Halo 5: Guardians announced for Xbox One

Happy Friday to one and all. It's a big one for OXM, as it's Log's last day in the office before he runs away to Nottingham to run a pub. Sad times, for those left behind by him here in London at least. On a cheerier note though, here's an extra tasty morsel of news: the next Halo game has officially been announced as Halo 5: Guardians.

"Any time you transition to a new platform, there is the opportunity to look at things with a new perspective," wrote 343's GM Bonnie Ross in a post over on Xbox Wire. "For us at 343 Industries, the launch of the Xbox One was an opportunity to think about what stories we wanted to tell, how to tell them, and how best to push the Halo franchise to showcase the platform. And maybe, most importantly, combining our passion for Halo with the vocal and informative input from our fans.

"Halo isn't simply a perennial game franchise, it's a part of the Xbox platform itself," she continued. "In terms of innovation and ideation, it's sometimes important to people who might not even play Halo. In the past, Halo games have pushed the Xbox forward, showcasing the console and its ecosystem in entertaining and innovative ways. Making a Halo game that runs at 60 frames per second, on dedicated servers, with the scope, features and scale we've been dreaming of for more than a decade, is non-trivial. It's a task that we, at 343 Industries, are taking very seriously to ensure we deliver the Halo game that fans deserve, and a game that is built from the ground up for Xbox One.

"I'm happy to reveal that Halo 5: Guardians, the next installment in the legendary saga of the Master Chief, will launch on Xbox One in fall of 2015. In the tradition of every Halo game since its debut in 2001, it is a massive and exciting project."

Ross promised to give further details on the game, and the Halo TV series tie-in, at the Xbox E3 Media Briefing next month in LA, but she did say that Halo 5: Guardians was "a bigger effort than Halo 4. That applies to the content and scope of the game, as well as the technology in what's now a brand new and more powerful engine. Certainly there are some core elements carried over from prior games, but we've invested a huge effort in retooling our tech to take full advantage of the Xbox One's hardware and ecosystem to create worlds and experiences worthy of next-gen."

2015 is a bit of a way off though, so to keep us on our toes, 343 also hinted at more, "extra special" Halo news coming at E3 this year. It said that the new Halo franchise endeavors are a "journey," and that that journey begins in 2014. Intriguing...