14 DAY TRIAL // Frank O'Connor, the head of Microsoft's 343 Industries, the new studio in charge with developing the Halo franchise, has promised that the new game in the series will contain dramatic innovations but also small tweaks on top of the tried and true formula originally developed by Bungie.
Microsoft is currently preparing a brand new Halo title, which will be among the first not developed by series creator Bungie (Halo Wars not withstanding).
O'Connor, the creative director of 343 Industries and the mastermind behind the company's Halo strategy, told CVG that innovation has always been a core part of the series, starting with the original Halo: Combat Evolved, which paved the way for shooters that control great on consoles, to Halo 2, which innovated in terms of multiplayer and made Xbox Live very popular.
"Ultimately the core game mechanic and strength of the universe doesn't need to be changed, it just needs to be taken deeper. We want to make Halo games - we don't want to make Call of Duty or Ridge Racer. We want to make Halo games because we understand what's special about Halo."
O'Connor revealed that there were always ideas and mechanics that were left on the cutting room floor, so there are lots of directions in which the series could go with its next installments.
"I would say that one thing that has happened with previous Halo games regardless of hardware or platform shift is that there were always ideas left on the table due to time constraints, there were also ideas that didn't quite work because people didn't take to them or audience player patterns weren't exactly what we expected," he said.
Halo fans should be certain, however, that when the next installment comes out, it will contain lots of improvements, ranging from dramatic innovations to small tweaks to the whole franchise.
As of yet, however, O'Connor declined to say if a new Halo is set to arrive in the near future, but talked about the franchise on multiple occasions.