The rumours have begun about work on Halo 4.
Developer Gearbox, which made a PC version of Halo and is famous for its Brothers in Arms game, is said by the official
to be working on a new Halo game as a launch title for the successor to the Xbox 360.
Earlier the magazine reported that Microsoft had confirmed that Corrinne Yu, director of technology at Gearbox, has been hired as principle engine architect (nice title!) for the Xbox manufacturer's internal Halo team.
Hollywood's respected entertainment trade newspaper
Variety
says Gearbox has definitely had conversations with Microsoft about a Halo 4 but
no actual deal has been signed.
Whether the fourth Halo rumours are confirmed or when a new Xbox is confirmed waiting in the wings, there are plenty of treats ahead in the next few months, led by this week's keenly awaited Spore.
NO GAMES SLUMP
The retail downturn has not hit global spending on games as much as some other product lines, according to the latest figures out. The
LA Times
reported that figures for
show US consumers spent nearly US $9.5 billion on video games, consoles and peripherals, up from $7 billion in July 2007. PlayStation 3 is on the rise but Nintendo is doing the best on console sales, selling 555,000 of its Wii consoles, compared with Sony's 224,900 PlayStation 3s and Microsoft's 204,800 Xbox 360s.
Electronic Arts' NCAA Football 09 was the top game for American gamers, followed by Nintendo's Wii Fit and Activision Blizzard's Guitar Hero.
Nintendo has also
a 23% boost to its annual profit.
Overall for the year in game sales across the
, the winner not surprisingly was Grand Theft Auto IV, which came out in April selling 6.2 million copies to adult audiences, and has yet to be released in Japan.
GTA IV was followed by Super Smash Bros. Brawl (5.4 m), Mario Kart Wii (4.6 m), Wii Fit (3.6m) and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, (3.4m).
While it will be fascinating to see what damage Spore does to that list, there are other titles worth considering in the next few months including Microsoft's Fable 2 recently appearing with gameplay footage from the
(Germany, 20-24 August), and is out on October 23.
Check out this Fable 2 E3 trailer.
Also keep an eye out for:
Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise
(released September 9)
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
(September 17)
(September 19)
Fracture
(September 26)
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
(October 15)
Call of Duty: World at War
(October 23)
Crash Bandicoot: Mind over Mutant
(October 24)
Far Cry 2
(October 26)
Dead Space
(October 31)
Gears of War 2
(November 7)
Pictured above: Warhammer online will open its servers for NZ gamers on September 19.
For more pictures of Warhammer online, click here.
Police could be seen cordoning off a street in the area.