Q&A and FAQ

XBoxWay has a fantastic interview with Phil Spencer - General Manager of Microsoft Game Studios and Dave Luehmann - General Manager of Microsoft Game Studios Internal Development. And we've got some of the highlights here.

XCN: Could you give us an introduction to Halo Wars?
Dave Luehmann

• Ensemble Studios for a while now they've wanted to turn their hand to bringing the RTS experience to the XBOX.
• They've been working on it for a while.

So the game engine came before Halo was involved?

Dave Luehmann

• The intention was never to slam the Halo universe into this game. Rather, we realised that we had something very special and so we said let's add to that by using something like Halo to really enhance that experience.

XCN: Will you be able to play as the Covenant in Halo Wars?

Dave Luehmann

• I don't think we've made any promises on that...

Is Halo Wars a straight RTS or is it doing something different?

Phil Spencer

• I think the term RTS will stick but when you play it I think you'll see that it is very difficult. Ensemble started by working out how the strategy game could fit into the console environment, not from the point of view of working out how they could make a Halo RTS game. Halo actually started as an RTS on Mac, but this is a completely new endeavour.

There are so many Halo stories being told - Halo 3, Halo Wars, the Halo movie, novels, graphic novels and so on. Will there be lots of crossover in the narrative of Halo Wars with these other sources?

Phil Spencer

The fiction will remain true to itself. Maintaining the consistency and the quality of the Halo story is all-important. You'll see references to other things in the Halo universe because it's all one world. If something has happened in the past, it will have happened across all the whole Halo universe. We actually have a team dedicated to guarding that continuity so we don't need to wipe the slate clean every time we add a new chapter to the Halo story. Also, for the people who read all the novels we need to make sure that they don't have to forget about something they experienced in the Halo universe because we haven't checked it out properly.