Halo Games for Younger Audience Not Ruled Out, Microsoft Teases

Over the past week, there has been a lot of discussion about Halo games for a younger audience after a Halo Mega Bolks game leaked. Now, Halo developer 343 Industries has teased that, in the wake of the positive feedback to the awesome-looking Mega Bloks game, a Halo game of that type--or something along those lines--could possibly actually happen someday.

"Who knows, with so much positive support and feedback coming to light, we may yet see Halo experiences along these lines at some point in the future," 343's community manager said in the developer's latest weekly blog post.

After footage of the Halo Mega Bloks game leaked last weekend, 343 boss Bonnie Ross confirmed the project was in development for Xbox 360 "several years ago." Ross, like the 343 community manager, teased that the studio continues to explore new Halo games.

Last year, Ross revealed that 343 is receiving requests to make Halo games that appeal to a younger audience.

In other Halo news, 343 confirmed in its weekly blog post that this weekend's Warzone Mythic Firefight playlist is being held on the Raid on Apex 7 map. The playlist, which pays out extra RP, runs January 13-15.

Further, 343 outlined some changes coming to Halo 5 multiplayer in the area of the amount of RP and XP that pays out, while Arena boost Req cards are getting a boost to effectiveness.

"Last week, the RP payouts for the weekend Mythic WZ Firefight playlist were increased but after further evaluation and feedback the team is going to turn the dial even further, resulting in an even higher payout in exchange for the tough challenge players will face," 343 said. "Additionally, Legendary Warzone Firefight RP payouts are also being bumped up slightly. The Warzone team will continue to monitor data and player feedback going forward."

Additionally, you will earn more XP in the Infection playlist--this is part of a test across the entire game.

"Consider this a real-world test case scenario and let us know what your experiences are like as you earn bonus XP playing Infection,"343 said. "As with Warzone, the team will be monitoring this closely to see what impact this has and what player feedback is to help set some parameters for potential future adjustments."

Concerning the Req cards, the amount of RP and XP that gets rewarded is being "cranked up" for all of Arena. In most cases, the rewards are doubled--though some are less than double and others are more than double.

Finally, 343 said it has heard your feedback about the six-person limit to Warzone matches that was implemented last year and is working on adding a 12-person Warzone playlist to accommodate players who want to play in larger groups.

"We had every intention of releasing this test playlist prior to the winter break but unfortunately a few bugs surfaced that forced the team to delay release," 343 said. "That work is still ongoing and right now it sounds like we're potentially still a few weeks away from it getting released. Once released we anticipate that this test playlist will likely experience longer match times due to the 12-person requirement but we're still eager to explore this idea and see how it meets the needs of players.

"We know this is a hot topic for a chunk of our community so please know that the team is working on it and we thank you for your patience and understanding."

Read the full blog post here.