14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft's internal Halo development studio, 343 Industries, has once again avoided talking about the possibility of seeing a high definition version of the original Halo: Combat Evolved title.
After Halo founding studio, Bungie, announced that it was leaving the franchise in the hands of Microsoft, the North American software giant assembled its own team, 343 Industries, to oversee the development of the extremely popular series.
Up until recently, things have been extremely quiet, but we're hearing more and more talk about the possibility of a Halo: Combat Evolved HD.
The latest bit of speculation says that 343 Industries isn't actually working on a Halo 1 HD version, but another studio, Saber Interactive, is busy reworking the original Xbox title for the Xbox 360.
This rumor was denied by Frank O'Connor, the creative director of 343 Industries, who said that the studio will only work with other companies on "mini-collaborations."
"343 as a publishing entity and Bungie before it is always open to collaboration," said O'Connor to CVG. "So we've always been open to those sort of mini-collaborations, but as far as the core game experiences are concerned we have to keep that close to home."
O'Connor exemplified through the recent team up with Certain Affinity, who helped create the upcoming Defiant map pack for Halo: Reach.
"We certainly see Certain Affinity as being close to home because there are a lot of ex-Bungie and Halo guys on that team, so it's very natural. In the future - who knows. But fundamentally we're right now building a large, powerful top-tier studio to make triple-A experiences in the future and that's our general direction right now," he said.
As you can see, O'Connor has once more carefully avoided talking about Halo: Combat Evolved HD, so we can't say for sure that you won't see the original adventures of Master Chief remastered in HD anytime soon.