We’re titling this as a rumor, but even so, sources have revealed to Game Informer Online that there will be a Halo 3 demo released over Xbox Live in the first half of 2007. Obviously Microsoft hasn’t revealed any details yet, but we wouldn’t be too surprised if something was dropped in the second or third week of November. You know, just to mess a bit with the PlayStation 3 and Wii launches.
We contacted Microsoft to confirm this rumor, but they responded with the usual statement that Microsoft doesn’t comment about speculation or rumors.
Is it shocking that Microsoft would release a Halo 3 demo? Not so much. Is it surprising that they’d announce the first details to mess with Sony and Nintendo? Not at all.
The big question is, will the Halo 3 demo be the first demo that Microsoft will charge for? We’re also putting our money on that, too. If there’s one game that Xbox 360 owners are waiting for it’s Halo 3, and regardless of how much or how little the demo consists of, Microsoft could charge and no one would really care.
Epic boss Mark Rein explains how Gears Of War cost MS a lot of money...
At a recent Canadian Community Party, Epic VP Mark Rein was on hand to take a light-hearted open floor Q&A. Aside from a lot of information on Gears' gameplay and marketing, Rein also joked about the rumours of how the game costs Microsoft one billion dollars.
Thanks to the wonder of Major Nelson and his latest podcast, you can quite clearly hear Rein said "That story you all heard about us costing Microsoft a billion dollars, that's actually true!"
He continued: "So what happened was, my partner Tim Sweeney, we kept arguing and we really wanted a hard drive in every single machine; that was something we really wanted but we realized that the 512 megs of RAM was way more important, cause otherwise you couldn't do this level of graphics if you had to both write your program and do your graphics in 256 megs. Nothing would really look that HD.
"So we argued and argued, and what Tim did is he actually sent a screenshot of what Gears of War would look like if we only had 256 megs of memory. So the day they made the decision, we were apparently the first developer they called; we were at Game Developers Conference, was it two years ago, and then I got a call from the chief financial officer of MGS and he said 'I just want you to know you cost me a billion dollars' and I said, 'we did a favour for a billion gamers'."
The Internet was buzzing today with rumors of a forthcoming 100GB HDD upgrade for the Xbox 360. While it created some nice material for other blogs to write about, this does little for the Giz (if the upgrade even makes it State-side). Instead, it's obvious that this was an attempt by Microsoft to steal Sony's and Nintendo's thunder. We don't blame them. But to successfully get our attention, you need more than rumors and leaked pics of a hard drive. Here's our list of what we think the 360 needs to trump the PS3 and Wii onslaught.
International Development Group's Q3 report on the future of the game industry has been released, and Next-Gen has some exclusive highlights and stats.
The full report details annual predicted hardware and software sales across all formats in every major North American and Western European territory through to the end of the decade, as well as average sales prices and predicted sales of digital downloads.
IDG and Next-Gen have collaborated to bring you a small portion of the detailed report, with an emphasis here on Xbox 360, Wii and PS3 in the U.S. The full report also covers handhelds and PC games in dozens of countries. You can get more information, and order the report here.
Film will go ahead despite studios' decision to pull out of deal
Microsoft has confirmed that plans to produce a film based on hit Xbox title Halo are still going ahead, despite the decision of Universal and Fox to pull out of the project.
The movie studios were due to fund and distribute the Halo film, on the understanding that Microsoft Game Studios and developer Bungie would have almost complete creative control over the project.
But last week Fox and Universal demanded that their deals be improved - and when executive producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh refused, the studios pulled out.
Now Microsoft has released an official statement via the Bungie website which reads: "We are disappointed that Universal and Fox wanted to significantly renegotiate the financial points of the deal. But the Halo franchise is hugely popular and our goal remains the same - to find a partner that shares our passion and will creatively collaborate with us to best represent the story and spirit of the Halo franchise.
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