Halo

The battle for supremacy begins - NOW. Genius Products, LLC and B1 Games today announced that the first-ever board game based on Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie's best-selling Halo property - Halo Interactive Strategy Game - has shipped to retail outlets nationwide. Bringing the Halo universe to a broader audience through numerous family-friendly features, the game features a modular board that can be reconfigured to create a virtually limitless gameplay experience...

Following the recent announcement that Microsoft-owned Age Of Empires creator Ensemble Studios would close after the completion of Halo Wars, Gamasutra has discovered that a now-canceled Halo MMO was in development at the studio, unearthing prototype UI and level screenshots of the Ensemble-developed project. The prototype art, which was at one point made available on an Ensemble-linked online artist portfolio website, further confirms previous rumors that the studio was working on an MMO based on the Bungie-created sci-fi franchise.

The kid, famous for replicating halo weapons from cardboard, have now accidentally shot himself. gamegrep.com writes: While at home skipping school Nimm was apparently trying to imitate moves from the game with his .22 caliber rifle (a common pastime for the child). However he did not obviously grasp that a round could still be loaded in the chamber even when the magazine ejected and was found shot through the head yesterday.

Microsoft Game Studios recently posted a bunch of recruitment notices up on its site specifically referring to the full fledged development of the next Halo project. Hollywood talent, does this mean/hint to Peter Jackson's' much touted Halo project, perhaps only time shall reveal the true nature of this oblivious and shrouded project.

There are no rocket launchers in Monopoly, and Scrabble would simply be a different game if firebombs were involved. But the typically genteel world of board games is about to welcome a neighbor from the surlier side of town: Halo Interactive Strategy, a board version of the huge-selling, hyper-violent Halo series of video games.

The Penny Arcade Expo is rapidly approaching and while some of Bungie plans have changed, they are still planning some goodness for fans who plan to attend. At the moment we do have three distinct projects underway within Bungie - some familiar, some not. Some on a closer horizon, some quite far off.

Today, details are coming in about what Bungie intended to reveal at Microsoft's E3 press conference. While specific information about its upcoming Halo project remain a secret, the developer reportedly planned to show a sixty second knock'em down teaser trailer, only to have it pulled at the last minute.

Microsoft said Wednesday that the decision to pull Bungie's latest Halo project from its E3 press conference was made to help trim the presentation, an embarrassment of riches already planned to be shown, and the feeling that the title deserved a more dedicated event.

XboxOZ360 recaps the news and then speculates as to what exactly the new Bungie Halo and Superintendent are. This would suggest that Microsoft felt that having seen the Sony and Nintendo conferences, they had done enough to win E3... It indicates Microsoft feels that Bungie's announcement was big enough to distract the media from their other announcements. Given FFXIII and the massive Live overhaul, this is extremely exciting! But what is Superintendent? We think it might be a reimaginging of an old Bungie franchise. Titles would include critical darlings Marathon and Myth, along with Oni... The only spanner in the works is the placement of the Superintendent figure over the area of Kenya in the Halo 3 multiplayer lobby. Given its very close links to the Halo universe, this naturally leads us to... Microsoft's SVP of Interactive Entertainment, Don Mattrick, has confirmed Microsoft will be making announcements on Halo Wars and Bungie's Halo project sometime in the future, but that Halo Wars, Halo Chronicles and Bungie's Halo project are entirely separate titles! Given Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter creative director Christian Allen is the lead of Bungie's next project; the strange Superintendent figure over Kenya; the much grittier direction already evident in Halo Wars new trailer... was Gamespot right about a tactical squad shooter?

MTV Multiplayer writes: In an interview shot for MTV News on Tuesday, Microsoft's head of Xbox business Don Mattrick, confirmed to me that Bungie is indeed working on a new Halo game of some sort for Microsoft. I had been asking Mattrick about the lack of Halo news at E3. He said that Microsoft's Monday press conference was already loaded with content and so any announcements for that series weren't needed to get gamers excited. I pushed him on the lack of presence for the series and asked him if we should be worried about the no-show of Ensemble Studio's real-time-strategy game Halo Wars. Not only did Mattrick say not to worry and that announcements would be coming, he also said that Microsoft is working with Bungie on a Halo game. I asked for clarification, wondering if Mattrick meant Bungie's project was Halo Wars or the long-announced Peter Jackson Halo project. Neither, Mattrick said. The Bungie game is something else. And then, not surprisingly, the topic was changed...