Despite Bungie Studios pulling a no show during the recent E3 event, Microsoft's Don Mattrick still had some good news for expectant fans. In an interview conducted by MTV News last Tuesday, the Microsoft head of Xbox business confirmed that Bungie was indeed working on a new Halo game for everyone. Find out more about the brand new Halo title in our full article after the jump.

It's always sad to see people go. The case doesn't appear to be any different for Bungie Studios' Frank O'Connor, who's making plans to leave the studio to work at Microsoft. That aside, O'Connor's farewell letter also hinted that just what sort of project he's signing on to, which has much to do with Bungie's Halo franchise. More details on this matter are available in the full article.

EGM is stirring it up again with a bunch of hot new rumors from Quartermann. Looks like we're in for a pretty sweet season: Quartermann's latest gossip includes word on a Halo spin-off coming late next year, a Grand Theft Auto MMO, and a whole lot more. Rumors galore in the full article!

While the name Peter Jackson was once associated with the long- buried Halo movie project, a new project involving the renowned Hollywood director has once again surfaced. Microsoft is currently assembling a team willing to "help develop a new experience in the Halo universe". Find out more about this in our full article after the jump.

Despite Fox and Universal's pullout, it seems that work still continues on the much-awaited Halo film by Microsoft. This much was picked up during an inquiry with Peter Jackson's representative Ken Kamins, who states that MS was currently in the middle of talks with other distribution projects to continue the film.

Kamins further stated that the Halo movie's pre-production was moving along thanks to exec producers Jackson and (Fran) Walsh. The pair are reportedly having the film's pre-prod visual effects done at their studios in New Zealand, Weta Digital and Weta Workshop. Kamins also shed some light on the transaction that caused Universal and Fox's pullout:

What happened was this: Universal, on behalf of both studios, asked for a meeting with the filmmakers just prior to the due date of a significant payment. Basically, they said that in order to move forward with the film, the filmmakers had to significantly reduce their deals. They waited until the last minute to have this conversation. Peter and Fran, after speaking with their producing partners and with Microsoft and Bungie, respectfully declined.

Look on the bright side - at least we know the film hasn't been completely scrapped. We'll let you know if any related info gets picked up in the near future.

Some of you may remember the series of short Halo films made by Neill Blomkamp to promote the well-known series by Bungie Studios. There was even talk about having him direct an actual full length feature set in the Halo universe, but with the decision to drop the project, the Halo movie fans were anticipating for a long-time has brought to a screeching halt.

In an interview with the man himself, Blomkamp talks about the demise of the proposed film and what he's been doing since then. The idea of a mythological space war has always fascinated him and he wanted to bring a more realistic approach to the science fiction involved with the idea of a Halo movie.

It was rather unfortunate that the two studios involved, Universal and Fox, weren't getting along with the processes in creating the film. However, Blomkamp has since then moved on in setting up his own project in Wellington, New Zealand. When asked what he felt after the decision to drop the film, he had this to say:

What happened once it collapsed is it made me turn inward and figure out what exactly I felt like doing. In other words, That film is gone, what do I feel like doing? And I realized what I felt like doing pretty quickly, like within thirty seconds. And promptly moved on to that. So you're right, I guess if the film collapsed and I was hell-bent on wanting to do whatever I could to try and get it back up I probably would have done something different than what I did, but I moved in a different direction, and no one knows what that is because I've never spoken about it before, and it's taken eight months or ten months to get to where it is now, sooner or later I'll start revealing in piece what I've been doing.

So far he's been pretty tight-lipped about the new project he's working on, but he assures everyone that given a few months they'll be able to take a peek at what's been keeping his attention since then. For fans who are still interested in seeing a Halo movie brought to life, not to worry. The highly-acclaimed director, Peter Jackson, is still working in collaboration with Bungie in a future project set in the Halo universe. So, who knows? Master Chief just might be coming to a theater near you someday.

It's official: Bungie Studios and Microsoft are parting ways. A press release from Microsoft announced today that Bungie Studios will be embarking on a path to become an independent company. This confirms earlier rumors of the Bungie-Microsoft split.

Microsoft will still retain an equity interest in the studio. Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie will be continuing their publishing agreement for the Halo IP as well as other future Bungie projects. According to Bungie studio head Harold Ryan, the studio will continue to focus primarily on video game development for Microsoft platforms.

Shane Kim, Microsoft Game Studios' corporate vice president, also assured people that they will continue to invest in "a new interactive series set in the Halo universe" with Bungie and other partners including director Peter Jackson.

Over here at the QJ offices, we're not sure whether we should be jealous or angry. Jealous because a Bungie dev got to drive the actual warthog made by the folks at WETA. Angry because the said developer managed to scratch the beautiful warthog against a wooden shed.

That's right folks. We've got video today that should be rather exciting, because some Bungie developers got the chance to drive the well-known Warthog we covered earlier in July. According to Bungie Studios' Weekly Update, the devs were in New Zealand to help Peter Jackson on the Halo project, and managed to spend some time at WETA as well, driving their souped up buggy.

Of course, being developers (and not stunt drivers), one of the devs managed to mess up the paint job by hitting a wood shed while taking it out for a spin, but he still counts as one of the most awesome people in the world, if only because he drove a gamer's dream car.

In related news, Bungie Studios is reminding gamers to steer clear of player profiles to avoid spoilers because, as they say, certain people "could LITERALLY have the final frame of the game as a screenshot on their file share." For these and other Bungie updates, feel free to check the readlink below.

According to an official announcement made by France-based Ubisoft, the video game publisher is planning to expand its employee base for its studio in Casablanca, Morocco. Spurred by a local government incentive program for high quality jobs in technology, the studio established back in 1998 will open up 150 seats for interested applicants.

 

The Moroccan studio has been active in delivering titles under Ubisoft's umbrella, featuring a portfolio of games such as Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie and Prince of Persia The Two Thrones. They were also responsible for bringing Rayman Raving Rabbids to the DS, together with Star Wars: Lethal Alliance.

And although mostly lacking in the manpower as opposed to Ubisoft's Montreal studios, the 50-man team is currently at work on Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 for the Nintendo DS. And while the studio is the only game developer studio in Morocco or in Northern Africa, the team is mostly staffed by local people - artists and engineers from the local populace.

Managing director of Ubisoft's Casablanca studio, Cyril Vermeil, stated that many of the young people in Morocco are passionate about games: "Our task will be to recruit people who want to grow with Ubisoft to become leading specialists in an industry offering an increasing number of career opportunities for local talent."

Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, said that the studio was established because Ubisoft knew local education system would provide talented people for game development. He concluded the announcement saying:

It is an honor to work with the Moroccan government to significantly expand our presence in the region. Both the video game industry and the Moroccan economy are strong and growing, and we look forward to pioneering the industry in this exciting region.

Maybe the movie would be both animated and interactive, as NeoGAF Forum contributors speculate. Although there was not much revealed about the Halo movie that Bungie and critically-acclaimed movie maker Peter Jackson made known a long time ago, it appears people assumed that the movie was probably going to be animated when it debuts 2008.

 

But a recent update to the interview by GameSpy with Microsoft Game Studios' Shane Kim identified the game as a collaborative interactive piece, and not the animated stance insinuated by GameSpy before the correction was made. And that's not all: it could be that the "movie" will turn into not just one piece, but a series. Kim stated in the interview:

Bungie is working directly with Peter Jackson on the Halo interactive series, and Bungie will definitely be involved, and continue to be involved on Halo. ... I'm not sure about the specifics. They'll be done with Halo 3 this year, but we haven't announced any dates on the Halo 3 series.

So that makes it an interactive series based off on Halo 3. Whether it's going to be story based on the events before, after, or during Halo 3 is still an unanswered question, though it was mentioned in IMDb to have taken the original story of Halo: Combat Evolved. Shane stated earlier in the interview that Microsoft was giving them some breathing room to call the shots. Kim's answer to GameSpy's question asking if Bungie was going to tailor the storyline went a little like this:

But like any creative entity, I know that Bungie has other stories that they want to tell. It's a tricky situation for them. They have a lot of people that are obviously very passionate about Halo, and they also have some people that are interested in telling other stories and doing new things. That's part of the studio process, where they have to figure out what they want to do, and we have to support them on our side as a publisher.

Well, thanks to the "not sure" bit, we know that everything stated at this point in time is not etched in stone. But it does open a lot of out-of-this-world-suggestions from the many fans of the franchise.