 is way more efficient than Dx9 code path using the same functionality. Adding a moderate amount of tesselation and superior anti-aliasing doesn't affect frame rates that much and improves I.Q.
It isn't more efficient at all. The same fixed function pipeline functionality is still there, just done in a different place. If it were more efficient, DirectX 11 would benchmark significantly faster than DirectX 9. It's only more efficient from a code cleanliness perspective (speaking as a professional games programmer myself).
I'm not trying to suggest that DirectX 9 is a superior API to DirectX 11 (obviously!). My point was more focused on the comments above implying that the DirectX version number will somehow make or break the next Xbox's success. It was almost like reading a Chrome version number roadmap.
?
I remember playing Marathon as a kid, and I do recall it being an FPS
Sounds like a lot is still unknown to the general public about Bungie's next franchise, but I would welcome them into the PC world.Many of the long-time PC franchises have since moved on to consoles, leaving PC players with nothing except bad ports of console games that originally started on PC (Call of Duty, Rainbow Six, etc.) So maybe a console developer coming to the PC world would leave PC players with something amazing. Who knows.
New Marathon or Myth PC game?
Yeah, I remember playing "Maraton 2: Durandal" and "Marathon: Infinity" on my Mac in college. Fun games with great storylines. Properly updated, this series could become a new blockbuster FPS franchise.
Yeah, I remember playing "Maraton 2: Durandal" and "Marathon: Infinity" on my Mac in college. Fun games with great storylines. Properly updated, this series could become a new blockbuster FPS franchise.
Iv been hoping for a comeback to the series ever since reading about all the similarities between it and Halo (was hoping for it to be nothing like Halo, and primarily PC of course
My Marathon boxes are somewhere in my basement, but theres a shelf behind me with Myth, and Myth 2 boxes
Seriously, i was so disappointed when i got to know!
Nice addition
if you used the same limitations on Dx9 under Dx11 just coded for Dx11 it is faster. Adding all the new crap slows it down.
"Bungie officially says goodbye to halo"
me: well thank f*ck for that! I thought that horrible game would never die.