Halo gets animated and new Xbox Live features

An obviously staged shot of Master Chief "in action".

(Credit: Microsoft/Warner Bros.)

A few years back in 2003, when the new Matrix movies were debuting, Warner Bros. also released a straight-to-video compilation of animated short stories based in the Matrix universe called "The Animatrix."

Each segment was produced by a different Japanese anime studio, and there were actually some pretty cool takes on the Matrix that emerged from this project. More recently, WB did the same thing with "Batman: Gotham Knight."

Now, WB is teaming up with Microsoft to do the same thing with the Halo universe. This fall they plan to release "Halo: Legends," a direct-to-video compilation of several animated short stories based in the Halo universe.

Popular anime directors Shinji Aramaki ("Appleseed") and Mamoru Oshii ("Ghost in the Shell") will be working on the project, as will familiar studios like Production I.G. ("Blood: The Last Vampire"), Studio4 ("Tekkonkinkreet"), Toei Animation ("Dragon Ball"), Casio Entertainment (visual effects work on "Big Man Japan"), and Bones ("Cowboy Bebop: The Movie").

Microsoft also announced a new Xbox Live feature coming this fall called Halo: Waypooint.

Waypoint will be a hub for all things Halo. Users can access podcasts, trailers, screenshots, and "exclusive footage." Exclusive footage, I'm guessing, of upcoming Halo projects like Halo Reach (I hope).

They're also implementing what sounds like an achievement-based career system and player rankings to Waypoint that will be affected by both in-game and out-of-game accomplishments.

[jpsy]

Red vs. Blue is better than anything they could ever do.

[ZetaZeta_]

If you're talking about comedy and dialogue, then yes. :P

These films will probably shine with a lot of style and beautiful art.

[nickl140]

I'm sure it will be at least entertaining

[Thirdrail1]

I'm not personally a big Halo fan, but one of my friends (who has NEVER actually read a book) considers it "the best story ever", so I'm sure this will be successful.

[agriffith96]

Whatever happened to those "live-action" with a lot of cgi trailers that were out before Halo 3? Those looked cool. I think I still have one on my hard drive. Make a movie like that.

[MJSlider8]

WB should just get the rights to Red vs. Blue

[dcwiker05]

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They should do it this way or as the other person said live action with CGI but they should NOT BUY RED Vs. BLUE WB is not that funny and we all know what happens when big companies take over the little guys... So lets not kill Red Vs. Blue.

[Ordonator]

I'm with agriffith96. As a fan of Halo, I'm even a little put off by this news. Maybe because I don't like anime, or maybe because I like the style of Halo as it is.

Actually, it's both of them combined.