“We’ll still have an attachment to Halo through Reach, but we definitely won’t be producing any new Halo projects beyond Reach,” said Jarrard.

Halo: Reach is heading for a scheduled release this autumn to the Xbox 360.

Microsoft’s 343 Industries has announced that Halo Waypoint, which is the new Xbox LIVE section for everything that is Halo, will be launched on the 5th November 2009.

“Nov 5. Mark it on your calendar. That’s when you will get your hands (or controllers) on Halo Waypoint. ” stated the Twitter.

Wapoint offers you Halo fans to access audio and video content, community features and you’ll also be able to follow your Halo career, following and keeping track of achievements, and other bits and bobs which aren’t directly tied to the Halo games.

According to a “High level source” within Microsoft, the reason Microsoft hasn’t increased the 100 friend limit on the 360 is down to one game;  Halo 2.  It was said that because high numbers of  people are still playing Halo 2 on the original Xbox, it would be hard for them to up the limit without patching or closing the doors on Halo 2 multiplayer.  The source also goes on to say, Microsoft is undecided on when to pull the plug on Halo 2 to allow a bigger friends list.  What do you readers say? Pull the plug or keep it alive? Who would even need more than 100 friends anyway?

Source: G4

At Comic-Con last week, Frank O’Connor of Microsoft’s newly named Halo publisher, 343 Industries, has shared further details on Halo Waypoint which is will be the next Halo installment tothe series and it’ll be launched this autumn on Xbox LIVE.

Waypoint offers the Halo fans access to audio and video content, community features and the option to follow their own Halo career – Waypoint tracks Achievements and other aspects not directly tied to Halo games.

“There’s a lot more to Waypoint than just watching movies and listening to podcasts,” said O’Connor.

“Maybe you just want to see a really old Halo trailer from E3,” he explained. “We’re going to aggregate everything that you would want to watch from the halo universe on that site. But it’s a lot more ambitious than that. It’s going to evolve in features and functionality to make it the prime destination for the Halo fan.”

The service will be made so it’ll be accessible from the Xbox 360 dashboard, but it hasn’t been decided what level of Xbox LIVE membership level will have to be required.

“We want everyone to have this same experience, but the question is, if there’s multiplayer features that are technically connected to Gold, it’s easier to deal with. There’s a lot of reasons that [tying it to] Gold makes sense,” O’Connor explained.

Also this autumn, we’ll see the debut of the Halo: Legends anime series, leaving all the episodes available on Waypoint. O’Connor says they will be available in their entirety in a staggered schedule in every Xbox LIVE territory.

With E3 just around the corner, and not a word from Microsoft, we speculated as to what might be shown this year. Here is our top 10 list for what we at Xbox|Insider think (and hope) will be announced at E3 this year.

10. Project Gotham Racing 5

Yes, we are well aware that Microsoft let Bizarre Creations go a while ago, but they may have built a smaller internal development team using assets and the game engine from the previous Project Gotham Racing games. One of Microsoft’s two premiere racing franchises, fans have been eager for the next installment seeing as we haven’t had one since 2007.

9. Forza 3

PGR offers a great street racing experience, and Forza offers a great motor sport experience, releasing both this year would allow Microsoft to fill the racing void on the Xbox 360, as well as double team against Sony’s Gran Turismo 5.  It’s been confirmed it will come on two discs as it has so much content, it’s been in development since 2007 and we’re due an announcement any time now.

8. Gears of War 2 Story Expansion

Joshua Ortega hinted at a Gears 2 story expansion many moons ago, perhaps a locust campaign, or maybe following what happened to Cole and Baird before they were reunited with Delta squad, who knows? But the Gears 2 ending left alot to be desired and this may fill that gap.

7. Halo Chronicles

Announced in 2006, what has happened to the Halo Chronicles? Rumoured to be down loadable Halo stories, originally conceived by Bungie, with your choices effecting the way the game pans out. Peter Jackson’s Wingnut Interactive, the developers of the game, were still hiring in 2008 so the project may still be on the wall.

6. Kingdom Hearts 3 coming to Xbox 360 (and other platforms)

Based on Square and Microsoft’s close new relationship and Kingdom Hearts 3 being highly anticipated, it would make sense for Square to debut it on the Xbox 360. We’re not saying it will be Xbox 360 exclusive, it will most likely be on PS3 as well, but we’re saying that Square will first show it at Microsoft’s E3 conference, much like last year when they showcased Infinite Undiscovery, The Last Remnant and Star Ocean: TLH.

5. Final Fantasy 13 (and versus) coming to Xbox 360 in Japan

Based on the massive success (by Xbox in Japans standards) of the previous Square RPG’s on the Xbox 360 in Japan, it can be guaranteed Microsoft has negotiated Final Fantasy 13 to come to Xbox 360 in Japan. If brand new IPs like The Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery can sell hundreds of thousands in Japan, then the crown jewel of Japenese RPGs could probably sell a million Xbox 360′s all by itself. As well as Final Fantasy 13 it is also likely Microsoft would have negotiated Final Fantasy Versus 13 to come to Xbox 360 aswell due to the same reasons as the main game.

4. Crackdown 2

The original Crackdown was a massive commercial success, probably because it had the Halo 3 beta included, but a lot of the people who bought it just for the beta actually ended up enjoying the game, and  Microsoft like money, so a sequel can be guaranteed. Very recently it was rumoured that ‘Ruffian Games’, formed by some key people from Real Time worlds who worked on Crackdown, is working on the sequel. Real Time Worlds confirmed that Microsoft has approached them over a Crackdown 2, but they were too busy so Microsoft may have turned to Ruffian games.

3. Project ego/Dimitri/X (Molyneuxs next project)

Molyneux first told us about Project X nearly 7 years ago, and has recently been adding to the speculation during post Fable 2 interviews saying that “I’ve planted the flag so far away, if my team even gets half way it will be amazing”.  Now with Fable 2 out of the way, Project X is the only game currently known to be in development at Lionhead and an announcement should be coming very soon.

2. Halo 4

Based on the pattern of a new main Halo game being released 3 years after the previous, and the announcement coming the E3 the year prior to release, our next game is coming 2010.. and our announcement is coming E3 2009. And before anyone says anything otherwise, Microsoft have made $5billion from the Halo franchise, do you honestly think they’re going to wait much longer before they can get another game out? Microsoft have had many job offerings for people to work on a new Halo project, most recently someone to work on the online stat tracking. It has also been rumoured that Gearbox Software are working on the next Halo game. Microsoft blatantly offering jobs to work on the new Halo and Gearbox hinting that they’re working on a ‘sequel to one of the biggest franchises of all time’, work on Halo4 is definitely in motion somewhere.

1. Zune HD

The Zune HD is rumoured to be able to play Xbox games, whether it is similar to remote play between the PS3 and PSP, or maybe just that you can gain achievements on Zune games with your XBL gamertag, it would still be Microsoft’s foray into portable gaming, and this makes the top of our top 10 at E3 list.

If you think we missed anything that you think (or hope) is coming at E3, please leave us a comment.

And don’t forget about our competition to win a copy of Kingdom of Keflings and Band of bugs, here: http://www.xboxinsider.net/ninjabee-competition-win-band-of-bugs-or-a-kingdom-for-keflingsor-both/

In the latest  ESPLA sales awards it was revealed that Halo Wars has sold 100,000 in the UK, and Halo 3 has sold a whopping 1,000,000 in the UK alone. Other notable sales include GTA 4, which also sold 1,000,000. Full list after the jump!

Silver Award [> 100.000]

PS3 – KILLZONE 2
PSP – THE SIMS 2: PETS
360 – WWE SMACKDOWN VS RAW 2009
NDS – IMAGINE: DREAM WEDDINGS
WII – CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR
WII – CARNIVAL GAMES: MINI GOLF
PC – DRIVING TEST SUCCESS ALL TESTS 2008/09
WII – SAMBA DE AMIGO
360 – HALO WARS
360 – TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 09
NDS – HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 2: WORK THIS OUT!
PS3 – RESIDENT EVIL 5
360 – DEAD SPACE
WII – MY FITNESS COACH
PS3 – STREET FIGHTER IV
PSP – KILLZONE: LIBERATION
PSP – CALL OF DUTY: ROADS TO VICTORY
360 – STREET FIGHTER IV
PS3 – SINGSTAR
WII – BEN 10: PROTECTOR OF THE EARTH
PC – ZOO TYCOON: COMPLETE COLLECTION
PSP – BURNOUT DOMINATOR
NDS – BUST A MOVE
360 – LEGO STAR WARS II: THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY

Gold Award [> 200.000]

WII – TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 09
NDS – LEGO STAR WARS: THE COMPLETE SAGA
WII – SPORTS ISLAND
NDS – PUZZLER COLLECTION
NDS – LEGO STAR WARS II: THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY
WII – RAYMAN RAVING RABBIDS TV PARTY
360 – FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 3
NDS – CARNIVAL: FUNFAIR GAMES
PS3 – KILLZONE 2
360 – RESIDENT EVIL 5

Platinum Award [> 300.000]

PS3 – METAL GEAR SOLID 4: GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS
NDS – TOUCHMASTER
PS2 – WWE SMACKDOWN VS RAW 2008

Double Platinum Award [> 600.000]

PS3 – FIFA 09
NDS – 42 ALL-TIME CLASSICS

Diamond Award [> 1.000.000]

360 – HALO 3
360 – GRAND THEFT AUTO IV

Like other Halo games, another seems to have been announced via Microsofts job offers. This one hints at a Halo 4, read up after the jump!

The job offer says, “Do you love Halo? Do online social communities and console video games excite you? Do you love building scalable online infrastructure & websites for large and passionate audiences? The Halo franchise studio is looking for a strong software development engineer with a passion for video games and online services. We have an ambitious task ahead, taking the current Halo community and online gaming support system and bringing it to the next level.

We’re looking to blend console, web, and mobile to create an immersive Halo world that follows the dedicated Halo fan wherever they go. We need engineers that can build connected technology while working in a startup environment.

As an engineer on this team, your responsibility will be to deliver a great out-of-game interactive experience that takes the next step beyond the systems found in Halo 3. You will work with artists, designers, developers and testers to finalize design plans, implement those plans, and help coordinate large-scale testing of the out of game Live experience by gamers across the world. Your work also will involve several external teams-including other MGS studios and the Xbox Live team-coordinating development dependencies and design considerations of experience as a whole.”

This is basically saying the Halo team needs someone to help carry on the stat tracking system beyond Halo 3, pretty much confirming a new Halo game. It is also saying it is to be taken on the move, so maybe bringing the stat tracking to iPhone or iPod Touch, and before you say anything, then know this. Microsoft is the biggest third party software publisher for the Mac.

Source

Looks like Halo has gotten even more succesful. I mean, it being the first video game to have an encyclopedia made after it and all. Apparently, it will have all the information from the first halo game all the way to Halo 3: ODST. It will be 352 pgs long, and will hit stores in Novemeber. Coming in at $40 or £27. Pre order it on Amazon though and get a 32% discount. Yep, a nice juicy chunky discount.

They cost 800 MS points, and you get Sandbox, Orbital and Assembly, but NOT Longshore, Heretic and Citadel, These will be included with Halo 3: ODST.

Coming straight from Major Nelsons Blog, we finally have a set in stone release date for the upcoming Halo 3 Mythic Map pack.  Good news for all the Halo fans out there….bad news for all the ebay sellers flogging Mythic Map pack codes…

“Halo 3: The Halo 3 Mythic map pack, currently only available to those that purchased the Limited Edition of Halo Wars, will be available to everyone on April 9th for 800 points.”