You might remember the ‘Believe’ trailer for Halo 3 which showed a lifeless Master Chief being held up by a Brute, only for the Master Chief to raise his head as the video ended. It struck me as quite unusual, as it isn’t the type of thing I would really associate with how you market to the typical Halo fan. (Then again, the typical Halo fan was more than likely going to buy Halo 3 regardless of any advertisements Microsoft released.)

One intrepid fan of Viva Pinata put together a very similar trailer for Rare’s cutesy, pinata-starring franchise which was just way too cool to not share.

It’s strangely moving, likely thanks to those big eyes those damned cute pinata have. How can you not feel bad for them?

via Gamerscore Blog

People who worry that in five years we’ll be facing the impending launches of Halo Tennis 4 Master Chief Racing 2 are completely understandable. It’s the most popular franchise in Microsoft’s catalog, and if you’ve seen what has happened to Mario and Sonic over the years, it doesn’t take much of a leap to imagine terrible spinoff after terrible spinoff.

At Comic-Con last week, Frank O’Connor (Bungie’s former community manager who now oversees the Halo franchise at Microsoft) explained that there are a lot of opportunities to delve into the Halo universe, but they don’t plan on abusing the franchise, reports Eurogamer.

“The Halo universe is really, really big now,” he said. “Literally the Halo games have only covered one year; a couple of months within a year in fact.

“We have a really detailed story bible, we do really have it all planned out. There are so many areas of the universe to explore, the real challenge is picking which is the most exciting area for people. Is it UNSC Marines fighting alongside Spartans against the Covenant? Or is it what happens next after Master Chief’s appearance in Halo 3?”

“We have a well defined, carefully orchestrated, properly planned universe to explore not exploit,” O’Connor continued. “And that’s the tricky part: what are the things people want to do? We have to pick things that people want. That’s what you see with the range of McFarlane toys – people want their armour permutation.

“Give them things they really want and make sure they’re high quality is the formula.”

There are at least three Halo games in development right now between Bungie, Peter Jackson, and Ensemble with Halo Wars. Even as a Halo fanatic, I really don’t want to see too many Halo games released, because I’ve seen what that can do to a franchise. Hopefully Frankie is right and we don’t see Master Chief at the Olympics anytime soon.

For the first time since the last week in January, Halo 3 has regained the its number one spot in the Xbox 360 top Live titles list. The list is based upon the number of unique users playing each game.

Halo has trailed behind Grand Theft Auto IV and/or Call of Duty 4 every week since the week of January 21. The July 7 release of the Cold Storage map (which was free of charge) likely helped, as did the pending E3 announcement about Bungie’s next Halo project — one which never came. Microsoft has said it will instead be showcasing the mysterious new Halo game at a dedicated event where they can do the game “more justice.”

Anyone want to guess if the game will hold onto its lead for a second week? I’m gonna go ahead and guess that it will, based on my expert analysis of absolutely nothing.

Unhappy that the new Halo hasn’t made an appearance at E3? Well, don’t hold your breath for a last second showing to steal the show on its last day — Microsoft is waiting to now show the game at a dedicated event where they can do it more justice, according to Don Mattrick.

Originally clocking in at 2 1/2 hours, the game’s removal from Microsoft’s press conference helped to cut that time down to 90 minutes. “We had an embarrassment of riches,” Mattrick told the LA Times. “We felt we could do this game more justice with a more dedicated event.”

“Two big kahunas were left out of the show, and we were still able to deliver a strong performance,” Mattrick said, referring to the exclusive content Rockstar has in store for Grand Theft Auto IV.

Luke Smith has also posted some answers to the most asked questions over on Bungie.net:

1. OMG! The announce was posted at 7! This is all part of the plan.

The news was broken to us shortly before 7 p.m. and we decided to keep with tradition to make a clean break.

2. Why leave the splash page up if it’s not happening?

We left the splash page up for the folks who didn’t see the message or were planning on tuning in the following morning before the news vanished into Bungie.net’s ether.

3. But Harold Ryan is only a TESTER this has to be fake!

Harold was a tester, but assumed the position of President a while ago. Crazy Wiki’s and their misinformation.

I get the feeling that we’ll be hearing more about this new Halo once Sony starts building up more buzz as we get closer to the release of Resistance 2 and LittleBigPlanet.

Don’t color me surprised — but you can color me as pleasantly surprised. Wait.

Damnit.

You may have noticed the lack of anything Halo-related at Microsoft’s press conference earlier this week, as well as Bungie’s sudden backtrack on their website regarding an announcement they were planning to make at E3. The message above was posted on Bungie.net’s splash page by president Harold Ryan, apologizing for the lack of any announcement. Combine that with the unusual wording — “our publisher” and not “Microsoft” like you’d expect — and it was unclear what was going on.

But in an interview with MTV, Stephen Totilo managed to get word out of Microsoft exec Don Mattrick that Bungie is at work on a new Halo game separate from both Halo Wars and Peter Jackson’s Halo project.

The explanation Mattrick gave for why the game was absent from the press conference was that Microsoft felt they already had more than enough to show, and a new Halo game wasn’t needed.

Maybe, but as someone who remains a Halo fanboy at heart, it would have made me a very happy camper to see what Bungie is working on.

Joystiq has come in receipt of an image from Wal-Mart’s intranet which shows a listing for something called Halo “Blue.” The image comes by way of what they call a “trusted Wal-Mart source,” so it’s unlikely that this is just some fake, Photoshopped image.

Still, what could something called Halo “Blue,” really be? It’s not much of a name, that’s for sure.

In what could quite possibly be related news, Joystiq is also reporting on a rumor that the next Halo game will be a tactical game; “a cross between Ghost Recon and Gears of War” that will be “darker [and] grittier” and won’t be focused on everyone’s favorite Master Chief.

I’m actually hoping the two aren’t connected, and that Halo “Blue” turns out to be a re-release of the original Halo with jazzed-up graphics and online co-op. I’m certain that’s not what it is, but it’s nice to dream.

Either way, we’ll likely be finding out in just a few hours.

Yes, it’s Bungie Day! Time to get the kids to decorate the Master Chief statue with “plasma lights,” sing a few Spartan carols, and start mixing up the Covenant Nog. Or if you’re a traditionalist, you can download all the free stuff Bungie has put up on Xbox Live today. For starters, the new Cold Storage map can now be downloaded for Halo 3, which is a remake of the original game’s “Chill Out” map. If you want the rest of the maps in the Legendary Map Pack though, the price has now been dropped from 800 MS points to 600 MS points. Aside from that, there’s a free Bungie Day ‘08 theme and several gamerpics available for your downloading pleasure. Make sure you get ‘em soon though, because they’re gone forever after today.

Via Major Nelson

Monday is July 7 or 7/7, which has long been Bungie Day. This year you can expect a new, free map — Cold Storage, a revamp of the original Halo’s “Chill Out” level — and free gamerpics and a theme that will only be available on Monday. Bungie’s also trying to get the total number of kills in campaign mode up to seven million, so if you want to contribute, hop on Halo 3 and blast away some Covenant and Flood. But that’s not all:

Beginning on July 7, there will be a 48-hour long seven-player FFA playlist in Halo 3’s Matchmaking where you can turn the calendar back to 2001 and control Rockets, Invis and Snipe.

For now, Cold Storage will be implemented in regular rotation in playlists that require the Legendary Maps. To avoid confusion, playlists that previously required the Legendary Maps will now remind players that they need “all Maps” to participate, and since Cold Storage is free, it shouldn’t be a big deal for you to grab the map on July 7 and then return to your regularly scheduled business in SWAT.

Additionally, on 7/7, Microsoft is dropping the price of the Legendary Map Pack from 800 spacebucks to 600 spacebucks. That price drop does mean that purchases after 7/7 will no longer include the Bungie Pro bonus.

Note: the conversion rate of spacebucks to Microsoft points is 1:1.

It’s potentially a candidate for delisting, but Freeverse will still be releasing a new downloadable content pack for Marathon: Durandal on Wednesday. The new Jjaro Map Pack will go for 250 Microsoft points and includes a collection of 12 maps from both Marathon and Marathon Infinity.

A pair of new achievements will be included worth a total of 30 gamerscore points, but you’ll need to buy the DLC in order to get them.

You can check out some video previews of the new maps at 360Sync, as well as check out the achievement images if you’re really that utterly obsessed with achievement whoring. (Get some help.)

Bungie has now revealed the sixth book that will take place in the Halo universe with Halo: The Cole Protocol. This book will apparently reveal the location of the Spartan Grey Team explore a specific conflict during the Human-Covenant wars. The book will be penned by Tobias S. Buckell, who has won numerous awards for his past works in science fiction. According to Frank O’Connor, franchise development director for Microsoft:

“Buckell continues an excellent tradition that’s now a solid aspect of the Halo novels, bringing a fresh new perspective to a limitless universe and bringing his prodigious writing talents to bear in ways that will surprise and engage fans of the series and newcomers alike.”

More information, including release dates and such, are expected to be revealed soon.

Via Bungie.net