Rampancy

GamesIndustryBiz has put up the second part of an interview with Bungie's Brian "SketchFactor" Jarrard and Luke Smith. Here is part one.

Sketch remarks therein that Bungie has complete freedom to choose the publisher and platform for their new intellectual property-- property that Microsoft does not own. Microsoft does own Halo, and Bungie has a team working on the Halo 3: Recon expansion, due out next fall.

GameCock, famed interrupter of awards ceremonies, holder of funerals for tradeshows, and publishers of games by Wideload such as Hail to the Chimp, have been acquired by SouthPeak.

SouthPeak published last year's Two Worlds RPG on the PC and 360, a game that was widely criticized for failing to live up to the high standards set by Bethesda's similar game, Oblivion.

GameDaily has an interview with writer Stuart Beattie, who is taking Eric Nylund's Halo novel The Fall Of Reach and adapting it into a film script.

Beattie was the writer on Pirates of the Carribbean and G.I. Joe, and wrote a Gears of War script last year.

According to the intertubes, Microsoft is forging ahead with Halo using a new internal studio. Forming the team are Ryan Payton, formerly of Kojima Productions and the producer of Metal Gear Solid 4; Corinne Yu, former technician at Gearbox; and at least two former Bungie employees: writer Frank "Frankie" O'Connor and animator Nathan "bentllama" Walpole.