A week after a dump squid of an E3 press conference, Microsoft have told gaming hub IGN that they are not “milking” the Halo franchise.
Despite showcasing two brand new Halo titles – a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved set for later this year and Halo 4 from 343 Industries, Microsoft Game Studios VP Phil Spencer rebuked any suggestions that the corporation was relying on the space shooter series to placate core gamers.
After being asked that since there had been four Halo titles in the past four years (Halo 3, Halo Wars, Halo: ODST, Halo Reach) and two set for the next two years (Combat Evolved Anniversary this year, Halo 4 for 2012), should we consider it an annualized series, Spencer disagreed.
“It wasn’t part of us trying to get into an annualised rhythm with the franchise.” claimed Spencer.
“It will be done in time for this holiday that is the 10th Anniversary for Halo. It felt like a good time to celebrate it.”
As one of the few core gamer-focused first-party titles that doesn’t rely on Kinect, many (including ourselves) felt that the announcement of Halo 4 and its announcement as being “part of a new trilogy” was a somewhat lazy, misguided attempt to sate the demands of gamers who had felt that the Xbox brand was moving too far in a family-family direction.
Not so, claimed Spencer, when asked if Microsoft was now “milking” the series, in particular with the Combat Evolved remake.
“Halo launched Xbox and it made it relevant for us core gamers. We’re not going to ignore that,” said the VP.
“But you have to plan ahead of time. We had discussions about ‘will people look at this as us milking it,’ but we figured with achievements, Xbox Live, and “up-res-ing” the game, it was a project out of passion not a project out of business.”
Is there still life in the Halo franchise or is Microsoft determined to flog a cryogenically-sleeping Master Chief? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
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