Four games in Microsoft's flagship series revealed, two dated.
Possibly one of the worst held secrets of the year, Microsoft Game Studios officially revealed Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary at this afternoon's E3 press conference. Few details were revealed during the conference itself, being announced simply as a fully remastered version of 2001's Xbox launch title of the same name complete with online cooperative play. Members at NeoGAF have since identified the studios behind the title as Saber Interactive and Certain Affinity. The game seems to be running on the same engine as 2010's Halo title, Halo: Reach, but using the gameplay and physics systems found in the original Halo: Combat Evolved. Some posters have also claimed that Halo Anniversary won't have its own multiplayer component, instead following in the footsteps of Halo 3: ODST and being an extension of Halo: Reach's multiplayer, complete with new (old) maps. Whether the maps can be exported for a nominal fee or not isn't clear at present. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is scheduled for release on November 15th, 2011, exactly ten years after the original release. MSRP, according to Siliconera, is $39.99.
Microsoft also announced today the start of a new Halo trilogy. The first game from this trilogy, presumably under development at 343 Industries, is simply titled Halo 4. A brief clip shown at the end of the conference was all Microsoft was willing to share, however the game has a tenative release window of Fall 2012.
