Microsoft: Bungie announcement 'held back' for special event

by Xav de Matos { Jul 17th 2008 at 10:00AM }

The saga of Bungie v. Microsoft in The Case of the Missing Haloes continues. The L.A. Times spoke with Xbox senior VP Don Mattrick regarding the omission of Bungie's announcement from its Monday press conference. Mattrick told the writers that Microsoft decided to nix the reveal during the show to "save time."

Let that sink in for a moment, you 5+ million Halo fans. Time. Word around the campfire is Microsoft's conference was originally set to run for two-and-a-half hours, but Mattrick wanted to cut the show down to 90 minutes. Of the items to be cut from the show? Anything named Halo. Mattrick told the paper that Microsoft's conference already contained, "an embarrassment of riches," so the Halo trump cards were removed from the docket.

At least we still got to see that sweet Lips presentation though. Now that's a franchise!

Surely it had nothing to do with the fear of taking attention away from Final Fantasy XIII for 360. Balderdash! Or, Gears of War 2. Poppycock!

Now the question remains, when will we see the new ~~secret~~ Halo game Bungie is working on? "We felt we could do this game more justice with a more dedicated event," Mattrick said in the L.A. Times piece. Sounds like it was planned all along, it's just funny that Bungie took it the way they did. It's almost like they were left out of the loop.

Tags: bungie, controversy, don-mattrick, e3-08, e3-2008, e308, halo, halo-chronicles

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Phil @ Jul 17th 2008 10:11AM

I feel really sorry for Bungie. Things like this can't be easy for them. But a more dedicated event? Unless MS do an exclusive event, i.e. another MS games day or something similiar, i can't think of another event bigger than E3.
Anyways, its still good to know that Bungies been working on another halo game, even if Mattrick took away their glory of announcing it.

Chris @ Jul 17th 2008 10:22AM

dedicated event means exactly that their planning a MS Games Day or a Bungie Day style gathering to showcase this game and this game alone apparently microsoft feels that its that big of an announcement... and if it is indeed a tactical halo shooter with squads as was rumored it just might be ;) hope they are watching KZ2 and Res and Gears2 to know what their up against graphically and gameplay wise to make that big of an announcement

PeacefulOutrage @ Jul 17th 2008 10:45AM

I don't think it's that bad. A Bungie Halo game will sell. Avid gamers already know Halo and Bungie and don't wait for 2 months to read a magazine when we can check the internet.

Casual gamers who play solitaire at work and the retailers who invest and buy games for their store who never heard of "Lips" or "XBL Primetime" will need more face time for those new products.

Bungie could announce their game at PAX and people would be happy. It's not like the game is delayed, just the announcement, and we already knew a game was coming, so we're not missing out big time. We just want to find out what the gameplay is like and see some screenshots.

offday @ Jul 17th 2008 10:16AM

I've never heard of Don Mattrick before today, but I also now officially hate him.

MS obviously would rather put the franchise that put them on the map on the back burner, while they try to win the hearts of casual gamers everywhere with yet another crappy karaoke game.

Way to screw over the gamers who made the Xbox a success, MS.

mernmern @ Jul 17th 2008 11:13AM

Really? Way to screw the gamer? You will not play the game for god knows how long. You do not know what the game entails and you do not know exactly why the announcement was pulled. Get over yourself. Sure an announcement would be cool, but you were by no means screwed. The only ones that may have been screwed are the Bungie team.

offday @ Jul 18th 2008 12:22PM

What are you talking about? We know EXACTLY why it was pulled. If you don't see what MS is doing here, then you're an idiot.

harry @ Jul 17th 2008 10:22AM

Ya, I can't believe Microsoft would do something like that. Especially to a huge game like Halo. If it was an new IP from Bungie that they didn't think would be a huge hit like Halo, and not releasing till late '09, or '10 then I can see them cutting it. But come on, it's Halo! They really should of let Bungie know rather than wait till just before 7 on Tuesday.

C. T. @ Jul 17th 2008 10:22AM

I was just as excited for this reveal as the next guy, but why is everyone taking such umbrage that the announcement was put on hold? They're still working on the game, it'll be ready when it's ready, and whether or not we know anything about it THIS WEEK really has no bearing on anything. It's not as though they canceled the game entirely.

lmalave2 @ Jul 17th 2008 12:46PM

Agree with you 100%. I mean, I can understand the frustration and having a countdown get down to just 12 hours and then suddenly stop. But it's not going to change the release date of the game itself!

As the developer, Bungie's job is just to implement the best possible game - and there's no indication that Microsoft has done anything to interfere with that.

As the publisher it's *Microsoft's* job ultimately to manage the marketing and promotion of the game - not Bungie's. Microsoft made the call that it would be better to defer the Bungie announcement to a time when it wasn't competing with attention with Final Fantasy, GoW, etc. - and that's Microsoft's prerogative. Microsoft obviously planned for this possible scheduling change in advance, so they probably have a good idea for a different date when the reveal will have more impact.

kdubbb @ Jul 17th 2008 3:23PM

Totally agree with the above 2.

What I don't understand is the lack of communication between Microsoft and Bungie. They couldn't coordinate this better?

Kizzle @ Jul 17th 2008 10:37AM

If Mattrick was behind this, he's an idiot. If Mattrick wasn't behind it, whoever was is an idiot.

This isn't about "waaah, I wanted to see Halo." I don't care when then announce it, but it's asinine to set it up for a reveal that is highly anticipated, then yank it with less than 24 hours for the reasons being given.

Now when they DO announce this thing, there will be a much more subdued reaction and the main feedback will be jokes about how "it's about time!" or whatever. Way to go, morons!

Tess @ Jul 17th 2008 10:55AM

Exactly. It seems like Bungie was working hard to create an exciting build up and announcement and Microsoft pulled the rug out. The whole thing is just.... weird.

7th Columnist @ Jul 17th 2008 10:42AM

But isn't this just the reason why Halo was left out of the Conference? Not the reason why Bungie's announcement on Wednesday never went ahead. That's the real mystery as that had nothing to do with 'trimming' the run time of Msoft's presentation.

RangerPrimeX @ Jul 17th 2008 10:43AM

Downside of no longer being 1st Party. Plus I bet it is further out than people think and for the most part MS is all about this year at their press conference.

Whingnut @ Jul 17th 2008 10:55AM

Here's the thing...the relationship between MS and Squenix has always been a tenuous one, at best. MS could not have done anything to upstage the FFXIII announcement for fear of offending them and having them pull out. In order to guarantee FFXIII for the 360, that announcement had to be the single, biggest one made. Granted, many, if not most, Halo fans could give a rip about an RPG - rocket propelled grenade maybe, role-playing game not so much. But the overall importance of pulling away yet one more traditionally Sony exclusive - especially one of this magnitude - was immeasurable. This is what's going to sell 360's in Asia - not Halo.

SadisticHam @ Jul 17th 2008 11:05AM

Except FF isn't coming out in Japan for the 360. So your entire point is a bit of a flop.

Arnon @ Jul 17th 2008 5:08PM

Lol it's not the fact that it's not coming out in Japan.. it's the fact that Microsoft is saying that RPGs play just as well on their console as any other.

ZombiesRPplsToo @ Jul 17th 2008 5:17PM

im so glad i got to see lips instead of a new Halo game

wtf microsoft

Maverick Saturn @ Jul 17th 2008 11:09AM

Cut the crap Bungie and give us some news already.

geekinabox @ Jul 17th 2008 11:14AM

Add me to the Mattick-is-naughty-list. I'm going to vocally show him my displeasure by not buying a XBLA for the next 7 days. Take that.

On the 'dedicated event' front, Bungie has been dropping a lot of vague hints in their updates that August's Penny Arcade Expo will be good thing for Bungie fans. So there's the chance that PAX could now be that event. But maybe not, since I think Bungie thought that E3 would already be their unveiling and PAX would be a followup (gameplay or trailer perhaps?).

To be honest, after this BS by Mattick I won't count on a damn thing.

Ejab @ Jul 17th 2008 11:17AM

That special event is X08

Scott @ Jul 17th 2008 11:30AM

MS canceled the X07 event last year and I can't find anything about an X08 event for this year.

That leaves the following upcoming conferences:
Leipzig
PAX
E4All
Tokyo Game Show

Ejab @ Jul 17th 2008 1:19PM

They will announce it soon, Ms hasnt gone more than 2 years without an x0 conference.

horngreen @ Jul 17th 2008 11:18AM

They're going to build this up too much and it will be some lame ass XBLA game that will come and go like that other Bungie XBLA game Marathon Whatnot? Now if it is Halo 1 online I'm all over it. Other than that I can't imagine what it will be.

Eric Oltersdorf @ Jul 17th 2008 11:27AM

I thought Whingnut's comment about Square Enix was interesting. I hadn't considered that angle. I studied Japanese in college and they are all about saving face and not being embarrassed. The Xbox's numbers in Japan are minuscule compared to other platforms and Square Enix is taking a risk to port their game over. That they would is a huge victory for Microsoft and a potential lever to crack the Japanese market. If I was Microsoft I'd make FFXIII the centerpiece of my press conference as well.
BUT
To let Bungie start building up to a big reveal and then yank the plug at the last minute indicates,to me, miscommunication on a massive scale between Bungie and Microsoft. These types of contingencies are talked about beforehand not decided unilaterally right before.

Bottom line, for all their boasting of being an newly independent company Bungie just got very publicly teabagged by Microsoft and that sucks.

joey @ Jul 17th 2008 12:52PM

I'll bet it's Halo Uno for the casual market.

and a Halo anime turn based strategy game for the Japanese market.

Andrew @ Jul 17th 2008 1:08PM

As someone who works in PR, here's my take on the whole thing....

This year's press conference was all about Microsoft convincing the press that they're moving forward and expanding, and that Sony and Nintendo don't have anything on them.

You think you need a PS3 to get a home entertainment media system with hi def options? Check out netflix and my new content partnership with NBC/Uni.

You think you need a wii for a family friendly system with casual games? Look at my avatars, my new friendly looking interface, and check out these new casual games too.

You think you need a PS3 to play Sony flagship exclusives? Well check this out....

Again, the message out of this press conference was that Microsoft moving forward and expanding. A new Halo game would have been viewed as more of the same and would have contradicted this carefully crafted message.

So I think they were right to exclude Bungie/Halo from the presser, but they f'd up their internal relations with Bungie and turned their exclusion into a public snub. Now they risk having the bungie story overshadow, or at least take some attention away from their major announcements.

Additionally, and I'm not sure about this, with Bungie being independent now they could choose to snub Microsoft right back by working with another console for one of their new IPs.

Just my thoughts....

Ejab @ Jul 17th 2008 1:45PM

They cant "Snub" MS they have a exclusivity contract for the rest of this gen.

Andrew @ Jul 17th 2008 1:46PM

my bad. That's the part I wasn't sure of.

Etchasketchist @ Jul 17th 2008 2:29PM

Here's the disaster part:

They should've come up with this carefully crafted message weeks ago and told Bungie to put a kibosh on the whole website teaser thing. That's the fuck-up.

Arnon @ Jul 17th 2008 5:10PM

I honestly think they pulled it due to the fact they already knew they were going to make the crowd explode with new stuff..

Adding Halo probably would've set off a nulcear war of some sort. O_o

Etchasketchist @ Jul 17th 2008 1:50PM

So somebody was looking at all the games they could announce in the time they had and was like, "Hmm. You're In the Movies, or Halo? You're In The Movies, or Halo?" and they decide, "yup, sorry Halo, we're going with You're In the Movies!".

That person should be fired. And we should get a picture of that person so we can make derisive photoshop jobbies.

Dwag @ Jul 17th 2008 2:59PM

I'm hoping its a Halo gamer's day event with Chronicles,Wars and this new Halo all being shown.
I hope Bungie's Halo has up to 32 players.

Jonah Falcon @ Jul 17th 2008 6:05PM

WELCOME TO CORPORATE AMERICA.

This happens *all* *the* *time* in business. All the time.

GuiltyDragon @ Jul 18th 2008 6:39AM

My money is on PAX. Bungie and PA have worked together on stuff before. Remember when Halo 3 was the final challange on the Omeganaughts before the game was released?

Yug Drater @ Jul 19th 2008 1:46AM

Bungie has saved Microsoft's ass sooo many times in the console wars. I myself decided to buy an Xbox over a PS2 simply because I played the original Halo for 5 minutes at a Toys-R-Us. Halo 2 got people interested in Xbox Live...until Halo 2 there was jack and shit to play on Xbox Live, and only now are other developers catching on to the simple yet often underused party system, matchmaking, etc. that Bungie implemented. And with Halo 3 Microsoft was able to get people to buy 360s, sign up for gold Live memberships...and what thanks does Bungie get? "Thanks, BUT we'd rather talk about a bunch of fucking dumb ass avatars that we ripped off from Nintendo, and a god damn karaoke game that no one gives a shit about." Seriously, if I want to sing a fucking song in a game, I'll do it during Rock Band. You know what they say, hot dogs are made out of two things "LIPS and assholes."