Halo-Wars
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Microsoft hiring for a 'well-loved strategy game franchise'
Microsoft Studios is working on a new entry in an established, AAA strategy franchise at its Redmond, Washington, location. A job post dated April 28, 2014, describes the game as follows: "Microsoft Studios is looking for a highly experienced senior games developer to help build and lead the team for a new AAA title within an established and well-loved strategy game franchise." A series that isn't just loved, but well-loved. Microsoft Studios has a few established strategy franchises in its wheelhouse, including Age of Empires and Halo Wars. Both were developed by Ensemble Studios, which closed in 2009 after finishing Halo Wars. [Image: Microsoft]
Halo games tumble in opening day of Xbox Live's Ultimate sale [update: and more]
Microsoft's week-long Ultimate Game Sale for Games on Demand content makes its opening pitch today, and first up to the plate is Master Chief of the Halo Space Marines. We'll let you be the judge of whether or not the green giant knocks it out of the park with today's offers.Three games slide down from $29.99 to $9.99 in the form of Halo 3, Halo: Reach, and real-time strategy black sheep Halo Wars. It's not quite as big a discount for the Chief's most recent adventure; Halo 4 shifts its price to $39.99 for a 33 percent discount.Update: A number of other games are also on sale, including Grid, Call of Juarez, BioShock, and Tomb Raider: Legend. It's not wholly clear, but the wording suggests these particular games are staying discounted through to the end of the Ultimate Game Sale on March 5. Dirt 2 - $4.99 Grid - $4.99 Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements - $2.99 Rayman Raving Rabbids - $2.99 Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X - $4.99 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas - $4.99 Kane and Lynch: Dead Men - $4.99 Call of Juarez - $4.99 Tomb Raider: Legend - $4.99 Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - $4.99 Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 - $4.99 Virtua Fighter 5 - $4.99 BioShock - $4.99 El Shaddai - $2.99 The Darkness - $4.99
Ensemble founder: Bungie was 'never up' for Halo Wars
Bungie wasn't keen on the idea of Halo Wars, Ensemble Studios founder Tony Goodman has told GamesIndustry.biz. Goodman noted that the game that became Halo Wars originally had nothing to do with Halo at all, but Microsoft felt that a strategy game would have a better chance of succeeding on its console with the Halo branding. The shift put the game "back about a year in development, and I think it never quite turned out the same," he said. Microsoft had assumed, according to Goodman, that the studio could simply "paint over" what it had already created with Halo characters, vehicles and environments.Furthermore, Goodman added that the entire project never sat well with Bungie, the studio that created Halo in the first place. "Another problem was that Bungie was never up for it," he said, recalling that the studio considered Halo Wars a "whoring out" of its franchise.Halo Wars became the last game that Ensemble Studios would ever produce, with the developer's former staff offering different accounts as to why it went under. The game went on to break a million in sales, and the staff went on to form several new studios, including Goodman's Robot Entertainment, which took stewardship of Halo Wars and went on to create both Hero Academy and Orcs Must Die. Goodman recently left Robot to form new mobile studio PeopleFun.
PSA: Canadian 250GB Xbox 360 bundle with 5 games now available
Do you come from the school of thought that equates "free stuff" with "money saved"? Is a $20 gift card as good as $20 off? Did you buy that useless robotic vacuum dog because it was so steeply discounted you'd practically lose money not buying it? We understand your plight, friend. And if you're Canadian, we think we've got a deal for you. News broke yesterday that our gentle neighbors to the north would be alone in getting the above limited edition Xbox 360 bundle which, while still $300, manages to throw enough free stuff in there that we're actively considering a pricey Canadian road trip –-- we'd practically lose money if we didn't buy it! Your $300 nets you a 250GB Xbox 360 S console, and full game downloads of Halo 3, Gears of War 2, Fable 3, Halo Wars, and the excellent Alan Wake. And, beginning today, it's available at Canadian retailers like Future Shop and Best Buy. It's not a price cut, but who needs cash off when you could get that much free stuff? [Thanks, MakoXL.]
Xbox 250GB bundle throws in Alan Wake, Gears 2, and 3 more [update: Canada only]
Reader Darren Christie tweeted a rather official-looking image of a new Xbox 360 bundle. According to the picture, taken at the Future Shop store in which Christie works, the new package includes a 250GB Xbox 360 console and download codes for five of its biggest games: Alan Wake, Halo 3, Halo Wars, Fable 3, and Gears of War 2. In addition to being big in terms of profile, they're also big in terms of file size, with the box warning that these games will occupy 29.51 GB on the hard drive. Christie told us that the bundle will be released tomorrow for $299.99. He is located in Canada, so it's possible this hardware package is a Canadian-only promotion. We've checked in with Microsoft to get the details. Just to be safe, maybe you should wait a day or so before buying an Xbox. Update: Shacknews received confirmation from Microsoft that this bundle is exclusive to Canada, out tomorrow, and available for a limited time.
Halo: Assault on Squad 45 makes motion-stop mayhem with Mega Bloks
Halo: Assault on Squad 45 is hard to explain. On the one hand, it's corporate synergy, a joint promotional effort between 343 Industries and Mega Bloks, which makes a Halo Wars line. On the other hand, it's completely badass.
Halo Wars stat tracking gets a reprieve from 343 Industries
Good news for Halo Wars fans -- the planned shutdown of stat tracking for the game has been canceled by 343 Industries, who have decided not to kill the game's community just yet. Originally, Microsoft planned to shut down the feature on the Halo Waypoint website on December 15, but the outcry from the community (which we found completely reasonable) means they've "decided that the current plan of action was not in line with how we have always intended to support Halo games and the Halo franchise in general." So rest assured, Halo Wars players, your stats are safe. The community itself will still be switching from game-specific forums to the Waypoint forums, but stats will still be available on HaloWars.com for the foreseeable future. And though Title Update 5 of the game will still be installed (to fix some unrelated Theater issues) your stats won't change, so go right ahead getting your Halo RTS on.
Microsoft closing Halo Wars website, folding into Waypoint community
Avid Halo Wars players, whose attention hasn't been swayed by 2010's exhaustive list of strategy blockbusters, were greeted with some unwelcome news this past weekend: The game's stat tracking home, as well as its official forums, will be shut down on December 15. The loyal community is being persuaded to move its conversation over to the Halo Waypoint forums. On the same day as the closure, an update will launch for Halo Wars, forever severing it from the soon-to-be-discontinued website. The update will also remedy a few Theater mode issues that were keeping players from viewing cutscenes, but, according to 343's content producer, "it won't include many of the fixes that we all wanted it to include." As you can imagine, the responses on said post are well-measured, even-headed and entirely polite. There's just this air of understanding permeating the entire discussion that's ... well, it's really inspiring.
Halo MMO had $90 million budget, canceled as Microsoft eyed 'casual, broader audience'
Over the past couple of years, we've seen dribbles of information here and there about the canceled Halo MMO, but a recent conversation IncGamers had with ex-Ensemble Studios employee Dusty Monk (yep, that's his real name) revealed not only the exorbitant cost of the planned development (three years of which took place before the game was canceled), but much, much more. First and foremost, the game's development was said to cost $90 million, as you likely inferred from the headline above. Second, the game was intended to be a "WoW killer," according to Monk. "It was absolutely going to compete against WoW. You have to remember that Ensemble came from a standpoint of being really good at competing against Blizzard Entertainment," Monk said, using the Age of Empires series as an example. Unfortunately for the folks at Ensemble working on "Titan" (the codename for the Halo MMO), the launch and subsequent blistering success of the Nintendo Wii allegedly altered the direction that Microsoft wanted to take. "Microsoft, from its gaming division, was really changing directions. They were looking really hard at the Nintendo Wii and they were really excited by the numbers that the Wii was turning. This was about the time that Microsoft decided that its Xbox platform and XBLA really needed to go more in the direction of appealing to a more casual, broader audience." Given that new direction and what Monk calls a "very expensive, very long, and very protracted" development, Microsoft eventually shut down the project. But hey, at least we got Halo Wars, right? Right?!
Dead Rising, Halo Wars join Games on Demand
Just as expected, today marks the release of two new Games on Demand titles: Dead Rising and Halo Wars. Major Nelson reports each is currently available for download on your Xbox 360, with Capcom's virtual mall full of zombies setting gamers back a paltry $20, while Ensemble Studios' final game is a bit more costly at $30. Each will take up six gigglebytes of room on your HDD upon download. Shortcut: Halo Wars on Games on Demand [Xbox.com] Shortcut: Dead Rising on Games on Demand [Xbox.com]
Xbox 360 Platinum Hits lineup adds Halo Wars, Orange Box and others
Xbox.com has listed several new games as Platinum Hits, including Fable II (aka Game of the Year Edition), Halo Wars, Left 4 Dead, The Orange Box, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Ninja Gaiden II, Kung-Fu Panda, Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, Sonic The Hedgehog, and Sonic Unleashed. A Microsoft PR agent couldn't confirm the full list of new Platinum Hits (are we missing any above?), but said that if a game is listed as such on Xbox.com, it's a Platinum Hits title. The changes seem to have taken effect on major retailer sites, as GameStop and Amazon now reflect the discounted Platinum prices (if not always the the Platinum Hits branding), which range from $20–30. With Orange Box requiring only one Jackson ($20), it's now literally a crime to not own it. Conversely, if you're dead-set on committing a crime, buy someone Sonic The Hedgehog or Sonic Unleashed at $20 each. [Thanks, Stephen]
Best of the Rest: Kevin's Picks of 2009
Halo Wars Yeah, that's right, Halo Wars. I've already caught enough flak for putting this on my best-of list for 2009 (it's hard to even remember that it came out way back in February), but it deserves to be recognized ... so pay attention once your laughter has died down. Ensemble Studios (RIP) proved that you could bring a real-time strategy game to a console, and still make it enjoyable. Sure, you'll never have 1:1 parity mapping everything a full-sized keyboard offers onto a controller, but this game came close. It's a pity Ensemble closed, since we'll never see any expansion packs or a sequel. The good news is that, since it wasn't received with blaring trumpets and the sounds of cash registers ringing, you can pick this up for under 20 bucks for some good fun.
Best of the Rest: Richard's Picks of 2009
Halo Wars Say what you will about the game's simplicity, or the brevity of the single-player campaign, but Ensemble Studios absolutely nailed console real-time strategy with Halo Wars. The controls work beautifully, allowing for the kind of granular management required in RTS games, and yet they remain simple enough for almost anyone to get the hang of the game. Add great online multiplayer and it's one tasty proposition. Frankly, I was so addicted to the Skirmish mode when reviewing the game that it ate into my work hours. Remembering that makes it harder to face the fact that Ensemble was shuttered once work on the game was complete. I can only hope that Robot is given the chance to further the series, or at least work the controls into an entirely new game.
Halo Wars title update beefs up Scarab, fixes bugs
We always figured that the Scarab was a pretty hefty Halo Wars unit -- it is the very end of the Covenant tech tree, after all -- but apparently it needed a little extra juice. A new title update now available for the game grants Scarabs with 25 percent more health and 25 percent more damage. If you weren't terrified of them before, you might want to reconsider. Other changes include Gremlins requiring two reactors to build, Grunts doing more damage to air units and more. The update also fixes some bugs including the cryo/reactor glitch, which sounds like it was pretty awful. See the full list of changes and fixes -- politely cribbed from HaloWars.com -- after the break. [Thanks, Ben]
Bonfire Studios hires former Halo Wars lead David Pottinger
Bonfire Studios, the development house that emerged in the wake of the Ensemble Studios closure, has picked up another ex-colleague: Dave Pottinger, lead designer of Halo Wars. He rejoins his peers as the director of technology, assuming the same responsibilities he held before Ensemble was shut down. Bonfire Studios is currently working on several unannounced projects for 2010. Pottinger has been with the company since its formative days back in 1996, and contributed to the development of Ensemble's key real-time strategy titles, from Age of Empires all the way up to the former studio's last game, Halo Wars. "Bonfire is a team full of old friends that I am looking forward to working with again," Pottinger said. "I think we're going to blow people away once they see what we're doing."
Halo Waypoint detailed, captured on video
This way to the Waypoint gallery With the Xbox 360 Fall Dashboard update preview kicking off today, Microsoft dropped some more details on Halo Waypoint, the Dashboard playpen for the Master Chief enthusiasts among you. The preview video – found after the break – walks you through some of the destination's functionality, notably the "career system" which will track "in-game accomplishments across multiple Halo games." Unsurprisingly, that career will be limited to the Xbox 360-released Halo games: Halo 3, Halo Wars, Halo 3: ODST, and "all Game Add-on content for those titles." Oh, you beat Halo 2 in under 30 minutes? We'll just have to take your word for it. Halo Waypoint is being developed collaboratively by Microsoft's internal Halo studio, 343 Industries, and Certain Affinity, the Austin-based developer (with some former Bungie staffers) behind Age of Booty. Waypoint will be available November 5 for both Xbox Live Gold and Silver members; however, come November 26 those Silver members will have to pony up for Live if they want to keep their Waypoint access. That's a solid three weeks to determine if the exclusive Waypoint offerings – like the Nov. 7. preview of the "Halo Legends" anime anthology – are worth it. We imagine it will be for the hardcore Halo fan ... but we'd assume they've already got a Gold account. %Gallery-75874%
Canceled Halo game concept art found on ex-Ensemble artist's site
Aside from releasing an RTS title in Halo Wars this year, concept art found on ex-Ensemble Studios artist Dylan Cole's website reveals yet another game that the studio was working on in the Halo universe. No name is given for the shots, though Cole calls the above image "Halo Universe City," which could mean a city from the world of Halo or a game named "Halo Universe."He also mentions that the "concept paintings" were for "a project that was canceled," so you can bet we won't be seeing these beautiful vistas in game form anytime soon. We do know that the studio was at one time working on a Halo MMO that never saw the light of day -- maybe these shots have something to do with that? We've asked Dylan Cole for more information, but for now, check out the full gallery of concept art right here.[Via HBO]
Joyswag: Halo Wars Mega Bloks [update]
Update: This giveaway is now closed. Winners are being notified, so be sure to check your email including your junk mail.The generous builders over at Mega Bloks were kind enough to send over a few cases of the company's recently launched Halo Wars brick collection. Seeing as we aren't the greedy types, we decided to share our Blok bounty by holding one of our famous Joyswag giveaways.Up for grabs are five complete sets of the entire Halo Wars Mega Bloks collection. Those lucky enough to win will receive enough bricks to build a spectacular Halo display that could rival the legendary Halo 3 Believe diorama. If that level of awesome is achieved: pics or it didn't happen. Leave a comment telling us what your favorite vehicle is from the Halo universe. You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) Limit 1 entry per person This entry period ends at 1:00PM ET on Thursday, August 20 At that time, we'll randomly select five winners to receive a Halo Wars Mega Bloks bundle that includes: Aerial Ambush, UNSC Scorpion, UNSC Warthog, UNSC Hornet, UNSC Turret and Covenant Ghost ($129.94 ARV) For a list of complete rules, click here
Risk: Halo Wars gets a bombastic, gameplay-free trailer
There's enough fanfare in this trailer to make Michael Bay proud. Actually, make that a pre-CGI Michael Bay. Probably a film school-era Michael Bay. It has all the bombast and fanfare of a Michael Bay movie, just without all of the extremely fast intercutting and multiple explosions. We talked about Risk: Halo Wars back in January, and it's slowly but surely becoming a reality.According to the game's website, it's due out in August 2009 -- which is right now, last time we checked the calendar. One word to the creators: give us a trailer showing some actual gameplay, and not just rotating views of the gamepieces and some concept art. Maybe you can even hire an aging celebrity to be in a commercial for the game, just like Milton Bradley did with Dark Tower back in the day.Just a thought.
Halo Wars stats wiped, may not come back
Hey guys, we've got some great news: Convincing girls in bars with bizarre priorities that you're the world's top Halo Wars player just got a heck of a lot easier. Shacknews reports that all of the game's leaderboards were wiped out by a glitch in Xbox Live and developer Robot Entertainment says that they may not ever be recovered.To that one poor soul who actually was at the top, we can offer only this pat on the back, along with the assurance that even though it seems like this tragedy has made his hours of Halo Wars sacrifice meaningless, it's simply not so. ... No, they were meaningless way before that.
