The saga of Bungie v. Microsoft in The Case of the Missing Haloes continues. The L.A. Times spoke with Xbox senior VP Don Mattrick regarding the omission of Bungie's announcement from its Monday press conference. Mattrick told the writers that Microsoft decided to nix the reveal during the show to "save time."Let that sink in for a moment, you 5+ million Halo fans. Time. Word around the campfire is Microsoft's conference was originally set to run for two-and-a-half hours, but Mattrick wanted to cut the show down to 90 minutes. Of the items to be cut from the show? Anything named Halo. Mattrick told the paper that Microsoft's conference already contained, "an embarrassment of riches," so the Halo trump cards were removed from the docket.
At least we still got to see that sweet Lips presentation though. Now that's a franchise!
Surely it had nothing to do with the fear of taking attention away from Final Fantasy XIII for 360. Balderdash! Or, Gears of War 2. Poppycock!
Now the question remains, when will we see the new
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
7-17-2008 @ 10:11AM
Phil said...
I feel really sorry for Bungie. Things like this can't be easy for them. But a more dedicated event? Unless MS do an exclusive event, i.e. another MS games day or something similiar, i can't think of another event bigger than E3.
Anyways, its still good to know that Bungies been working on another halo game, even if Mattrick took away their glory of announcing it.
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7-17-2008 @ 10:22AM
Chris said...
dedicated event means exactly that their planning a MS Games Day or a Bungie Day style gathering to showcase this game and this game alone apparently microsoft feels that its that big of an announcement... and if it is indeed a tactical halo shooter with squads as was rumored it just might be ;) hope they are watching KZ2 and Res and Gears2 to know what their up against graphically and gameplay wise to make that big of an announcement
7-17-2008 @ 10:45AM
PeacefulOutrage said...
I don't think it's that bad. A Bungie Halo game will sell. Avid gamers already know Halo and Bungie and don't wait for 2 months to read a magazine when we can check the internet.
Casual gamers who play solitaire at work and the retailers who invest and buy games for their store who never heard of "Lips" or "XBL Primetime" will need more face time for those new products.
Bungie could announce their game at PAX and people would be happy. It's not like the game is delayed, just the announcement, and we already knew a game was coming, so we're not missing out big time. We just want to find out what the gameplay is like and see some screenshots.
7-17-2008 @ 10:16AM
offday said...
I've never heard of Don Mattrick before today, but I also now officially hate him.
MS obviously would rather put the franchise that put them on the map on the back burner, while they try to win the hearts of casual gamers everywhere with yet another crappy karaoke game.
Way to screw over the gamers who made the Xbox a success, MS.
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7-17-2008 @ 11:13AM
mernmern said...
Really? Way to screw the gamer? You will not play the game for god knows how long. You do not know what the game entails and you do not know exactly why the announcement was pulled. Get over yourself. Sure an announcement would be cool, but you were by no means screwed. The only ones that may have been screwed are the Bungie team.
7-18-2008 @ 12:22PM
offday said...
What are you talking about? We know EXACTLY why it was pulled. If you don't see what MS is doing here, then you're an idiot.
7-17-2008 @ 10:22AM
harry said...
Ya, I can't believe Microsoft would do something like that. Especially to a huge game like Halo. If it was an new IP from Bungie that they didn't think would be a huge hit like Halo, and not releasing till late '09, or '10 then I can see them cutting it. But come on, it's Halo! They really should of let Bungie know rather than wait till just before 7 on Tuesday.
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7-17-2008 @ 10:22AM
C. T. said...
I was just as excited for this reveal as the next guy, but why is everyone taking such umbrage that the announcement was put on hold? They're still working on the game, it'll be ready when it's ready, and whether or not we know anything about it THIS WEEK really has no bearing on anything. It's not as though they canceled the game entirely.
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7-17-2008 @ 12:46PM
lmalave2 said...
Agree with you 100%. I mean, I can understand the frustration and having a countdown get down to just 12 hours and then suddenly stop. But it's not going to change the release date of the game itself!
As the developer, Bungie's job is just to implement the best possible game - and there's no indication that Microsoft has done anything to interfere with that.
As the publisher it's *Microsoft's* job ultimately to manage the marketing and promotion of the game - not Bungie's. Microsoft made the call that it would be better to defer the Bungie announcement to a time when it wasn't competing with attention with Final Fantasy, GoW, etc. - and that's Microsoft's prerogative. Microsoft obviously planned for this possible scheduling change in advance, so they probably have a good idea for a different date when the reveal will have more impact.
7-17-2008 @ 3:23PM
kdubbb said...
Totally agree with the above 2.
What I don't understand is the lack of communication between Microsoft and Bungie. They couldn't coordinate this better?
7-17-2008 @ 10:37AM
Kizzle said...
If Mattrick was behind this, he's an idiot. If Mattrick wasn't behind it, whoever was is an idiot.
This isn't about "waaah, I wanted to see Halo." I don't care when then announce it, but it's asinine to set it up for a reveal that is highly anticipated, then yank it with less than 24 hours for the reasons being given.
Now when they DO announce this thing, there will be a much more subdued reaction and the main feedback will be jokes about how "it's about time!" or whatever. Way to go, morons!
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7-17-2008 @ 10:55AM
Tess said...
Exactly. It seems like Bungie was working hard to create an exciting build up and announcement and Microsoft pulled the rug out. The whole thing is just.... weird.
7-17-2008 @ 10:42AM
7th Columnist said...
But isn't this just the reason why Halo was left out of the Conference? Not the reason why Bungie's announcement on Wednesday never went ahead. That's the real mystery as that had nothing to do with 'trimming' the run time of Msoft's presentation.
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7-17-2008 @ 10:43AM
RangerPrimeX said...
Downside of no longer being 1st Party. Plus I bet it is further out than people think and for the most part MS is all about this year at their press conference.
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7-17-2008 @ 10:55AM
Whingnut said...
Here's the thing...the relationship between MS and Squenix has always been a tenuous one, at best. MS could not have done anything to upstage the FFXIII announcement for fear of offending them and having them pull out. In order to guarantee FFXIII for the 360, that announcement had to be the single, biggest one made. Granted, many, if not most, Halo fans could give a rip about an RPG - rocket propelled grenade maybe, role-playing game not so much. But the overall importance of pulling away yet one more traditionally Sony exclusive - especially one of this magnitude - was immeasurable. This is what's going to sell 360's in Asia - not Halo.
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7-17-2008 @ 11:05AM
SadisticHam said...
Except FF isn't coming out in Japan for the 360. So your entire point is a bit of a flop.
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7-17-2008 @ 5:08PM
Arnon said...
Lol it's not the fact that it's not coming out in Japan.. it's the fact that Microsoft is saying that RPGs play just as well on their console as any other.
7-17-2008 @ 11:09AM
Maverick Saturn said...
Cut the crap Bungie and give us some news already.
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7-17-2008 @ 11:14AM
geekinabox said...
Add me to the Mattick-is-naughty-list. I'm going to vocally show him my displeasure by not buying a XBLA for the next 7 days. Take that.
On the 'dedicated event' front, Bungie has been dropping a lot of vague hints in their updates that August's Penny Arcade Expo will be good thing for Bungie fans. So there's the chance that PAX could now be that event. But maybe not, since I think Bungie thought that E3 would already be their unveiling and PAX would be a followup (gameplay or trailer perhaps?).
To be honest, after this BS by Mattick I won't count on a damn thing.
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7-17-2008 @ 11:17AM
Ejab said...
That special event is X08
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