Halo 5 release tipped for November 2015, "beta" this winter
One massive amount of insider knowledge on the Xbox One – and Halo specifically – has been dropped over the past several hours, some of it involving hardware, some of it coming in on the software side of things. What we're going to do here is break it all down as simple as possible, and what you're going to need to do is take it all with a grain of salt. The source does appear legitimate, but there's always the chance of a break in the chain of trust.
What we're seeing here is some information from an insider with the NeoGaf forum name ntkrnl who has been cleared for sharing by the NeoGaf forum moderators. What this means is that he (or she) has provided information that has lead them to believe they're legitimate. According to mod Stumpokapow, this is how it works:
"We don't need your full name and identity or anything, just a sort of brief summary about whether you're speaking first-hand or second-hand, and what your work position is such that you'd have this information. I'll also note that if stuff turns out to be totally wrong and it becomes clear you made it up–there's a difference between this and information changing, which is totally normal–obviously your account will be forfeit."
In the end, it's not the worst thing in the world to have your account forfeit in a forum – any forum – if you've just signed on for the first time this week, which the user has. But assuming for a moment everything ntkrnl is sharing is legitimate – and NeoGaf certainly thinks it is – we're looking at one of the largest leaks in video game history – continuing here today well beyond this single article.
Halo
Several new Halo games and media experiences will be released this year and next. "All in the span of one year", meaning starting this year and going in to the next, you'll see all of the following titles, according to this one source:
• Halo 2 Anniversary Edition (aka Halo 2 HD) (for Xbox One) 11.11.2014
• Halo 3 Port (to Xbox One)*
• Halo 4 Port (to Xbox One)*
• Halo 5 – within a year of Halo 2 HD
• 2x live action video series
Halo 2 HD Anniversary Edition, that is, is said to be coming November 11th, 2014, with what ntkrnl suggests is "ALL SORTS OF ****" coming with it. It's suggested that this Halo 2 Anniversary Edition will be appearing with Halo 5 Beta Access.
Halo 2 Anniversary Edition will be appearing with 1080p support for the Xbox One, it's suggested, while 60fps support is more on the "iffy" side of things for now. The same developers that handled Halo Anniversary's first multiplayer integration will be working on multiplayer for Halo 2 Anniversary Edition as well.
Two versions of Halo 2 Anniversary Edition will be made available, one of them called "Collectors Edition", the other called "War Collection".
• Halo 2 Anniversary Edition Collectors Edition: including Halo series (non-Blomkamp) with Beta Halo 5 access
• Halo 2 Anniversary Edition: including all Anniversary Edition features as well as ports of Halo 3 and Halo 4
Sound reasonable to you? This is all for the Xbox One, too, if that wasn't clear. More data is coming later today as well – here we're just separating out the bits that have to do with Halo first so we can offer up a more controlled, manageable set of articles.
Have a look at the search portal ntkrnl for the rest of this stuff through the night – and the week, and maybe the foreseeable future, too.