14 DAY TRIAL // Dorling Kindersley, aka DK, has announced that it has entered into an agreement with Microsoft related to the creation and publication of a Halo Encyclopedia.
The publication is set to be the only official reference guide that takes information from games like Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo Wars and Halo 3: ODST and manages to create a coherent look at the entire universe. The Halo Encyclopedia should arrive in November 2009 and will have 353 pages, including a foreword from Frank O’Connor from Microsoft Games Studios.
Alex Allan, who is the director of licensed publishing for DK, stated that “Microsoft approached DK to discuss a ‘Halo’ book project after San Diego Comic-Con last year, where they saw our impressive array of Star Wars, DC Comics, Marvel and other licensed reference titles. ‘Halo’ has always fascinated the creative team at DK, many of whom are avid gamers and we had the full support of ‘Halo’s’ very experienced team to create this spectacular book.”
Dorling Kindersley is well known for a wide range of publications. It has published travel books, health and fitness books and material related to popular culture.
Microsoft Games Studios’ Frank O'Connor, who is in charge of the development of the Halo franchise, has seen DK’s achievements and says that the universe of Halo is important and big enough to deserve a reference book available to all the fans. The content will be organized in such a way as to be easy to search for and all the pages will be printed in full color.
This is the first time that DK enters the world of videogames and the Halo Encyclopedia is set to arrive initially in English (in a lot of territories), while translations are also planned. It's not clear whether the Encyclopedia will get new editions as more Halo-related videogames, books and other material are released.