albinogoron

Just a guess. i honestly think the game was originally to plan on releasing on May 5th but it received a delay a few weeks back. Probably was a communication error.

Reasoning for this is that the trailer that they uploaded originally said Available Now, which was a mistake and it was replaced. As well, a Mouse pad was released today to celebrate H2A PC release.

Link to Mousepad: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/halo-2-anniversary-mousepad/8w3whql533vp

The game was actually never going to release today - it was always May 12. Sorry folks got jebaited somewhat - I don't disagree that Twitter interaction was a little misleading (esp given that we did release HCEA out of the blue with little notice, so I don't blame folks for thinking that was the case again). As soon as I saw the tweets I knew what the outcome expectation would be (and I tried to course correct this AM). And that trailer wasn't actually meant to be published today - that trailer is for launch on 5/12. There was a brief issue where it went live on the Steam page, I believe it was rectified.

You called for me?

BlueBuilder117

Just wanted to add this to my post: Page by page, I got the same feeling of awe and wonder as I did when I first stepped onto Halo and looked up at the ring above me. The same wonderful excitement when exploring Requiem for the first time in Halo 4, and the floating Forerunner buildings shine eerily in the horizon.

You will fall in love with the attention to detail this series has. Step into life on Halo and explore what long days and longer nights feel like when the sun casts it's shadow differently on a ring, instead of a sphere shaped planet. Answer your biggest questions like what happened to the Forerunners, where did the Flood come from, what happened in the first Human Covenant war, and why they built the Halos and Shield Worlds! I thought I knew the answers from the games... but we only were told the tip of the iceberg. Dive into the deep turmoil that the key players had when these events unfolded. You'll soon appreciate that the "bad guys" were not always so bad, and the good guys aren't exactly all that good.

I'm only on the last few chapters of book TWO, but already this trilogy has changed my ENTIRE view of Halo. The battles here are incredible- you won't begin to imagine what happens with the Halo rings- it's insane if you try and picture what's going on at this galactic scale. I loved Halo before as an avid fan, but this series has skyrocketed my appreciation into a whole nother realm. After reading this I'm going to replay Halo 4 and 5 with new appreciation.

Stoked you are enjoying the ride! <3

Amazing!

chipsnapper

You can actually see /u/ske7ch343 standing behind Jones at 1:00.

wow, this takes me waaaay back. not sure of this exact date but i was surely pretty new to the team. really striking how small this team was (and just really puts into perspective how much a small team was able to accomplish). and jason's pure creative drive, unwavering commitment to only do the best at anything, and reluctance to 'lead' in a corporate sense made him that much more authentic and inspiring

ShadowBlue42

do you have to submit your content to be chosen for the spotlight or does someone at 343 just find them while browsing and getting picked is a surprise?

We encourage people to use #HaloSpotlight on Instagram & Twitter, but we'll share anything we find that's awesome :)

Halo Tutor is a legend. He's been around for a while and has consistently been a positive force in the community.

thothpethific92

I actually think 343 should host some type of annual meeting for the biggest halo youtubers or streamers or whatever. I just feel like a lot of those guys have a little bit more of an understanding of what fans want, as opposed to 343, as they interact with their audience on a regular basis. I mean, Act Man and HiddenXperia (and probably some others) both are constantly on top of Halo news on multiple platforms for disseminate, theorize, analyze and discuss with us.

I'm not as deep into 343 news as some other people, but I never hear about how they host a type of forum to have a real discussion with hardcore fans to get "street level" opinions about the biggest successes and failures of the IP. Idk, probably not gunna happen but it's clear Halo 4 and Halo 5 let a lot of people down. Especially using other media sources to dull out critical plot points (Like the fucking Didact).

We do have some various groups we tap into officially and unofficially. Sometimes they come to the studio, sometimes we reach out to them. We have flighting programs, we also have all sorts of surveys and marketing studies and user research programs. And our community team (and much of the studio) is comprised of fans. So, I feel pretty dang confident I/we know what "fans want." They want a lot of things. :) Sometimes the same things, often times very different things. We/community team in particular take our responsibility to represent our community and their needs and opportunities very seriously. Advocating for players is a huge part of our jobs. It's not always easy and there's generally healthy tension in both directions (which is how it also was back in my OG days at Bungie though honestly, at Bungie we did less overt work to try and listen/gather that feedback than is the norm today).

That was fun to watch, thanks! And oof that picture of me... I vividly remember that. Spike Game Awards. Red carpet. Pretty cringey but we just said hell with it and went all in. Then we heard about an after party at an LA club but naturally we weren't invited. Marty made plays and we had a limo pick us up from the Spike venue and just drive right up to the VIP/limo drop off line at this party and just got out and walked up like we owned the place (well, Marty did as I recall, I just followed his lead). We got inside and I remember Marty being pretty disappointed - it wasn't his scene. I was loving it ;) the whole upstairs of this club was blocked off with large bouncers and then I saw a who's who of rappers up there. Snoop, Ludacris, Little John, and others evidently got the whole upstairs blocked off so they could smoke blunts. A huge heavy smoke hung over the whole club. This was like many years before 'legalization' was remotely a thing. Things got.. fuzzy after that, but it's one...