However the ”core experiences” of Halo, like the upcoming HD remake of Combat Evolved, must be kept ”close to home.” Saber Interactive not involved?
Reports pointed to Timeshift’s Saber Interactive as the studio behind the Halo: Combat Evolved HD remake for Xbox 360, which allegedly features 1080p fidelity and online co-op, as well as achievements naturally. However 343 Industries is playing it down.
”343 as a publishing entity and Bungie before it is always open to collaboration. We’ve done weird things in the past like we put a Spartan in Dead or Alive 3… We met with Itagaki and his team to make sure the Spartan was fighting correctly, using a style that was appropriate, was the right height and moving like a Spartan,” said 343 creative director Frank O’Connor.
”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.”
”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,” he said. Certain Affinity is co-developing the Defiant map pack for Halo: Reach.
”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 continued.
”So we’ll continue to do little collaborations with people but for core experiences we have to keep those close to home.” Halo: Combat Evolved, which launched the sci-fi IP back on the original Xbox, couldn’t be thought of as a ‘mini-collaborative project’ surely?
