It may be the most obvious and unnecessary launch of all time, but yesterday at Microsoft's pre-E3 keynote speech Halo 3 was officially announced.
Not only this, but a teaser Halo 3 trailer was screened to a hushed audience and then immediately released onto Xbox Live for download by salivating fans. So huge and rabid is the demand for anything Halo 3 that Microsoft's Xbox Live service (designed to cope with millions of people online at once) promptly buckled under the weight of traffic for the trailer. Any other than the most lucky had their attempts to download continuously disconnected as everyone and his dog rushed for a taste of the mighty Halo bone.
For readers who've spent the last four years with their heads up their back passages, Halo is Microsoft's biggest game franchise – a blistering sci-fi first-person shooter that defined and helped sell the original Xbox console. Its first two outings outstripped the sales of any other games on the console, the second breaking all manner of records on its release in November 2004.
So big is Halo that a movie of the sci-fi story is currently in production for release next year. Determined to avoid the usual pitfalls of game to movie tie-ins ("Paul Anderson, Paul Anderson, Paul Anderson," we hear you chant as you wind your way through the woods armed with stakes and burning torches), Microsoft and Halo developer Bungie have secured some top line talent for the movie, enlisting 28 Days Later and The Beach author Alex Garland to pen the script and avid Halo fan Peter Jackson (he made something called The Lord Of The Rings, apparently) to executive produce. This, at least, should guarantee an intelligent script and eye watering special effects for Halo from Jackson's Weta Digital workshop.
When Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 late last year, many pundits berated it for not having a killer application at launch. In short, this means that many pundits berated it for not having Halo 3 at launch. However at this year's E3 it is beginning to become apparent that both Microsoft and Bungie may well have been playing the long game much better than any had expected. At the end of this year Sony will release the PS3, which it hopes will dominate the market in the same manner the PS1 and PS2 did their respective generations.
However, at that point Microsoft's 360 will have been around for a year. A year is generally how long it takes for developers to start releasing games on a new platform that actually utilise the power of the infant machines. So as Sony launches with games built on new technology, Microsoft will hit back with a salvo of fully developed, technologically polished properties – crowned by the silver arrow of Halo 3. Why force Bungie to rush release a sequel on an infant machine when there's no rival at the table who needs trouncing? And why release the sequel to a world-beating game at a time where there aren't enough machines on the market for it to break any records?
So onto the Halo 3 launch trailer. We're not going to spoil anything for fans – if you haven't managed to download it from Microsoft's beleaguered servers yet, try Bungie.com where you can download it without any hassle to your PC. All we will say is that it promises to deliver what many thought was unfairly missing from the end of Halo 2. That's right folks, Halo 3 promises to let you finish the fight for Earth in what Bungie has officially called the final installment in the Halo trilogy.
Excited? You will be…
Read more:
Halo 3 Revealed, Plot Details Announced – MTV
[story by T. Perrin Sledge]