Yes, the inevitable has finally happened.
No, not the release of Halo on the Mac and PC, although that will still happen.
We mean the announcement of Halo 2. The official word from Bungie is at Bungie.net (where else?) where the main man, Matt, lays down the sequel smackage. (Turns out, rumors of the announcement to be held in New York were true, despite the comments of a few Doubting Louises (Louii?) The announcement was also accompanied by new Halo 2 desktops and Halo 2 screenshots.
HBO got the drop on it last week when the announcement was first made, pointing out the Bungie.net announcement above as well as a Halo 2 press release at TeamXbox that included this very special quote from Jason Jones:
Halo 2 surpasses its predecessor in graphical beauty and combat intensity. 'Halo 2' is a lot like 'Halo', only it's 'Halo' on fire, going 130 miles per hour through a hospital zone, being chased by helicopters and ninjas, explained Jason Jones, the head of Bungie Studios, and the ninjas are all on fire, too.
HBO used the same quote, but we think that one is pretty irresistible.
Xbox.com has all that, a bag of chips, and two cents from Jaime Case Griesemer on what we can expect from Halo 2:
I don't want to ruin the surprise, but imagine the essential 'Halo' single-player experience: pitched battles between the humans and the Covenant, massive vehicle and infantry engagements. Now imagine that every combatant is an actual person playing over Xbox Live!
Griesemer is listed as the Lead Designer on Halo 2, but it sounds from those two quotes like both he and Jones are looking to change gears and go into marketing.
And if you're interested in getting the corporate line straight from the appropriate animal's orifice, there's a PRNewswire item on Halo 2 and PGR2 from Microsoft tailor made to fulfill that particular need.