Xbox.com has been updated with the official announcement of the expected launch lineup for the Xbox 360, as well as the official press release naming Peter Jackson as Executive Producer of the Halo film.
Any speculation about whether the upcoming Halo film would be done using computer graphics (as the Final Fantasy film was done) or using live actors (persumably mixed with some CG effects) was quickly put to rest by a front page article in the Dominion Post, a New Zealand newspaper. A scan of this past Thursday's front page of the Wellington edition was submitted in the HBO forum by Spitvalve.
More details on the Halo movie front today. The Register opines that the involvement of Peter Jackson is just window dressing; Louis Wu at HBO points out the lack of whining on the grapevine, as well as quotes from Jackson in a Reuters story, as evidence to the contrary.
Traditional media are picking up on the announcement that Peter Jackson will be the executive producer on the upcoming halo feature film.
Sometimes the rumor mill gets it right-- or at least nearly so. Previous rumors about Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the upcoming King Kong, taking the helm of the Halo film have turned out to be almost correct. He is on board, as Joe Staten's post at Bungie.net now confirms, but as Executive Producer rather than director.
Bungie.net is now confirming the Game Informer story that GhaleonEB pointed out earlier in the HBO forum; that a character from the Halo universe will make an appearance in DOA4. Neither developer is stating which one, as of yet, although the Bungie.net story has an impressive display of Cortana's own unnatural formations, which is either a blatant hint or a huge red herring.
HBO forumgoer GhaleonEB labeled this as "please tell me this is a joke." We can only hope. Game Informer Online is reporting that a character from Halo will be a "secret character" Tecmo's upcoming game, Dead or Alive 4. Given the franchise's dependance on the rendering of supple female forms, that seems to make the choice rather obvious.
Kelli "Pinkuh" Davis has put up issue #1 of her gaming comic, Lost The Lead. It's not up on the site just yet, but there is a tidbit from it in the HBO forum.
(So far the only Halo-specific content is in the splash screen on the front page, but we're confident it will creep in there before too long--Ed.)
Mike Antonucci and Dean Takahashi, columnists for the San Jose Mercury News, have a gaming podcast called Dean & Nooch On Gaming. Takahashi earlier wrote a book about the Xbox. In this week's edition, each of them pick their top three games of all time; Halo is Takahashi's top pick.
The podcast isn't Halo or Bungie specific, but issues are generally pretty short (about ten minutes per episode, compared to 'casts by Major Nelson or the Podtacular guys, which have been topping 60 minutes lately) and unlike some of the newer broadcasts, this one is dense and polished, with little dead air or repeated sound effects; well worth the few seconds it takes to download and the few minutes it takes to listen to.
NOTE: This latest episode, number eight, isn't visible yet at Odeo or Podcast.net, but will show up if you subscribe via iTunes.
Ducain at High Impact Halo is throwing a virtual pizza party to celebrate the site's 1000th news post. Congratulations HIH!
Halo Babies today wonders if similarly shaped devices will suffer similar fates.
GameSpot is reporting that the same company that has made mobile versions of Microsoft games such as Midtown Madness 3, Zoo Tycoon 2, and Age of Empires 2, has acquired the rights to make mobile Halo properties and is working with Bungie to figure out what kind of applications to make:
There are only three days left to submit entries into the 117 Words Halo fan fiction contest, as noted by One One Se7en author Stuntmutt in the HBO forum.
Add another name to the list of directors who are not doing the Halo movie: Peter Jackson.
GameSpot's Rumor Control busts reports that the Halo movie will be directed by Jackson. Despite someone calling themselves "Marty the Elder" on a Uwe Boll fansite making this claim, Universal says Jackson is not doing the film.
MCV has a story quoting a Microsoft rep as saying a Halo 2-sized media blitz for the upcoming Xbox 360 title Perfect Dark Zero will begin in October. The parallel even extends to the Special Edition of PD0 in a chrome tin. Thanks Kotaku.