Halo 5: Guardians released in October 2015 and while 343 Industries’ long-awaited sequel Halo Infinite was only revealed last year, it feels like it’s been in development for much longer. There’s good reason for that though. Along with reports of it heading to next gen Xbox consoles, significant work has been done on the franchise’s infrastructure as per Kiki Wolfkill, 343 Industries’ head of transmedia and entertainment.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Wolfkill said, “Part of why there’s been that span of time between Halo 5 and Infinite is the retooling of the infrastructure to give us the flexibility to do whatever we wanted with that game. But it’s also about setting off the next generation of Halo. We want people to be able to come into Halo Infinite who may not have played any other Halo game before.”
Wolfkill’s role and overall goal with the transmedia properties is, in her words- “How do we start to engage new audiences and bring people into the universe so that when Infinite comes out, maybe people who haven’t played before are interested in playing.”
Wolfkill goes into more detail on the successes and shortcomings that Halo 5: Guardians had with its transmedia, particularly the Hunt the Truth audio drama podcast and live-action Halo: Nightfall series. How Halo Infinite will leverage this remains to be seen but it should certainly be interesting, especially since it’s considered a “spiritual reboot” for the franchise.
Stay tuned for potential information on Halo Infinite at Microsoft’s E3 2019 presser on June 9th, 1:30 PM PT. Other titles rumoured to appear include Cyberpunk 2077, Fable 4, and FromSoftware’s next title developed with Games of Thrones author George R.R. Martin.
