Microsoft’s Halo: Nightfall, a five episode live-action television mini-series which bridges the gap between Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians, will be releasing in collection format in North America and Europe this March. You’ll be able to purchase the same on DVD and Blu-ray on March 17th and all the episodes have been cut together as a single feature film.

Produced by Ridley Scott, Halo: Nightfall originally aired when it launched with Halo: The Master Chief Collection. It was later available for all Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles through November and December. Microsoft has also revealed that Nightfall will be available on digital channels in the coming days.

Halo: Nightfall is perhaps most famous for offering a peek at Jameson Locke who will play a primary role in Halo 5: Guardians. Locke is an ONI agent who will be on the hunt for Master Chief, who has seemingly vanished following the events of Halo 4.

If you’re a Halo fan, you’re in for some good days ahead. Not only is the Master Chief Collection, which includes all four numbered Halo games on one disc, alongside a lovingly crafted Halo 2 Anniversary, releasing soon, alongside our first glimpses of Halo: Nightfall and Halo 5: Guardians. And now, there’s more- HaloFest 2014 has been confirmed, which will see Microsoft and 343 Industries broadcast special sneak peeks, interviews and exclusive gameplay to the world on Xbox Live, Xbox.com and Twitch – including the first look at the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta and the world premiere of the first episode of Halo: Nightfall.

In addition to those two headlining events, fans can also look forward to special interviews with 343 Industries that talk about the past, present and future of the Halo universe, and look forward to the global Halo Tournament, which will see the 32 biggest names in competitive shooter gaming go toe to toe in the Master Chief Collection.

For more news, stay tuned.

With Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Halo 5: Guardians looming ever closer and being available only on Xbox One, they are starting to fire up the engines on the hype train. What better way to get that leviathan rolling than to show off the upcoming Halo Nightfall live action series!

Franchise Director Frank O’Connor and the executive producer David Zucker alongside actors Mike Colter and Christina Chong take to the camera once more to give you a breif behind the scenes look at the upcoming series which according to Frank O’Connor is “an action drama, its a story about heroes and the good and the bad side of heroism”

Being a fan of the Halo series, you can imagine my excitment when part of the series was being filmed in my home city. The series seems to have a much darker tone and feel than that of Forward Unto Dawn, the series last foray into live action.

Master Chief is synonymous with Halo. He’s basically a mascot. One of the faces of gaming, and certainly synonymous with Xbox. The Halo games that have not starred Master Chief have done noticeably worse than the ones that have (which are the ones that set records). Fans love the guy.

So it’s slightly surprising that new news suggests that Master Chief may not be the main character in the upcoming, highly anticipated fifth numbered installment in the Halo franchise, Halo 5: Guardian. This news comes to us from the X-One magazine, who recently interviewed the actor who will be playing Agent Locke in Halo: Nightfall, and then again in Halo 5: Guardians.

“I’m a playable character in Halo 5. Once Halo: The Master Chief Collection is released, and then Halo 5 comes out shortly thereafter, you’re basically going to be playing a game with me as the primary character,” he said.

Common sense would dictate that he can’t be the only playable character- most likely Halo 5 will alternate between him and Master Chief (it wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened). In that case it might be interesting to play both the characters. Especially given the tension between the two of them that he further goes on and hints at:

“What’s not known, is whether I’m a friend or a foe. The relationship between Master Chief and Jameson Locke is going to be interesting,” he said. “Because what’s the outcome? Is he dead or alive? Because that’s usually what a manhunt comes down to, dead or alive, but you won’t know what the purpose of finding Master Chief is right away.”

“Or what will happen if we do find him, what condition he will be in, and where he’s at mentally. But I’m sure that will be a plot twist in Halo 5.”

Well, Master Chief has usually never come out on the wrong end of a fight, so I’m gonna assume he comes out alive. Which probably means Locke dies. Either that, or him and Master Chief join forces.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more gaming news.

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Halo: Nightfall, the five episode miniseries set in the Halo universe, will have Ridley Scott involved with it somehow. This was one of the first things we learned about the project, but of course, we were never told exactly what the extent of his involvement in the series would be. I mean, sure, Scott’s name being attached to the project looks good, but I’d rather that it be more than Kojima’s ‘involvement’ with the original Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, for example.

Well, it sounds like his contributions came mostly to the story of the series.

“He’s there when we’re building the story, he’s there when we’re breaking the script, he’s there when we’re picking locations, he helps with casting,” Halo franchise boss Frank O’Connor told Eurogamer. “I don’t want to get into this but he has strong opinions about things – most directors do.

“[Nightfall] is our director Sergio Mimica-Gezzan’s vision but Ridley carries a big stake and gets input on things. I’m not going to pretend [Scott’s] footprints and fingerprints are all over it but it’s a small organisation with a lot of collaborative creatives.

“One of [Scott’s] ideas of where we could film it completely changed one aspect of the story which I won’t go into,” O’Connor concluded. “It sounds a bit weird but he’s a huge fan of the environments in terms of how they help tell stories.

“His thoughts on where to film it to make it look alien – and he had a great experience with the last Alien movie in Iceland – actually affected the story quite dramatically.”

So there you have it. It doesn’t sound like this is his project, but it does sound like he has quite a bit of input over it all.

Halo: Nightfall will be available with The Halo: Master Chief Collection when it ships out for the Xbox One later this year.

The Xbox Entertainment division may be gone but Microsoft is still pushing its live-action Halo content hard. This can be seen in the upcoming Halo: Nightfall series directed by Ridley Scott, which will debut with the release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and Steven Spielberg’s Halo: The TV Series. Executive producer Kiki Wolfkill – who arguably has the coolest name in the industry – also revealed in a profile on Microsoft’s site that she wants to transform how people experience the game.

“Our next step is to try and make the connections between the game and its linear entertainment aspects even more experiential. I want to transform how people experience Halo in their living rooms and on their PCs.

“We will never do anything that doesn’t move the [Halo] universe forward. We won’t do something for the sake of being in a certain medium.”

We’ll see how that pans out when Nightfall comes out. What are your thoughts on more Halo entertainment? Let us know below.

Xbox Entertainment may be dead but we’ll still be seeing some original TV shows in the coming months, one of them being Halo: Nightfall, an original series developed by Ridley Scott and set to premier on Showtime along with Xbox One. Check out the first look at the series in the video above.

Like many Ridley Scott sci-fi adventures, Halo: Nightfall concerns a strike team investigating a biological attack which eventually leads to an artifact. It sees Jameson Locke, an agent with the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), trying to figure out just what’s happening and deciding whether the mission or staying alive is more important. The series is set between Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians, effectively setting up the plot for the fifth game.

Halo: Nightfall will release this November alongside Halo: The Master Chief Collection and will see a new episode each week. What are your thoughts based on the first look trailer? Let us know below.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection will include tons of content along with the original games. You’ll have access to Halo 5: Guardians’ multiplayer beta along with Ridley Scott’s live-action feature Halo: Nightfall. The latter will be especially interesting since it will tell the story of Agent Locke, the second Spartan featured in Halo 5.

343 Industries’ general manager and studio head Bonnie Ross told Polygon that, “We’re using Halo Nightfall to basically tell his backstory and tell his origin story. You don’t have to watch this, but knowing this will kind of tee you up for all the new things that are going on in Halo 5: Guardians.”

“The goal there is to drop you right off at the doorstep of Halo 5: Guardians.”

Halo 5: Guardians will be releasing in 2015 while Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be releasing on November 11th for the Xbox One. What are your thoughts on Nightfall? Let us know in the comments.

Though we knew that 343 Industries and Microsoft would bring about some HD remake of previous Halo games for the Xbox One, we didn’t quite expect Halo: The Master Chief Collection and the ridiculous amount of content it would contain. On top of everything else, it will also contain multiplayer beta access for Halo 5: Guardians and according to Halo Waypoint, there will be plenty of rewards for those who experience The Master Chief Collection and Nightfall as well.

The site states: “Gear up for the Guardians beta by unlocking exclusive content in The Master Chief Collection and Halo: Nightfall. These exclusive items will carry over into Halo 5: Guardians.”

There are plenty of extra conditions though. For example, Halo: Nightfall will have one episode release per week so you’ll need to keep track of it. It also seems that the Halo 5: Guardians beta will begin on December 27th 2014 and conclude on January 22nd 2015.

Still, it’s a great way to reward players who savour every bit of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which is out on November 11th for Xbox One.