Halo 5: Guardians to ‘surprise new and loyal’ fans as 343 talks next-gen engine

343 Industries has teased that there will be “some surprises in store for new and loyal” Halo players with Halo 5: Guardians, revealing that it isn’t just looking to expand on the Halo universe with next year’s game, but to innovate on the entire gaming “ecosystem” as well.

“Getting the Halo 5: Guardians announce out of the way is a big weight off our shoulders,” franchise development director Frank O’Connor wrote on Halo Waypoint following this morning’s reveal. “This audience has correctly stated and assumed that you can’t necessarily squish a full Halo game into anything less than a three year development schedule – and at least up to and including Halo 5: Guardians, that’s more or less true.

“But we’re not just making a new game in that three year span, we’re also making a new engine. During the development of Halo 4, we pushed the Xbox 360 and the engine to its limits, and we were happy with the way we were able to make the Halo universe look. The Xbox 360 still has a few tricks up its sleeve, even now. We are moving to a whole new platform with the Xbox One – a new architecture, new graphics hardware and bluntly some new ways to think about gaming, period.

“Bonnie also called out 60fps and dedicated servers last year – attractive, desirable, and possibly expected upgrades to the Halo experience. After all, we won’t be the first 60fps shooter out there. That said, these must-haves are not necessarily easy to achieve.

“Previous Halo titles, Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 for example, strove to push the entire ecosystem forward – dual stick FPS with big open spaces in the case of Combat Evolved, and broadband matchmaking in Halo 2 – are just a couple of examples of the series innovating or amplifying ideas. So in building Halo 5: Guardians, we want to push the ecosystem as well as the universe. And we’ll have some surprises in store for new and loyal players of the series.”

Halo 5: Guardians was revealed this morning for release on Xbox One in autumn 2015, although little is still known about the title.

A further Halo title – rumoured to be a next-gen remake of Halo 2 – is expected to release on Xbox One later this year.

Source: blogs.halowaypoint.com