"Halo 4" is easily one of the hotly-anticipated games of the year and is set to be the first iteration in the franchise's main story since 2007, which is the same year when "Halo 3" hit the store shelves. Now, per reports, developer 343 Industries has stressed on the fact that the franchise is ready to feature on all next-gen systems, including the highly rumored Xbox 720.
According to an interview with Eurogamer recently, Halo Franchise Director Frank O'Connor said there are fundamental components to the engine they currently have that will easily roll over into next-generation technology when it is released.
"In a world where we're working on next generation platforms, there's things we'll have to do just for architecture to make it work. But ultimately you just keep evolving the things that make it work. In the future we'll probably have to radically overhaul systems yet again," stated O'Connor. "But as a building block or a foundation for future Halo products, especially FPS stuff - obviously Halo Wars doesn't have a heck of a lot in common with Halo 4 - there are absolutely components and elements you have to keep because they're essential and core to the heartbeat of the game."
O'Connor also went on to discuss the possibility of scenarios arising where the technology in question is required to have certain fundamentals and parts dispatched from the system for improved compatibility. He opined that at times "you're going to have to completely throw out whole chunks of the engine," but the pieces that remain after that are just calculations and numbers "that make his jump height feel right for example."
Additionally, on the topic of next-gen consoles, according to Nvidia, the next big home consoles are likely to be the last. Nvidia's head of cloud gaming Phil Eisler stated that owing to the long lifespan of today's consoles, by the time the Xbox 720 and PS4 are finally revealed, cloud gaming would have already overtaken traditional home consoles.
Eisler, in an interview with VentureBeat, said that the "thing about the consoles ... they say this is the last console, and I am certainly a believer in that. The last one is almost 10 years old now in terms of the technology."
"Halo 4" is scheduled to be released on Nov. 6 and will be available exclusively on Xbox 360.
