No more Halo side-stories planned

By Fred Dutton Published 2 February, 2011

343 Industries lays out franchise's future.

There are currently no side-story titles planned for the Halo franchise, new custodian 343 Industries has revealed.

Discussing the series' post-Bungie future with Official Xbox Magazine, franchise development director Frank O'Connor explained that 343 had no plans to release another game in the vein of 2009's tangential Halo 3: ODST campaign expansion.

"I can tell you we're not working on any side stories as games at the moment," he insisted. "There'll certainly be more Halo fiction entering the universe, but we've no new games to announce right now."

However, O'Connor did offer a few pointers as to what fans might have in store over the next few years.

"I think that there are a lot of questions that fans of the series want answered, and we'll certainly be in the business of answering those questions," he promised.

"But we would be lazy and very lacking in imagination if we didn't inject lots of brand new questions into the universe, and enigma, mystery, and awe are at the heart of what drives the fiction.

"I think building that sense of epic scale, while also focusing on creating great, memorable characters, and exciting new stories, are what will propel both 343 Industries and the universe it inhabits."

He added that while there is no core Halo release currently on the horizon, this year's 10th anniversary celebrations should keep fans happy in the short term.

"2011 is the tenth anniversary of Halo, and we'll make sure that the fanbase, the userbase, and the community is energised with cool new content and fiction.

"We'll kick off 2011 with the first of three novels from Greg Bear, which explores the Forerunner universe, and there will be more information about the 'contemporary' Halo novels coming from Karen Traviss. And by contemporary, we mean events of 2552 and beyond."

O'Connor also promised at least two more Halo: Reach map packs from series creator Bungie.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Trafford #1 1 year ago

    I'd like a 3rd person cover based shooter please?

  • Kanjin #2 1 year ago

    warse not expecting this.

  • altitude2k #3 1 year ago

    Does this mean no new stories outside of those stories already told? Because I'd rather like a sequel to ODST an Halo Wars (although that's more likely to be outsourced to Robot).

    But a return to the Chief's story would be very much appreciated.

  • Peew971 #4 1 year ago

    10th anniversary + rumours of a Halo CE remake = easy maths.

  • Kaminari #5 1 year ago

    The Halo narrative universe died after Halo 1.

  • coolbritannia #6 1 year ago

    Chief versus Forerunners, on their home planet. make it so. That sense of lonely isolation from Halo, it would be brilliant.

  • waynenot #7 1 year ago

    enigma, mystery, and awe are at the heart of what drives the fiction.

    Psst - it's not really very good. At all. The games were very successful because the games were fun - the fiction is silly, back of a fag packet, bobbins.

  • dirtysteve #8 1 year ago

    No side stories sounds good, until you realise that doesn't include prequels. Everyone likes prequels to something !

  • metalangel #9 1 year ago

    TBH, side stories are what I want. ODST was a great way of filling in blanks and allowing for a very different experience at the same time. I'm hoping they don't do any vs. human rebels stories, though, those would be dull. I want to fight the Covenant!

  • Nemesis #10 1 year ago

    Looking forward to the Greg Bear stuff; Eon is worth picking up if you see it cheap.

  • subedii #11 1 year ago

    "But we would be lazy and very lacking in imagination if we didn't inject lots of brand new questions into the universe, and enigma, mystery, and awe are at the heart of what drives the fiction.

    "Also, throwing in more unanswered questions provide us scope for meellllions of sequels, which is why our studio's here in the first place after all."

  • AphoticCosmos #12 1 year ago

    I don't want fucking novels guys, I want some games!

    Elites v. Brutes post-Halo 3? What happened to the Chief and Cortana? What the ODSTs did after their little jolly around Mombasa? Something completely new?

    If they really don't have any games in the pipeline then I'd be surprised.

  • el_pollo_diablo #13 1 year ago

    Do we really need another Halo? And if we do, is it really acceptable for another, dare I say lesser, studio to take it over?

    It feels like that moment in the Terminator franchise when suddenly you woke up and realised that it was in the hands of McG.

  • penhalion #14 1 year ago

    A return of the master Chief would certainly be appreciated. No faces, no taking off helmet etc. etc. just plain old return to the Halo 1 mechanic with the Chief and Cortana once more saving humanity without any fanfare or even any knowledge by humanity of just how close they came to extinction.

    I would love to see the Chiefs mjolnir armour being updated/replaced by a forerunner version or something like that. There's a heck of a lot of potential there.

    The in my head trailer that would hail the return of the Chief would be...

    Chief waking up (familiar screen black out and blur up of someone waking from a deep sleep) only to see a host of alien (forerunner) machines seemingly chopping and changing various parts of his body and armour. This would go on for about 10 seconds or so, with various forerunner messages (i.e. unreadable by humans) flashing up green on a holoscreen. When all messages are green. The machines retreat back into the walls and we realise we are in a medical chamber of some kind.

    A small panel opens in the wall in front and a familiar huddled holographic woman seemingly floating asleep over a small glowing disc appears. She wakes, stretches (for the first time we see more detail and she looks more like a very shapely naked woman than the old cortana). She looks over at the chief and seemingly doesn't recognise you. "Who are you" she says.

    "Cortana is that you?"

    For the first time we hear the familiar voice of the master chief.

    "Chief!"

    Cortana sounds genuinely suprised.

    and fade trailer out to black!

    Fade up the words

    Halo - Ascendant

    ;)

  • smithdown #15 1 year ago

    @Penhalion - Nice, I like. Sounds a touch Robocop maybe, with a hint of Mass Effect 2.

  • Genji #16 1 year ago

    "Enigma, mystery and awe?"

    Sounds like the guy slightly overestimates the strength of the Halo story. It's not the reason I play the games.

  • louyfitz #17 1 year ago

    If 343 are taking requests then I'll have - what the hell happend to chief and cortana for starters. For the main course I'll have please no more shitty armour lock and such funny business. Hmmm and for desert a varied selection of maps for multi, that aren't paid DLC months after the game is out.

  • Khanivor #18 1 year ago

    You bastard, Nemesis ;)

  • GiarcYekrub #19 1 year ago

    As long as its not the over hyped melancholy crap of Halo: Reach and gets back to the Die Hard in Space blueprint I'll be happy.

  • dagas #20 1 year ago

    I thought the story in Halo was the most interesting in Halo:CE because there were so many unanswered questions and you had to speculate about who the Forerunners were etc.

  • Stifler #21 1 year ago

    More and more I sadly realise that Halo CE was a happy accident, Halo 2 was a good stab at a sequal but the story writers should have been fired as my cat could write a better story. I will always love it for what it did to LIVE however

    Halo 3 was a wanky self indulgent bag of arse (and reminded me of a muse live gig....just play the songs not a 25 minute guitar solo please) .

    Reach was a step back in the right direction but not being the chief reduced it's impact for me personally. I used to be the biggest Halo fanboi, but now (perhaps because I am older) I am decidely 'meh' about the franchise.
    Edited by Stifler at 03/02/11 @ 07:57

  • agparrot #22 1 year ago

    The universe has lost some of its shine for me ever since they said in Reach that glassing planets wasn't real.

    :(

  • The-Bodybuilder #23 1 year ago

    >"It feels like that moment in the Terminator franchise when suddenly you woke up and realised that it was in the hands of McG. "

    For years now I've wrestled with whether they should continue to milk the halo franchise or not.
    This line, has finally concluded it for me.

    So. Spot. On.

  • mattrix33 #24 1 year ago

    So did Frank o'conner jump ship..??

    I do not remember reading that he had left Bungie let alone followednthe Halo franchise to it's new home.

    Frank is a great bloke and a massive enthusiast of all things video game related,I have followed his career since his C&VG days in the late 80's.

    It's quite reassuring to know he is still involved in the Halo universe