14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that there's just no end in sight for the Halo universe. Microsoft and the now defunct Ensemble Studios have just released Halo Wars, a real time strategy title for the Xbox 360, which is seeing good sales mainly due to the name on the game box.
Bungie is set to create and release Halo 3: ODST sometime in late 2009, providing a fresh perspective, as the fight between the Covenant, the Flood and the UNSC is seen from the eyes of an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper. And it seems that fans hungry for more content set in the Halo universe can also look forward to new novels detailing various aspects.
Greg Bear, who is already known for writing novels such as Forge of God, should write three new novels that will detail the story of the Forerunners, the civilization that is talked about in the videogames (which has managed to annihilate itself from the universe while unleashing the Flood upon the species coming after it).
The first novel in the series will be coming in 2010 and does not have a name yet. The author is well-known for creating “hard” science fiction, with an eye for weaving scientific fact into his prose, so it will be interesting to see how he will treat the Forerunners and their magical powers.
The interesting part of such an announcement is how it can be translated into videogame form. After all, Microsoft has repeatedly stated that it had long term plans for the Halo franchise and that it regarded it as its very own Star Wars. Once the first novel is written in the new trilogy, few fans would be surprised to hear that a series of three videogames would be created around the fall of the Forerunners, which is the big catalyst for all the events that gamers know from the Halo trilogy.