Origen Xbox 360= Halo 3 Announcement?

[StrifeSnake13*]

Teamxbox is reporting (http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/9191/Origen-Xbox-360-Counting-Down-to-the-Announcement-of-Halo-3/) that the mysterious Microsoft website "origenxbox360.com" could be counting down to the announcement of Halo 3.
"In this space our tree has flourished abundant with the unknown fruits of Elysium, who will play in the chosen place, surrounded by the angels of Origen."

Although that sounds like a suggestion to either the rumored stores that will open on Tokyo and New York’s Time Square, or the first Xbox 360 kiosk appearing in stores, a new clue gives us a third option.

Kirill Wiser emailed us to inform us that Elysium is the name of the city in which John Spartan-117, aka Master Chief, grew up before being replaced with a flash clone in order to join the Spartan II program on Reach.

When we first discovered the Latin phrase in Origen Xbox 360, we immediately associated it with the Greek term. In Greek mythology, the Elysium (the spelling Elysium is a Latinization of the Greek word Elysion) are the Elysians Fields, the place where the mortals favored by the gods can go when they die. It is a peaceful and beautiful place similar to the modern concept of paradise.

One can understand why Bungie chose that name for the city in which Master Chief grew up but now the connection with Origen Xbox 360 is remarkable.

Interestingly too, the name of Halo 2 third and final boss is Tartarus, which again in Greek Mythology, is the opposite of the Elysium, the Underworld zone of eternal torment, where the greatest sinners were punished for their transgressions.

[Deadend]

Oh heellll no.

There will be a Halo 3, nothing and no one doubts that.

[ldi222]

They had me @ halo...

[King Drewsky]

After the long delay in releasing the extra maps, I find it hard to believe that they are anywhere close on finishing up Halo 3.

[snubber]

They had me @ halo...

hah. not bad, not bad at all.

[KamaItachi]

After the long delay in releasing the extra maps, I find it hard to believe that they are anywhere close on finishing up Halo 3.

Maybe that's why there was the delay.
Really, if Bungie/Microsoft even mention a rough estimate, it'll have the fans spooging all over again. Maybe they'll wait until the initial hype has calmed down and the dust has settled after the launch, then get everyone riled up with the announcement of the next in the series.

There's already been speculation that it'll be released to coincide with the PS3 launch.

[NACIONAL]

There's already been speculation that it'll be released to coincide with the PS3 launch.

Considering the development time on Halo 2... I would think that a Halo3 relase next year is almost unbelievable.

[KamaItachi]

True, true, but there was a speech by William Gates himself on the very subject. It might seem outlandish, but I'm sure the bunch of them have been up to all sorts of shadowy, backdoor shenanigans that we haven't been privy to. I do remember speculation that the 2 titles had been worked on simultaniously. Doubtful of course, but you never know.

[ldi222]

hah. not bad, not bad at all.

I was tempted to follow it up with Master Chief completes me but that just sounded gay.

[ezzkmo]

halo 3? never. it wouldn't sell. :D

[Ragnarok]

*sigh*... I am getting just a little tired of this, to be honest.

They are overusing this little "teaser mystery" mechanic. Strategically speaking, it is a damned effective marketing tool (exponentially so for the more serious gamers who keep up on news) and I'd say they are beginning to wear out the effect.

People may soon be a little too conscious of the base marketing ploy behind it all and render it far less effective. Maybe.

[sTubbs]

Considering the development time on Halo 2... I would think that a Halo3 relase next year is almost unbelievable.

One of the biggest reasons for the long development time and abrubt [to say the least] ending of Halo 2 was that Bungie fully laid out the storyline and concept for Halo 3 at the same time as Halo 2. With that out of the way the development time for Halo 3 should be considerably shorter.

I would also find it easy to believe that Bungie has been given unparalleled access to the 360 hardware, such as recieving the dev kits ASAP. Considering that Halo is the only XBOX franchise that can possibly make a slight dent in PS3 sales, I am willing to accept that it will be out alongside the PS3 launch, perhaps coupled with a 360 price drop. However, I seriously do not understand why MS thinks such a move would level the competition. Anyone who is willing to spend $400 US or more on a new PS3 is surely not going to worry about also dropping $50 US on one of the biggest games of the year.

I think that MS will make gains on Sony in this generation, but to be truly threatening they are going to have to do a lot better than Halo 3. It still puzzles me that MS was willing to drop $450 000 000 US to aquire Rare but has been reluctant to scoop up some franchises that would actually start to make Sony sweat. Surely such a donation would be large enough to secure the next GTA game or two, or FFXIII exclusivity to boost sales in Japan. MS keeps talking about how serious they are about taking over the console world. It is time for them to put their money where their mouth is.

[nonchalance]

People may soon be a little too conscious of the base marketing ploy behind it all and render it far less effective. Maybe.

Doubt it, Gentle Reader.

[Adam Blue]

It still puzzles me that MS was willing to drop $450 000 000 US to aquire Rare but has been reluctant to scoop up some franchises that would actually start to make Sony sweat.

Because MS knows what the gamers want. Not what the 'people' want.

[LilEvilFish]

*block selects the web page*

well whatever it is, it's about.. 18 days away?

[Adewade]

Haha, reading what they label stuff in the source ruins most of these marketing attempts.

[Sl1pstream]

I have a feeling that tree is going to be destroyed when the countdown ends.

[Vandenh]

Could be H3, could not be Halo3. At the moment I don't really care.. still playing Halo 2 and 360 seems to have heaps on great games coming and lot's of stuff that get me really excited. For me .. Halo 3 when it is done please.... I am sure I will get excited when it is close to being released.

[MrMeatshake]

One of the biggest reasons for the long development time and abrubt [to say the least] ending of Halo 2 was that Bungie fully laid out the storyline and concept for Halo 3 at the same time as Halo 2. With that out of the way the development time for Halo 3 should be considerably shorter.

I would also find it easy to believe that Bungie has been given unparalleled access to the 360 hardware, such as recieving the dev kits ASAP. Considering that Halo is the only XBOX franchise that can possibly make a slight dent in PS3 sales.

agreed. they had me at halo, too. damn, that's good - i think i might have to get a shirt printed with that...

[Achilles]

It probably isn’t anywhere close to being done, but neither is Killzone 2. I think that anything Bungie put up would be more grounded than that, maybe they could manage a demo of some kind. Or just the Halo logo and a launch date.

Still my guess was Halo 3 based on the rabbit silhouette combined with the tree (harelhou tree), which is the dumbest answer I could think of to this teaser, so if I’m right that’s just sad. It’ll probably be something else entirely like PD0 or the 360's launch date announcement. Bungie does seem to really like Latin though.

[Zeal]

And so the bullshit PR machine begins again. Better call Frankie.

[King Drewsky]

The best speculation that I have heard is that it correlates to the date that 360 kiosks will be released to the different gaming stores.

[Roc Ingersol]

With a little effort you could tie just about any mythological name or place to the Halo storyline.

[bapenguin]

I'm tellin ya, it's the countdown till my Jury Duty.

[MosBen]

Keep in mind that it's not entirely out of the question, and in fact even likely, that Bungie has two teams that were working on Halo stuff. One team was finishing up Halo 2, while the other team began work on Halo 3. As the Halo 2 people finished their work the steadily moved over to Halo 3 development until all that was left were the mappers and cut seen makers, which from my understanding is the last stuff done in game development (other than bugs of course). Halo 2's what, almost a year old? If the PS3 launches in winter '06, which I think is likely, and Halo 3 comes out then you're looking at at least two years of development, if not more considering the staggering of the two development cycles. I think it's absolutely possible.

[Atorak]

Ah crap, I never even finished Halo 2.....

[chrisg]

neither did bungie I was told ;)

[Pigeon]

neither did bungie I was told ;)

ba-zing!

I do love Halo. really!

[F3nyx]

"I think this is getting needlessly messianic."

[Morratut]

Wow. I hope so.

/Halo fanboy waiting and hoping

I just want one screenshot of maybe the corner of his foot in 360 glory. The net will erupt in a geyser of fanboyness :D

[Zanzibar]

Keep in mind that it's not entirely out of the question, and in fact even likely, that Bungie has two teams that were working on Halo stuff. One team was finishing up Halo 2, while the other team began work on Halo 3. As the Halo 2 people finished their work the steadily moved over to Halo 3 development until all that was left were the mappers and cut seen makers, which from my understanding is the last stuff done in game development (other than bugs of course). Halo 2's what, almost a year old? If the PS3 launches in winter '06, which I think is likely, and Halo 3 comes out then you're looking at at least two years of development, if not more considering the staggering of the two development cycles. I think it's absolutely possible.

Not to mention that I'm sure the tools used to make Halo 2 are almost certainly being used to create Halo 3. The engine for Halo 2 is probably going to be beefed up for higher-res textures (especially normal mapping), but overall it'll be the same engine, which will cut down on dev time.

I agree - the multiplayer team is entirely separate from the campaign team, so it was the multiplayer team working on the H2 Map Pack while the campaign team was building Halo 3. Now that the Map Pack is done, they're gonna be hard at work creating H3 multiplayer maps.

I'm really, really hoping for a large-scale battle to start of H3, with hundreds of Warthogs and Scorpions versus lots of Covenant forces. It would have made sense to end H2 with it, but it probably was beyond the Xbox 1's capability. Thus it got amputated from H2 so that it could start H3 with an impressive display of the power of the X360.

[KNOTE]

You can learn a lot of what a developer is up to by checking their job openings page. For instance, valve opens a ton of jobs then announces episodic content for HL2. Ensemble opens positions for MMP engineers and announces that their next project will not be an "age" game but will be a new direction for the company.

Checking bungie's job page i notice:

Mission Designer, AI Engineer, Graphics Programmer, 3d artist, Animation lead, character rigger, Sdet, Associate producer, Xbox live programmer

Considering they already have those positions on staff, it's fair to say that they must be ramping up a 2nd team. Thus, both bungie statements and billG statements could be true. Bungie says "we're working on a new IP" and billG says "they're working on Halo 3".

As a true fan of the Halo series, I hope that with the growth of the studio, the magic is not lost. I am even one of the few that liked the end of Halo 2, that's how much i love bungie. Can someone explain the psychic plant to me though? I was really confused about that. Was it in the books?

[bapenguin]

As a true fan of the Halo series, I hope that with the growth of the studio, the magic is not lost. I am even one of the few that liked the end of Halo 2, that's how much i love bungie. Can someone explain the psychic plant to me though? I was really confused about that. Was it in the books?

<Spoiler>the "psychic plant" I thought was something that created the Flood..or controlled the Flood....</spoiler>

[phantomhitman]

you gotta give it to ms's/bungie's propaganda/hype machine

[balamoor]

Or.... it could be the countdown to Apples announcement that they are opening up a Games division for the 360.... :D Download games and Mods on your I-pod and play them on the 360!!!! :rolleyes:

Seriously...we really don't know how long Bungie has been working on Halo 3 already…. do we? They could have had a separate team working on it since mid development of Halo 2.

I have heard that Mech Assault 3 has been in production since one month before launch of MA: LW

In any event I hope it is better than H2 as I was really disappointed with the single player game.

[JazGalaxy]

I'm going to have to say I doubt the elysium thing holds water. What I hate having to retell rabid Halo fans, is that Bungie has stated that they don't agknowledge the books. They take the same approach to the books as Star Wars takes to it's books. Or Star Trek... or Murder She Wrote... etc. They're there if you want them, but if you think it's "real" as far as the story goes, prepare to be dissapointed. Star Wars fans would have argued you up and down that Bobba Fett was a guy named Jaster Mareel until they went to go see Ep 2 and had their minds blown.

[Zeal]

Besides the fact that Bungie has stated they DO acknowledge the novels.

HSP: Would the books make the cut?

Joseph Staten: The books are, for better or worse, part of the canon. In the future we may choose to revise or flat-out ignore some of the less appealing ideas (Johnson's biological immunity to the Flood, for example), but folks should treat them as defining elements of the Halo universe.

[Zeal]

I hate to double post, but this thread seriously needs to stay bumped. There could be some big Halo 3 related information coming out of this.

[Achilles]

Good quote there Zeal. I'm pretty sure the writer of the first book either worked for Bungie or worked directly with Bungie while writing that book, so I always took that one to be the official back story. I haven't read the others because they don't seem to provide as much new information, though I heard the third was much better than the second.

[Zeal]

Good quote there Zeal. I'm pretty sure the writer of the first book either worked for Bungie or worked directly with Bungie while writing that book, so I always took that one to be the official back story. I haven't read the others because they don't seem to provide as much new information, though I heard the third was much better than the second.

The author of the first a third books was Eric Nylund. He was directly involved with Bungie in regards to expanding the Halo universe. The second book was by a different author and essentially just retold the events of the first game in a more in-depth fashion. I recommend skipping it.

Book 1 takes place before Halo and recounts the creation of the Spartans and mankind's first contact with the Covenant. The third book takes place right after Halo and right before Halo 2. It recounts the events leading up to Halo 2 and also opens up numerous subplots within the Halo universe.

All are considered official history, but as a hardcore Halo fan, I highly recommend the first and third. The novels will give you an idea of just how well-written and in-depth Halo's mythology can be.

[MrMeatshake]

until they went to go see Ep 2 and had their minds blown.

what, by the terrible acting? or the half-assed plot? oh, sorry...

btw, not to be the complete critic, but i bought the 3-book set on the back of the fiction produced for ilovebees.com - i was sliiightly dissapointed. i managed about half of the first book :-/