Halo News.

Gamers were taken quite by surprise yesterday after the news that Microsoft would be dissolving Ensemble Studios - creators of the popular Age of Empires franchise - after the completion of Halo Wars, but it's not all doom and gloom.



Surprising news, this. Microsoft has confirmed today that it plans to close the famous Age of Empires developer Ensemble Studios following the completion of the upcoming Halo Wars. Shacknews originally broke the story as a rumour, but Microsoft has officially released a statement confirming the move to close the studio.



Speaking over on its official website, Bungie have revealed a plethora of information concerning its current plans for the Halo franchise and beyond; the developer is working on "brand new Halo 3 multiplayer conent", as well as "three distinct projects underwa...



Ensemble Studios, makers of Halo Wars confirmed that the Covenant will be a playable side in the game. The catch is that they will not have a campaign mode and will only be usable in multiplayer. If they would also announce the Flood as a playable side, it would make the...



Through this year's E3, we will keep you updated with a daily calendar of the events to look forward on that today. Today, the Microsoft press conference, the Gears of War 2 reception, and much more besides.



This is a suspicious screenshot from the upcoming Fable 2 from Lionhead Studios, and comes interestingly close to the announcement of the collectors edition, detailed earlier this week. Yes, it's Master Chief, Playing a lute.



Frank "Frankie" O'Connor announced today to us ever loving Bungie fans that he will be departing ways with Microsoft to work more closely on the Halo franchise with the company.



A man stands before me. Among the future, and among the past. This man stands 178cm tall with a dark, sometimes morbid, style of clothing. Dark hair, dark clothes and hazel eyes. Blessing's from Irish soil power his White Caucasian lungs.



I have made a new map on standoff. it is called sky palace. You can find it on my fileshare: http://www.bungie.net/stats/Halo3/FileShare.aspx?gamertag=n0pr0bl3m5. I don't want to give away too much info because then I would be telling you how to make it to each level of the palace.



I expect that you're looking at this picture with a mixture of wonder and awe (I call that wondawe). Surely, the advanced physics engine of Halo 3 renders such a phenomenon impossible? Well, I was forging a structure in the new DLC Foundry map, when I accidentally d...



As you may already know, the Halo 3 Heroic Map pack was released on Xbox Live yesterday, for 800 Microsoft points (£6.80 / $10). This is a quick overview of the three maps included:



As of yesterday, Halo 3 fans can, for $10, download a 3 pack of new multiplayer maps. These maps are named "Rat's Nest", "Standoff", and "Foundry". Of these, Foundry is touted to be the most customizable map ever.



The news of Bungie's split from Microsoft Games to become an independent developer, shortly after the release of Halo 3, seems like distant news at this stage. Many have been excited / fearful of what direction the developer would take following the split, but Bungie writer Frank O'Connor has confirmed that, for the forseeable future, Bungie are sticking with the Xbox 360 for it's future independent titles.



With Christmas looming ever closer, higher console sales shouldn't really come as any surprise. What may come as a surprise though, are the figures. Video Game Chat takes a closer look at how each of the Big Three are fairing for the holiday season. Our final report looks into Microsoft's successes over Black Friday.



To celebrate Xbox Live's 5th birthday, Microsoft unveiled plans to release original Xbox titles on Xbox Live. Although the gaming community in general is clearly excited to hear about this new addition, a number of problems have begun to creep through...



As of November 15th, Xbox Live will be a wopping five years old, and my how big has it gotten! From just a way to play Halo against the guys down the hall in your building to being one of the largest online markets for videogame demos, movies, and loads of online content!



While Nintendo's online offerings currently pale in comparison to the robust gaming experience Microsoft offers via its wildly popular Xbox Live service, the big M has, at least on the surface, taken a page from the Wii's Virtual Console playbook and announced that in the future, certain original Xbox titles will be made available for download to the 360 console.



A few days ago, during a 1UP podcast with EGM executive editor Shane Bettenhausen, he teased that he knew of "a big Microsoft first-party title that's been in the works for a very long time that people are very excited for sounds like it's being cancelled." And thus, the hype was generated, and the search began.



Thanks to the efforts of Video Game Chat forum moderator Samuel, we now have a complete, comprehensive guide to the location of all of the Gold and Silver skulls in Halo 3 on the Video Game Wiki.



October will be long remembered in the movie industry as the worst month for North American movie ticket sales in over eight years... and Hollywood is pointing its wrinkly old finger straight at Master Chief as the cause of it all.



Certainly one of the major highlights of the new E for All Expo is the appearance of the critically admired Video Games Lives show, which showcases music from all corners of the industry, which will be playing this Friday night in the newly built NOKIA Theatre in the L.A. Convention Centre.



Has famed Halo series developer Bungie parted ways with Microsoft? Some say yes. If this rumor is true, and an unnamed source from the Bungie camp says it is, Bungie is no longer a part of Microsoft. For an undisclosed but rather large sum of money, Bungie shareholders are said to have purchased the studio back from Microsoft.



This will be quite possibly the shortest news story ever for VGC, but the tally is in, and Halo 3 is now proudly holds the record for highest first day gross of any entertainment release in history.



It's been a long day. Along with millions of other gamers the world over, myself and a number of the Video Game Chat staff fired up Halo 3 for the first time today, and it's safe to say that the game is everything fans were hoping it would be, and then some.



Over the years, Microsoft have been involved in two major gaming events each year, E3, and it's own anually held X0 event. Although Microsoft were out in force at E3 this year it seems Microsoft fans will be left a little dry this years, as Microsoft has decided to cancel its X0 event for 2007.



A live action short film, director by Neil Blomkamp, the would-be director of the indefininately delayed Halo movies, shows a USNC weapons factory assembly line where the inconic Halo warthogs about being constructed, and Halo marines suited up in the series trademark armour.



Bungie have been hinting recently for a surprise on this day (7/7/7) known as BUNGIE DAY. The day has finnaly come and It was revealed that there are now 2 new Items from Bungie on the Xbox Live Marketplace. This Includes a Theme, and a Picture Pack. Both ITEMS are free and are only available on this day.



The return of the popular First Person Shooter for Xbox will be coming to Xbox 360 this year. After the 10/10 reviews for both Halo and Halo 2, the third in the compilation is expected to reach critical sales. We join Master Chief for what has been confirmed as the Final Chapter of the series.



It's early into the year, but the winter months are already becoming bloated with high profile titles like GTA4 and MGS4 hoping to steal what precious little free time we have. Bungie have decided to break with tradtion this year though, and we may be seeing Halo 3 a lot earlier than we expected.



Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie Studios today confirmed the first exciting details of the three editions of this year’s most anticipated video game release, “Halo® 3.” Gamers will have their choice of Standard Edition, Limited Edition and the ultimate collector’s item, the Legendary Edition.



Peter Jackson, widely known for his work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong has unveiled further details regarding the production of the upcoming Halo movie set for a 2008 release.

Halo News