BUNGIE ANNOUNCES "HALO 2" FOR XBOX

NEW YORK — Aug. 8, 2002 — Bungie Studios, Microsoft Game Studios' premiere 1st party game-development studio, today ended rampant speculation by officially announcing "Halo 2" for the Xbox™ video game system. Members of the press were treated to their first look at this sequel to Bungie's award-winning "Halo: Combat Evolved™", Electronic Gaming Magazine's "Game of the Year", game during "X02", a Microsoft press event held in New York City.

"Halo 2" continues the story of the Master Chief, a genetically enhanced super-soldier who is the only human ever to successfully defy the Covenant—a coalition of alien races on a murderous march toward Earth. To the mysterious leaders of the Covenant, the human victory at the ancient ring structure known as Halo was an unacceptable failure. They will not fail again.

"Halo 2" surpasses its predecessor in graphical beauty and combat intensity. "'Halo 2' is a lot like 'Halo', only it's 'Halo' on fire, going 130 miles per hour through a hospital zone, being chased by helicopters and ninjas," explained Jason Jones, the head of Bungie Studios, "and the ninjas are all on fire, too." The Master Chief and his marine allies return to battle the full complement of Covenant forces, as well as as-of-yet-unrevealed foes.

"Halo 2" expands the Master Chief's already substantial arsenal with powerful new weapons, many pried from the twitching claws of his defeated enemies. This sequel also increases Halo's number of drivable vehicles giving players many more ways to speed into battle or explore the game's vast landscapes.

"Halo 2" is powered by a completely new graphics engine designed specifically for the Xbox hardware. "Our code squeezes every drop of power out of the Xbox," said Chris Butcher, one of "Halo 2's" engineering leads. "We're doing dynamic lighting and shadows, per-pixel everything, rendering gigantic, lush environments. The graphical features we're using are so advanced we don't even have buzzwords for them yet."

In addition to an epic single-player campaign, "Halo 2" has support for multiplayer action via split-screen, Xbox "System-Link" and online through Microsoft's "Xbox Live™" service. "We still have the multiplayer game-types that people loved in 'Halo', but we're planning something special for multiplayer in 'Halo 2,'" hinted Jaime Griesemer, "Halo 2's" lead designer. "I don't want to ruin the surprise, but imagine the essential 'Halo' single-player experience: pitched battles between the humans and the Covenant, massive vehicle and infantry engagements. Now imagine that every combatant is an actual person playing over Xbox Live!" "Halo 2's" online multiplayer will feature squad-oriented team-play, real-time voice chat and extensive community support when it ships at the end of next year.

An official, downloadable version of the "Halo 2" announcement trailer will be available soon. This is the same trailer shown to the press at Microsoft's X02 event, and features two-and-a-half minutes of in-engine footage as well as an original musical score by Bungie's award-winning composer, Martin O'Donnell. For now, please head to http://www.bungie.net or click the links on the left for exclusive screenshots from the trailer.



About Bungie Studios

Bungie was founded in 1991 with two goals: to develop games that combine brilliant technology, beautiful art, intelligent stories and deep gameplay, and then sell enough of those games to achieve the real goal of total world domination. Over the last 10 years it produced games like the Marathon Trilogy and the first two Myth games, hailed as classics by critics and gamers around the world. "Halo: Combat Evolved," its latest game, has achieved phenomenal success on the Microsoft Xbox video game system. More information on Bungie can be found at http://www.bungie.net.

About Microsoft Game Studios

Microsoft Game Studios is a leading worldwide publisher and developer of games for the PC, Xbox video game system and online platforms. Comprising a network of top developers, Microsoft Game Studios is committed to creating innovative and diverse game portfolios for the PC (http://www.microsoft.com/games/), including such franchises as "Age of Empires®," "Flight Simulator" and "Zoo Tycoon™"; Xbox (http://www.xbox.com/), including such franchises as "Halo™," "Project Gotham Racing™" and "NFL Fever"; and Zone.com (http://zone.msn.com/), the official games channel for the MSN® network and home to such hits as "Bejeweled" and "OutSmart the official games channel for the MSN® network and home to such hits as "Bejeweled" and "OutSmart".