Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft Game Studios, told GameSpot that the next iteration of Halo

will be a “legitimate” version in the series. The Xbox One game will not be part of the Reclaimer Trilogy. Instead, it is now “more of a saga.”

"It is the next Halo game that we are working on. We will talk more about actually the story arc in the game and how it plays out; we've got more time to talk about that," Spencer told GameSpot.

"But having [producer Bonnie Ross] come out and announce the game, making sure people know it's a legitimate version of Halo coming out, and when it's coming out, and features that they're focused on we thought was…important."

The Halo Reclaimer Trilogy started with 343i’sHalo 4. The trilogy was originally going to continue with Halo 5 and Halo 6. It looks like that trilogy has now turned into a saga.

"While we originally said trilogy, we've actually expanded this to more of a saga, so we don't want to limit the Reclaimer story within a trilogy."

Spencer won’t confirm whether the next-gen Halo game is Halo 5 or a separate entry to the series.

Halo's next-gen debut for the Xbox One is expected to release in 2014.

Article from Gamespot

I wonder if they're going to continue with the story of master Chief or expand the games to encompass more of the halo universe. Either way it seems they plan on making Halo as long as it keeps selling for them.

So instead of limiting the story arc to 3 games, they are going to keep making Halo games. Well no surprise there.

I don't really know what that means. I know it means they're going to make more Halo games by stretching out the story somehow, but I still don't understand how that works. Are they just making games in between that aren't directly tied into story that began in 4?

If they keep making them, i will keep buying them.

Halo Wars 2 PC please

@brendan:

It seems like that's the case. I'm pretty confused by the whole thing, too. Hopefully they aren't jumping around with time like it's a Tarantino movie.

That trailer at E3 showed Master Chief with the chip Cortana was on and a giant ass promethian thing. It would be really weird if this wasn't called Halo 5 and then for them make a game called Halo 5 later. I think this just means they want to make more than 2 more games.

I always thought it was obnoxious to announce it as a trilogy right off the bat, because announcing something as a series makes every entry feel slightly less significant. Designers should be focused on making the best possible game they can at any one point, and if you're just worried about creating one solid entry in a series then you will be inevitably distracted by that. That's why I like the story about The Dark Knight, how Nolan originally envisioned using Two-Face for the third movie, but decided there was no point in waiting, and just put him in anyways. It may have led to a weaker 3rd movie, but that second movie turned out incredible because he didn't hold anything back.

I got off topic I think. Anyways what I'm trying to say is that your vision for the franchise should always be considered secondary to the current game you're trying to make, and I hope that this announcement facilitates that a little better.

The intro to Halo 4 was really interesting to me. It made me feel like there would be some sort of backlash against Spartans, maybe MC will have to fight some humans during this saga.

No complaints from me. More good sci fi is never a bad thing as far as I am concerned!

i mean,

the trailer does contain master chief, prettyyyyy safe that next years halo will continue chief's story and that its the fifth game

but after halo 5, thats when the spinoffs will go into effect, as they dont wanna rush into the endgame and wrap things up

regardless im actually kind of glad its more of a saga now, considering 4 did a piss poor job of setting up the bigger story. actually renewed my interest a bit after saying fuck this after 4.

makes me wonder though, do they not have much else in 1st party development/exclusives that they are gonna pump more halo games out? hope they are meaningful and not just fps, keep the mainline important halos fps, a third person forerunner game could be interesting. theres interesting fiction behind the fall of the forerunners.

"Oh shit, having a trilogy where only the last two are on a new console is kinda weird! ABORT!"

Cool. I like Halo and if the new one is set in a desert planet, I'm very down with that.

I'm torn: Halo 4 was a great balance of difficulty and gameplay but the new weapons were redundant and the story was artificial and forced.

I SURE WAS SHOCKED.

Also this. I enjoy the hell out of the Halo series so this is a good thing. Unless they all suck, in which case I'M OUTRAGED.

Almost as weird as the last game in a trilogy being on a new system....oh wait...

Hopefully it won't be as uninspired and poorly told as Halo 4's story. That thing just had some annoyingly easy to avoid problems that plauged the crap out of it(Didact).

At this point I'd rather see a "pirate version" of the next Halo instead of the next "legitimate version".

As a man who LOVES Halo, quotes like this worry me deeply.

It looks like a full halo game, but everyone is one confused since they wont give it a name.

As much as Halo 4 disappointed the crap out of me with it's story (everything but Cortana struggling with rampancy was DUMB), I still really like the idea of fighting giant robot things on a desert planet.

So by "saga," we're talking about a Final Fantasy-esque thing here. Halo 13:2?

Whatever, I bet Master Chief will still be fighting the same old Covenant enemy types and a couple of lame-ass new enemy types.

I'm ready to be done with Halo.

Next Halo game is a Halo game and you ought not bother being invested in the fiction. The more invested in the fiction you are, the more of your money will be extracted over the next several years.

It's weird that he felt the need to reassure people that the next game is a "legitimate version" of Halo. What's that even supposed to mean?

oh for fucks sake....

well, it being more of a saga is a good thing i guess, since for what was initially a trilogy, they fucked up big time setting up for a trilogy with halo 4.

i was a gigantic fan of the halo series, i was part of the problem in buying a console for halo 3, but after 4, i just cant be bothered. maybe what they show at e3 will change my mind......

It seemed a little weird to me that they said Halo 4 was part of a trilogy when I first played it, since it came off as a self-contained story.

Well I guess it had a lot to do with how they stuck the landing with the ending by not ending the game with a massive, abrupt cliff-hanger while still leaving it open for future games. At the very least, it's not like the AC1 ending or the ending of COD Ghosts where it left people with a really bad taste.

the funny part was when they announce halo 4 in 2011 Microsoft said that there will be a new trilogy on the xbox 360

Halo 2 CE. That would qualify as not part of the new trilogy. And it's now 10 years since Halo 2 launched.

@alexgbro: No, they said a new trilogy on "Xbox".