If you look at Randy Pitchford's .plan file through Blue's News, the project listings there are the same as they've been for some time:
- Halo PC
- Secret Sauce
"Secret Sauce" might have been the Halo Editing Kit before that was announced, but it might be something else all together.
Well, as of the 12th, that .plan file also contains a note that Gearbox is hiring level designers with UnrealEd and/or Worldcraft experience, indicating that another project either has been underway before now or is just starting up. Gearbox's Project Page still only lists PC Halo, along with a screenshot of the still-as-yet-unreleased Sapien.
Why should this matter to PC Halo fans?
Because typically, support and updates for a port of a game to another platform never goes on forever, and usually begins to wane when the porting house gets another project going. Gearbox has already begun to lay the blame for delays in getting patches and the HEK out at the feet of Bungie and Microsoft, and now with a push on to hire programmers for an effort with a completely different game engine by the look of it, and the release of Halo 2 for the Xbox to come later this year, what will be the fate of support for PC and Mac Halo?
Of course, Gearbox was always going to have to do more work; there's no way Microsoft would continue to pay them enough to get by just to make patches for PC Halo.
Comments
Anonymous (not verified)
No GB = Great News
They did such a sucky job with the port in the first place.
Maybe Bungie will go to Peter Tamte for Halo2.
I think WestLake would do a much better job of it. It would mean doing the Mac port first, but it would probably make the PC port easier since it could use OpenGL.
narcogen
Westlake, Gearbox
In reply to: No GB = Great NewsDoing the Mac port first would be an interesting idea. However, I think the reasons for doing it the other way around were valid, regardless of what you think of how good a job Gearbox did.
The Xbox is basically a DX9-based PC. I'm sure Microsoft wanted the PC version of Halo to use Microsoft technologies like DirectX and not OpenGL; the only way OpenGL was going to be used would be for a platform that didn't support DirectX (the Mac).