Halo: Reach is one of the most anticipated games of 2010, and developer Bungie is fully aware of this. With three million people expected to take part in the beta program, Bungie community director Brian Jarrard knows that the game will need an appropriately epic marketing campaign.
“We're very optimistic,” said Jarrard to the Seattle Times [thanks Gamasutra]. “We have a lot riding on this game and we have high expectations for it. I think you can expect to see a lot more grandiose marketing efforts; things will be at a much higher scale than they were for ODST."
“There are a lot of great games coming out this fall, a lot of shooters in particular. I think we definitely benefit from having a really huge built-in audience. We have a huge, high-level, pop-culture awareness that a lot of other games don't. The 360 has a much bigger install base than we had back in the Halo 3 era, so a lot of things are working in our favor,” he continued. “We certainly feel Reach will be the best Halo game that Bungie's ever made, and I think Microsoft's going to bet really big behind it. This is what Microsoft does really well — big, huge entertainment launches. You're going to see that happen again for Reach."
When asked if this was the final Halo game, Jarrad once again made it pretty clear that Bungie next project won't be a Halo game: “Certainly the goal is to make the definitive Halo experience. For all intents and purposes we probably won't revisit the Halo universe again as a company. Our next game is definitely not Halo; it's something totally new. That being the case, we want to pull out all the stops. We can draw on a decade's worth of experience, refining and crafting all the things that made Halo successful. The ideal goal is we carry all the best parts forward, add even better new things like armor abilities and new nuances, and hopefully that all amounts to the best Halo game we've ever made and the lasting mark in the franchise.”
IndustryGamers also met with Jarrard back at GDC. You can read that interview here.
1 Comments
April 20, 2010
This game has alot to live up to but I have no doubt Bungie will deliver yet again. And since they will be done with Halo after this, 343 Studios should look into getting the newly formed Respawn to make the next Halo game. I mean, a Halo game made by the developers who fine crafted the digital masterpieces that were COD4: Modern Warfare and MW2? Sign me up please.