Halo Master Chief HD Collection Coming To Xbox One? Halo 5 Concept Art & New Engine
Yesterday Microsoft made the exciting announcement that Halo 5: Guardians will be at E3 next month and that we can expect it to hit our Xbox One consoles autumn of 2015. So between now and then, we’ll have to prepare ourselves for much Halo 5 goodness and this continues on with a stunning concept image from the Xbox One title, as well as potential details of a Halo HD collection.
An image was released on Halo Waypoint, along with a letter to fans from the Franchise Development Director at 343 Industries Frank O’Connor. In his letter he revealed that to produce the best quality Halo experience, each game needs no less than a three year development cycle, which has been reflected in Halo 5: Guardians. He also stated that the latest game will run on a new engine and that it will be 60fps. Let’s hope to that Halo 5: Guardians will also be at 1080p, because if there’s one franchise that needs to be at its best on the Xbox One, it’s Halo.
You can check out the new concept image and the letter from Frank O’Connor below.
Click to Enlarge
As you’re probably aware, my boss and studio head for 343, Bonnie Ross, officially announced the next instalment in the Halo saga: Halo 5: Guardians, coming in fall 2015 for Xbox One. I will be up front and admit that I don’t have much more detail to add, but here at Waypoint, our conversations tend to be a little more insider, a little more familiar. And this is no exception.
Last year at E3, Bonnie famously said, “Your journey begins in 2014…” Wait – hang on – you thought: “What journey is she talking about and why is Chief wearing a poncho?” Okay, some might call it a cloak, but the fact remains – you knew something more nuanced was afoot. So it’s quite likely that Bonnie’s 2015 release announcement today surprised no one in the Halo community. In fact, I suspect most of you who read the Halo Bulletin regularly anticipate there’s even more to come.
Well you might be right, but we’ll have significantly more to say about that at E3 and beyond. Suffice it to say, another shoe has yet to drop.
But getting the Halo 5: Guardians announce out of the way is a big weight off our shoulders. This audience has correctly stated and assumed that you can’t necessarily squish a full Halo game into anything less than a three year development schedule – and at least up to and including Halo 5: Guardians, that’s more or less true.
But we’re not just making a new game in that three year span; we’re also making a new engine. During the development of Halo 4, we pushed the Xbox 360 and the engine to its limits, and we were happy with the way we were able to make the Halo universe look. The Xbox 360 still has a few tricks up its sleeve, even now. We are moving to a whole new platform with the Xbox One – a new architecture, new graphics hardware and bluntly some new ways to think about gaming, period.
Bonnie also called out 60fps and dedicated servers last year – attractive, desirable, and possibly expected upgrades to the Halo experience. After all, we won’t be the first 60fps shooter out there. That said, these must-haves are not necessarily easy to achieve.
Previous Halo titles, Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 for example, strove to push the entire ecosystem forward – dual stick FPS with big open spaces in the case of Combat Evolved, and broadband matchmaking in Halo 2 – are just a couple of examples of the series innovating or amplifying ideas. So in building Halo 5: Guardians, we want to push the ecosystem as well as the universe. And we’ll have some surprises in store for new and loyal players of the series.
So that’s it for now, but E3 is just around the corner. So if you bide your time and hold your breath, you won’t have to wait too long to hear about the next steps on this Great Journey.
Frank O’Connor – Franchise Development Director, 343 Industries.
Also if these rumours end up being true, I know it’s one that is sure to excite both Halo fans and Xbox One owners alike. According to engadget.com, if their sources are to be believed a Halo HD collection will be coming to the Xbox One this year. It is expected that the Halo HD collection will all feature games that star the one and only Master Chief (as some are also calling it the Master Chief Collection) , so this would potentially rule out Halo: ODST and Halo: Reach out of the collection.
But if these rumours are to be true, the collection would feature enhanced versions of Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo 4. With such a wealth of great games, this would certainly more than tie us over until Halo 5: Guardians releases towards the end of next year, especially if the HD collection came with a competitive multiplayer modes, even if it’s just a selection of the best maps from each title.
Earlier in the year a Halo 2: Anniversary was confirmed for the Xbox One, so whether this will still release as a solo game, along with the collection remains to be seen. Obviously this is all rumour at this stage and even if it was to be true, it’s unlikely that Microsoft will confirm this news before E3. Should we hear any confirmation on this rumoured HD we’ll update you right here.
In quick related news, for whatever reason there have been other rumours going around that one of the figures in the Halo 5: Guardians box art is Cortana. Well those unlikely rumours have been quashed by the executive producer of Halo Josh Holmes via his Twitter account; you can find that very tweet below.
For everyone speculating about the mysterious Spartan in Halo 5: Guardians, he’s not Palmer (or Cortana!). He’s a NEW character. 🙂 #Halo
— Josh Holmes (@JoshingtonState) May 16, 2014