Halo: Chronicles

Halo: Chronicles is an episodic project that was announced at Microsoft's official Xbox show, X06.

Background
Peter Jackson (director of such movies as King Kong and The Lord of the Rings trilogy), with his recently-formed Wingnut Interactive, is creating a episodic interactive story telling set in the Halo universe, in partnership with Bungie Studios, as confirmed by Microsoft on April 24th, 2008. The game is to be a "new chapter" and a "new series" in the Halo story is slated to feature a new way to play games, and has been described by Jackson as a "filmiest game."

Little is known yet about the story line, plot, etc. but more information will hopefully be in our grasp soon.

In the UK (United Kingdom) Xbox 360 magazine Xbox World 360, it was speculated that the game will be more of an 'interactive movie' where some parts will be semi-playable, and certain decisions will lead to different outcomes that you then have to watch play out. It has also been stated that it will delve into Master Chief's back story, set for a release in winter of 2009. Bungie will likely provide supervision.

It was confirmed by Shane Kim at GDC 07 that the project was an episodic title. According to Microsoft, Jackson is planning two episodic series for the Xbox 360. These games appear to be in a downloadable format. Microsoft went on to tell that the game is now in the development phase.

In an interview, Shane Kim elaborated on the nature of the episodic content of Halo: Chronicles, and on the relationship between Peter Jackson and Microsoft :

"But our deal with Peter is not about a movie guy making a game. What we've talked about - and he agrees with this - is how we can use Live as a medium to introduce episodic interactive storytelling. There's some people in our industry who can tell stories - but they're not Peter Jackson."

- Shane Kim, interview

Build-up
As of the 23rd of April, Microsoft has begun dramatically expanding the team working on the project.

"Microsoft Game Studios has been hard at work collaborating with Peter Jackson on the development of (a Peter Jackson-helmed Halo project). At this time, it's necessary to grow the internal team to keep pace with development. Bungie will continue to remain involved in multiple aspects of the Halo Universe with MGS."

- Microsoft spokesperson to MTV Multiplayer

On the same day, Bungie confirmed it in a Weekly Update:

"So what does this all mean? In a nutshell, Microsoft is building a development team to work on future Halo game titles - the first one being collaboration with Peter Jackson. Just like the upcoming Halo Wars from Ensemble, this isn't "our" game. However, having worked with him already, we are possibly more excited than you are to see what someone of Peter Jackson’s imagination, talent and resources can bring to a Halo game experience. Bungie will, however, continue to remain very much involved in multiple aspects the Halo Universe as part of our ongoing relationship with Microsoft. Meanwhile, we're damn busy ourselves with a variety of projects underway within the studio including one that you'll be hearing more about in the very near future. Now that we control our own destiny we also have other longer term, top secret plans afoot. The wait for that may be a tad longer though."

- Frank O'Connor.

In a January 2008 Bungie.net weekly update, It was mentioned that one of the Bungie employees "Managed to crash a Warthog", in a current build of the game, thus almost eliminating the prediction that the game would be a "Interactive Movie".

This piece of information has been strangely overlooked and unconsidered; surprisingly considering this is the only piece of game play info that has been released to date. [July 11, 2008]

However, the crashing of the warthog could also refer to their visit to WETA workshop, where an employee managed to crash the Warthog into a wall.

It was confirmed by Don Matrick in an MTV multiplayer interview that the new Bungie Halo project is neither Halo Wars nor Halo: Chronicles. 

1UP Rumor
1UP unveiled a rumor on their site on the 24th of April:

"After shipping last fall's blockbusting Halo 3, revered developer Bungie stunned the world by announcing plans to liberate itself from Microsoft's ownership. Allegedly, that path to freedom requires that they develop a few more titles for Microsoft, and we've heard rumblings that the first one will be a Halo spin-off due in late 2009. Our spies tell us to expect a third-person action/adventure shooter hybrid that takes place before the original Halo, chronicling early skirmishes between the ODST troops and the Covenant. This may be the mentioned "Ensemble Studios' Halo Project" -- but WETA is definitely involved in some capacity. Look for a massive reveal around the time Gears of War 2 ships this fall..."

- 1UP

Trivia

 * In the September 20, 2007 Bungie Podcast, Joseph Staten accidentally affirmed that it is being codenamed "Chronicles".
 * The game has been stated to "focus on the intimate, personal aspect of real war..."
 * It has been rumored that a preview of Halo: Chronicles will ship with Halo Wars.
 * Other than sporadic quotes by Officials, little to no information is known about the game, exemplifying the mystery entirely.
 * Peter Jackson has said that the game will blur the line between movies and games.
 * It is unconfirmed whether or not Halo: Chronicles will be DLC on the Xbox Live Marketplace, or be released on a disc.
 * It is rumored that the game will feature cel-shaded graphics, this is unconfirmed as of yet.