10th January 2010 - In a bold move, Halo developers Bungie may just be looking to have their next project be an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) of some sort. Of course, this would come after the much anticipated Halo: Reach, due to be released later this year.
As the Developers who arguably revolutionized the FPS genre back with their 1994 Mac release Marathon, and again with the Xbox launch title Halo, which has become the benchmark for current gen shooters and an entirely unique entertainment monster with books, toys and even a movie in the works, an MMO would surely be a leap in the other direction, for good or bad.
The rumours are swirling after Bungie posted on job seeking website Gamasutra, looking for a Player Investment Design Lead. Sure, this doesn’t look suspicious at first glance, but when you take a closer look at the descriptions for these jobs, you can't help to wonder just what kind of game Bungie are cooking up.
The Player Investment Design Lead position requires someone who can develop the tools ‘to drive in-game player reward and incentives’, make players feel they have ‘invested in the world and their character’, who have ‘Experience with online incentives (achievements, rewards, economic, etc) and a passion for understanding what drives player behaviour within them.’ and to top it off ‘Experience with many modes of online play’. If that doesn’t sound like an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) , I don’t know what does.
You can find the job listing here.
But this could all be a simple rumour swirling from hope of a Halo RPG of some sort that we have all had since the original rocked the world back in 2001, and leave us disappointed when Bungie announce something not so jaw-droopingly awesome. But whatever they have up their sleaves, Bungie is surely the team that will make it work. Lets cross our fingers and hope for some juicy news come this years E3 Expo.
Article By John Elliott