Gamer nerds rejoice! These are pictures of a functioning, full-size replica of the Warthog, popularized by the video game Halo. Built in Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop, near Wellington, New Zealand, the vehicle will be touring around promotional events and conventions in New Zealand, and possibly elsewhere.
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Speaking to VideoGamer.com at a recent London press event, Halo Studio lead producer Jason Pace revealed that the newly formed Microsoft Game Studio is willing to use the Halo brand in new genres, but only if it makes sense.

So where exactly could we see the iconic Master Chief appearing? Pace wasn't saying, but he did confirm that you'll never see the great man in a dancing game.
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Quote from Tiltedscreen.com

"Last month Tiltedscreen.com reported that the UK was getting a special Preorder bonus,The Flaming Warthog. It has been revealed on Xbox Live that North America will also see the preorder bonus. Also if you preorder in North America you will receive a Halo Ringtone. In order to get the free halo ringtone you must snap a pic on Xbox live of a QRcode and send it to gettab.mobi, also must preorder before March 3rd 2009"
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Halo Studio lead producer Jason Pace has told VideoGamer.com that Microsoft sees the Halo franchise as its Star Wars, and hopes it will become just as prevalent in pop culture as the George Lucas conceived phenomenon.
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Joystiq Xbox: "Since the beginning of time, man has attempted to unlock the secrets of two ancient mysteries: 1) The meaning of life and 2) How the hell can you make an RTS both intuitive and enjoyable using a console controller. On February 5, Halo Wars will attempt to answer the second of life's greatest mysteries when a demo for the title releases on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Will it succeed where others have failed or will it too suffer a tragic fate of mediocrity?. We don't know, but this week you have a chance to find out by winning an advanced code for the demo courtesy of Jade, Jake and the entire Xbox Canada Community Blog."
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Ensemble Studios, creator of the Age of Empires series all the way to the upcoming Halo Wars game, has been a dominating developer for Real Time Strategy (RTS) games. Ensemble cranked out a total of ten RTS games including Halo Wars and expansion packs, most if not all of which were high-rated top sellers.
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In an email sent to none other than hiphopgamer, Aaron Greenberg admits Sony is competition. The email reads
"Hey man..."
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GamesAreEvil writes: Can't wait to get your hands on Halo Wars? Well you're in luck because Microsoft, following our interview with the game's lead producer Jason Pace, have been kind enough to provide us with some very special Marketplace tokens that will allow you to download and play the demo immediately.
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Eurogamer: "Microsoft Game Studios has a "lot of ideas" for future Halo Wars content, and said that the new studio created by former Ensemble employees will help.

"Ensemble is, as I'm sure you know, forming a new company, and they will be helping us support the title moving forward, so: bug patches, any kind of fixes - we'll have all those folks available to work on it," Jason Pace, lead producer for Halo wars and MGS overseer of the Halo franchise, told Eurogamer.

"As a studio right now, we're talking about what we'd like to do to carry this game forward. We're really excited about this game. We obviously have a lot of ideas of areas we'd like to go. We haven't committed to anything yet, but I believe you'll probably be hearing something soon."
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Eurogamer: "Microsoft Game Studios hopes to expand the Halo franchise in "many different directions", including new genres and entertainment not game-related at all.

"We tend to view the franchise side of Halo as an entertainment property, and something that we hope to expand in many different directions: both through additional genres of gaming and additional ways to tell the story that may not be game-related at all," Jason Pace, Halo Wars lead producer and Halo franchise overseer, told Eurogamer.

"So I think it's fair to say we're always looking for new opportunities, new genres to tell the story in. And whenever we find a great fit we'll pursue it."
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In an interview with IncGamers, lead producer, Jason Pace, says future genre expansions for the franchise is something that "was being explored."
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Available on February 27, the same day as Halo Wars, the bundle will consist of a Xbox 360 60GB Console, a wireless controller, Wired headset and a copy of Halo 3 and Halo Wars.Priced at 2795 Krona (~260 Euro)
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Loot Ninja writes:

"This will be a must-have item for all Halo super fans, Risk: Halo Wars. I can't even begin to explain how great of an idea this is. Who doesn't love Risk and Halo?

Risk: Halo Wars will allow players to be in control of one of the three Halo factions. The three controllable factions are the UNSC, the Covenant and the Flood. Yes, the same Flood that isn't controllable in the Halo Wars video game is available in the Risk version."
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Electricpig: Halo Wars isn't even out yet, but we've heard from the man in charge that the studio behind it is looking into adding extra downloadable content (DLC) through Xbox Live!

We spoke to the game's lead producer, Jason Pace, at a sneak peek of the game for UK journos, where he let slip that "additional downloadable content is something we're looking in to."
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From the PlanetXbox360 contest:

"We just got an e-mail from Microsoft asking us if any of our readers would be interested in playing the Halo Wars beta a little early, well by early I mean a whole week! We have 15 codes up for grabs and all you have to do is leave a comment in this story (on the website) and/or join our Twitter page and then sending us an @reply asking you be entered into the Halo Wars Beta contest. The codes will be given away on Wednesday: January 28th, 2009 and will allow access to the demo starting on Thursday: January 29th, 2009."

http://www.twitter.com/planetxbox360
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Ensemble Studios released five images of Halo Wars. The demo for "Halo Wars" will be available beginning on 5th February.
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Below you can see twelve new Halo Wars images showing all the weapons and troops you will have at your disposal whether you choose to fight as Covenant or the marines.
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Kotaku: "Two pieces of Xbox Live-related cardware on show for you today. The first is the redeemable points card you'll receive when you buy Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost & the Damned.

The second? A special Halo Wars-branded version of the fancy 12+1 Xbox Live subscription cards that have started turning up. No word on when these will be out, but with the game due in February, you can make with your own suppositions."
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Excited for Halo Wars? Well we at Second Story Gamer got some good news: Microsoft has given Major League Gaming some codes for early access to the Halo Wars demo. MLG is planning to give them out to 25 random people who reply to a forum post made just for that purpose.
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Console Monster writes: "Friday's are the day of the week Lips fans look forward to as they know three new songs will have creeped onto the Xbox Live Marketplace and today is no exception with songs from Rihanna, Fall out Boy and Jet. There are also a lot of free trailers to download. Here is the full Xbox Live Marketplace update for Friday 23rd January 2009:

Lips: "Hate That I Love You"
Price: 180 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox Live Regions except India, Japan, Korea
Description: Purchase this Premium Song to add "Hate That I Love You" as performed by Rihanna feat. Ne-Yo to your Lips library. You'll get the song's track, chart, lyrics, and original video. A Lips game disc is required to play this downloadable content. Once your purchase is complete, go to Get Music in the game, and then add this song to your library. Visit lips.com to check out all the songs you can get, song credits, news, and join the Lips community. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.
Size: 77 MB

Lips: "Look What You've Done"
Price: 160 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox Live Regions except India, Japan, Korea
Description: Purchase this Premium Song to add "Look What You've Done" as performed by Jet to your Lips library. You'll get the song's track, chart, lyrics, and original video. A Lips game disc is required to play this downloadable content. Once your purchase is complete, go to Get Music in the game, and then add this song to your library. Visit lips.com to check out all the songs you can get, song credits, news, and join the Lips community. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.
Size: 69 MB..."
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