Everybody who has a XboX 360 and loved the original Halo-games, were disappointed that Bungie had to cancel their "new game". While it has already been rumoured to in fact be a fourth game in hte Halo-franchise, so now they guessing-games have begun.

Over at RockPaperShotgun, there is a interesting article, suggesting the new game is a Massive Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter. While that is a pretty long title for a genre, it actually covers what Halo-players might have wanted to have in the last couple of games; open worlds and alternative quests and story-lines, mixed up with the ever-thrilling feeling of being amongst other players.

So exactly what does RPS put on the table that assumes Bungie and MS are indeed pulling of a "World of Halo"-stunt? Well, first there is the scientific paper that Microsoft had done about the possibilities and limits in terms of low-bandwith games compared to user satisfaction. In an interview about the "DonnyBrook" - yeah, that IS the name for this research - Jacob Lorch from Microsoft says that "we [MS] want to take games like Halo and CounterStrike and scale them beyond what they can do now". In short terms, he wants hundreds or thousands of players to participate in the same games; and that is lag-sensitive games he is talking about ladies and gentlemen.

You can find the article at RockPaperShotgun right here and you can participate in the discussion in our forum or in the comments!

World of Halo? I digg it!

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If Kotaku.com is to believe, then Microsoft can start congratulating themselves, as the XboX 360 has finally had a profitable year. According to the story , MS has made $426,000,000 in the financial year 07-08. That is an awfull lot of XboX-dollars and a better result than last years red numbers, that landed at around 2 billion dollars.

Even more, the company has now sold 20 million XboX 360's, so they can start selling services and software - as Shane Kim would put it - to earn more of those nice little green ones.

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Before consulting the porno-industry , Microsoft decided to include the HD-DVD as the highdefinition-drive in XboX 360. Let's just say that it was a bad idea. As HD-DVD lost the format-war to Sony's Blueray, the XboX-ownwers were pretty much left alone in the desert. And that hasn't changed at all. According to an interview with Shane Kim - who has a title so long it can't fit into this box, but has a lot to do with the developement of the strategy behind the XboX - there is "no intent to produce a Blueray-drive for the 360".

Instead MS will focus on software and services for the XboX, to attract a non-gaming audience. This was followed by the announcation of a partnership with Netflix , allowing the XboX Live-subscribers to stream over 10,000 movies and series directly from the Internet. Even more, Microsoft are planning to launch "real world" multiplayer-games on the XboX Live; like the popular "1 vs. 100". And this time around you'll not win a funny hat or a trophy, according to Shane Kim they want to use "real life prizes"!

Now there is only one question left; how the **** are we supposed to watch HD-movies with our 360s Mr. Kim?!

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Halo 3 is a growing franchise, both in and out of the States, and now the European eSport-giant Turtle Entertaintment acknowledges the growing community, as they pick up console-gaming and Halo 3 for their annual eSport-awards.

For a few years already, eSports has not been confined to the PC any more. In a wide range of games, with a whole lot of tournaments, an individual pro gaming community has formed. Consoles fans celebrate the star players. With the emergence of professional leagues using console games as part of their games selection, it is natural that the eSports Award honors the achievement of the Consoles Player of the Year.

In total, consoles have recieved three award-categories, with Consoles Player of the Year being the one with the least American participation. 3 European CGS-gamers are mixed with two of the best Halo-players ever; OGRE2 and Walshy.

The last two categories are Consoles Team of the Year and Best Halo 3 Player, and here the US reigns supreme. The OGRE-brothers and their Final Boss team are favourites to win the awards, but the Gears of War-team Infinity and Carbon's Kharma and Gandhi are close behind.

To see the full story, go to esport-awards.org. 

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After the first two Quarter-finals were played out two days a go, it was time for the last two. Carolina Core went up against the Asian champions from Wuhan Dragons, while Birmingham Salvo faced Mexico City Furia.

Just like in Berlin Allianz' Quarter-final, yesterday evening's games seemed to be all about Dead or Alive. While Project Gotham Racing was the big pointbooster last season, it seems like DoA has taken over that role. Both Core and Salvo came out of their matches winning the DoA-games; 10-2 and 10-5 respectively. DoA gave them a comfortable lead, and not even Furia's CS:S team could change that, when they made a blowout win against Salvo's European CS:S-champion.

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Bungie has been teasing their fans for months, as they continiously have hinted for a new title - which isn't supposed to be a Halo game. The game was supposed to premiere on the E3 fair, but that has been put on full hold due to their publisher.

For more info, take the jump to Kotaku.com and see the related stories.

Kotaku.com  

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Regroup Esports, Europe's leading electronic sports and online gaming company, has rebranded to become Esport Nation A/S while its new corporate site is now known as ESNation.com as of today. Regroup's digital portfolio includes popular gaming community sites such as the Dotaportal.com, myMYM.com, TheXUG.com and many more.

ESNation is a new online gaming destination that informs, engages and entertains global gamers with eSports news, browser-based games and social networking features. It is designed to provide gamers with easy access to their favorite teams and players as well as promoting online gaming to a broader audience. "We are excited about the new platform that ESNation offer our users", says Ari Wegter, CEO of Regroup Esports. "We see tremendous potential in the synergies between our gaming networks and want to open old walled gardens to allow users free access between the communities."

Founder and COO Mark Peter Fries adds: "Our new vertical social networking apps are build to stimulate user generated content and audience interaction - to create a nation of gamers worldwide. That is why we choose the new name. From now on, both the company and our main website will be known under the ESport Nation brand." The company is preparing to open the site for public use this month with full launch following in August 2008.

Regroup Events, the event, league and tournament division of former Regroup Esports, which is known for handling brands and events as ESL, WCG, ESWC etc., will continue with its original name and as a separate company.

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In the past weekend, the Championship Gaming Series hosted their Individual World Championships for Dead or Alive (male and female), CounterStrike:Source, FIFA 2008 and Forza 2. The event is now concluded and you can find the results inside!

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