More hints about possible Halo MMO revealed for Xbox 360
Rumors about a Halo MMO have persisted for over a year with actual pictures leaked on the Web. Microsoft revealed a brand new Halo Universe title that will tie cell phones, consoles and PCs together on a massive scale. It seems like there is confirmation that Microsoft is indeed working on an MMO of sorts.
In a recent interview by Industry Gamer with Blizzard’s Rob Pardo, he states that Microsoft asked him to take a look at an MMO the company is developing in-house. This was a bit shocking as Microsoft has no announced MMO project.
It is not clear as to if this MMO is the Halo MMO or a brand new IP at this time. However, considering the latest job postings for a new Halo Universe project that will tie PCs, consoles and mobile phones together, it seems more than likely that this could indeed be the long rumored Halo MMO project.
As mentioned previously it was thought that the Halo MMO was scrapped along with Ensemble Studios. However, rumors of the Halo MMO have been circulating the Web lately. I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft has been continuing to work on the project even after Ensemble was shutdown.
Pardo does seem to have some concerns with MMOs working on the Xbox 360 currently. He states, “…there are Xbox consoles [sold to consumers] that don’t have hard drives. So that’s a big issue.” I am not sure if there are logistics preventing third party studios from selling a game that only part of the Xbox 360 userbase can play.
It seems like a simple matter where gamers who don’t have a hard drive just won’t be able to play MMOs and the ones with a hard drive will be able to. It really does seem like a simple matter, but I suppose there could be some other dependencies that I am not aware of from Microsoft’s side. Stay tuned for more information on this new project.
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14 Responses to “More hints about possible Halo MMO revealed for Xbox 360”
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June 27th, 2009
I’ve never been one of Halo’s biggest fans but I can see how this will stir up interest with non Halo fans. Any type of MMO for that matter.
Congrats to Mike also for writting an article on the xbox
June 27th, 2009
MS policy has always been to ensure that a game will run on any machine, even the arcade. This has been a bugbear for many a developer. If you ask me, I don’t see this as being a paticular problem. If a game does need to use some local storage, they could simply bundle a 4 gig USB memory stick with some versions of the game and sell them for £5 more. Simple solution, especially when you consider how cheap USB memory cards are now. This would be no different than selling a game that requires a non standard peripheral, like guitar hero etc.
June 27th, 2009
People who use the arcade don’t buy the xbox for these type of games anyway. I still don’t even see the rational behind people buying the arcade except to use as a media hub
June 27th, 2009
With the obvious direction they are now taking the Xbox (direct downloading games, movie downlaods and the rest) I think it’s obvious a new hard drive is imminent (there are certainly rumours all over the place about it).
I’m expecting 400 – 500gb (although one rumour is all the way out to 1tb!) and I’m expecting it launch with the new SKU/bundle for the first release of Natal. So, at least in time for X-mas this year then.
At that stage I think they should splash with lots of PR about how Xbox is stepping up a gear (gettdit?) and from now on will need the HDD to play the new 2010-on games.
When the new drive appears I expect they’ll drop one of the existing ones and as 60gb is the smallest and this tends to go with movements in the wider PC/laptop world I would expect that to be the one to go.
So I reckon they should just bite this bullet and get it over with once and for all & give away all their remaining stocks of 60gb HDDs & do it like they do with the data transfer kit.
You give a valid Arcade serial no. & you get a 60gb drive, gratis.
It’d get over this hurdle once and for all, it would create good publicity (and nix any of the potential bad PR that some of the PS3 gang will try to hurl, like they really care anyways) and it will leave Xbox with the 120gb HDD & the new HDD as the SKUs
(unlike now where one has different internal memory they new ones would really just the larger HDD option and not very different at all).
I hope they go for it and I hope these coming Valhalla 360s also have a couple of Natal-optimised tweaks that make them worth buying as an upgrade for us existing owners – I’ve seen $300 US mentioned so if true it loks like the price will be fine.
June 27th, 2009
Didn’t we already go over the halo mmo a few weeks/months back?
We all know it would fly off the shelves and then either decline or increase depending on the gameplay (which by the amount off mmo’s that keep folding seems to be quite tricky to perfect).
‘Natal-optimised tweaks that make them worth buying as an upgrade for us existing owners’
Insane & no thank you.
June 29th, 2009
Can you games (Mike/Dave) post new and interesting stuff?
who wants to go through Halo MMO twice
June 29th, 2009
SW
It seems (according to the rumours at least) that some sort of improvement is on the way.
Of course it could be about the true next console (where the reports say it will play back exisating games with a definite improvement) but if it turns out that the Natal-Valhalla console does this why would that be an “insane” buy?
Of course you mightn’t want one, that’s your right but I could see myself, er, jumping in.
Why not?
Especially if it came with the expected big HDD.
It’s not as if it will mean those with a previous version Xbox won’t be able to play what it can.
June 29th, 2009
where do you keep hearing this “Natal-Valhalla console” non-sense.
The Valhalla is a 360 the a new proccessor in a attemp to aviod or lower the RRoD rate. nothing special to it. if hear hear something else talking about different specs, then they must be talking about the next xbox.
June 29th, 2009
@HH
I just couldn’t bring myself to buy another machine thats almost identical to the machine I already have with the exception of a bigger hard drive and its ‘optimized’ (whatever thats going to mean) for natal.
I doubt most will buy it, I also doubt natal will make the splash MS wants it to, but thats another story
For now, we shall agree to disagree!
June 29th, 2009
Roca
If you can just get past your silly anti-Xbox fanboy PR campaign for just a moment…..
Valhalla is the next version of the 360, all newly made 360s will soon be Valhallas.
There are plenty of rumours around that it will include incremental updates to it’s hardware
(just as the latest Japser mobo has 512mb of on-board memory instead of it’s original built-in 256mb for instance).
No-one is going to have to get a new one but it may well be that the hardware revisions make it an even more attractive proposition than the current versions.
June 29th, 2009
Sure Happy….let me know when it is already out.
Vahalla is just like the Falcons. a new chip/proccessor. nothing more than that. good luck with ur expectation man.
June 29th, 2009
Its also where Norse go when they die… yay.
June 29th, 2009
Roac
Where did I say it wasn’t ‘like the Falcons’….or Jaspers for that matter in being a new SKU with a new chipset?
That doesn’t mean they may not have a revision or 2 to the mobo.
It’s happened before.
I also think you’ll find I’ve mentioned Valhalla’s 45nm SoC GPU & CPU here for some time.
What is it that strikes you as so tough to accept?
That they may tweak and optimise things for Natal?
What’s so weird about that?
I already gave you 2 examples where they did increase the specs without it making a blind bit of difference to anyone (the Jaspers with initially 256mb of built-in memory and now 512mb).
Plainly they do up the specs from time to time with a new SKU.
June 30th, 2009
@ SW,
Yep, that happened to me about 50 times in Too Human, not that I stayed in Valhalla for very long.