It is going to be interesting to see how the Halo 5 storyline plays out considering what happened within the current game, which has started Xbox 360 gamers debating what should be included in Halo 5 and how they expect the story to go. If you’ve been playing the current game and following the announcements from both Microsoft and 343 Industries, then you’d know that there’s a trilogy planned in the form of Halo 4, 5, and 6. We’ve seen some really good ideas as to what we need to see happen in Halo 5, and some gamers want to see a more explosive Master Chief that loses it a bit.

Xbox 720 and Halo 5 taking it to another level – following an interview a few weeks ago we published some details from the Q&A, and in this article we pointed out that the interviewer tried to dig for information on the next-generation Xbox, aka 720, and what work is currently being done for Halo 5 on the next generation of hardware. We also detailed a timeline here, which shows how the previous release dates have gone and what names the games received from this franchise, although things could be very different for the next incarnation.

We could simply see Halo 4: Next-gen land with improved graphics for the Xbox 720 at an event next year, but we’d favor something totally new in the form of Halo 5 with some major improvements in physics and graphics, which would be the bonus for the second and third games in this trilogy if they launch on the Xbox 720. If Halo 5 hasn’t been worked on this year then launching it next year might bring something with limited work done, so again this is why we’d prefer to see a Halo 5 more thought-out with a release date in 2014 on the next-gen Xbox.

Halo 5 plausible storyline – be warned that reading on from here and also looking at the comments on this page might deliver spoilers for the current game. Some gamers believe that Halo 4 had been “rushed“, and that Halo 5 will be the “golden egg” with a bigger and better storyline. Some of the ideas we’ve seen for the Halo 5 story include the possibility of an episode in the theme of “Search for Spock“, which could see Master Chief leave Earth looking for Cortana, although we also hear that a lot of fans want to see how the Spartans were created and how they were broke to make them a Spartan. This would also deliver a lot more insight into how MC had been created, and what process he had to go through.

How would you like to see the Halo 5 storyline proceed, and what do you want to see from Master Chief in the next game? We’d also love to hear from Xbox 360 gamers about the possibility of the game being a launch title for Xbox 720, if it happened how would you feel about this?

We’ve been reporting the latest gaming and technology news for almost a decade, and we’ve seen brands doing their best to be untraditional of late, which has been seen clearly with a number of games and tech products. Some focus has shifted towards the Halo 5 release date since a growing number of gamers believe this would be the next update, which might be an unusual launch considering the Xbox 720 is expected to land in 2013/2014.

In the image below you can take a look at the Halo franchise and a timeline of different games based on this franchise, which shows Halo: Combat Evolved back in 2001. The timeline then shows Halo 2 in 2004, Halo 3 in 2007, and a busier 2009 with Halo Wars and Halo 3: ODST. The year after we saw Halo: Reach, which had been followed with Combat Evolved Anniversary last year. The latest addition has been Halo 4 that saw a release date within the last few days and confirms that the latter years have included more launches from this franchise, but it is fair to say these weren’t a major number upgrade.

The Halo 5 release date is unlikely to follow the previous pattern – there has been a lot of factors involved that explain why we’ve seen a 5 year gap between Halo 3 and Halo 4, which the last two editions only saw a 3 year gap with no Halo games to fill this space. There are also a number of reasons why we might see a much shorter gap between the Halo 4 and Halo 5 release dates, which is thanks to a new generation arriving in the form of a so-called Xbox 720.

Will we see Halo 5 launch on the Xbox 720, or could it be Halo 4: Next-gen? It will be interesting to see how 343 Industries play this and in our earlier article we saw their CEO touch on the next incarnation. You can read about that here, which reveals some insight into next-generation gaming, and the fact that they’re working on Halo for Xbox 720 already.

Would you prefer to see a full Halo 5 upgrade for Xbox 720, or would Halo 4: Next-gen be enough for you? While we’d love to see a new number again it is unlikely to happen considering the past releases, but you shouldn’t expect a 3-5 year gap until the Halo 5 release date.

The Halo 5 launch will depend on the Xbox 720 release date, so if it does in fact launch next year then you should expect an update to Halo 4, but if we see Xbox 720 launch in 2014 then we could see a full Halo 5 experience as a launch title. What would you like to see happen in terms of launch dates for both the hardware and software?

There are some things you’ve got to ask when in the middle of an interview, and in respect of the Halo 4 launch and the future of this franchise, it had to be details about Halo 5 and Xbox 720 that an interviewer would try and find segments of information. This is exactly what happened when Brier Dudley performed an interview with Halo development director at 343 Industries, Frank O’Connor, and asked about Halo 5.

The Q&A also included the head of 343 Industries, Bonnie Ross, but the question about Halo 5 being worked on had been directed at O’Connor, which included digging for information on the Xbox 720 thanks to asking about how “critical” Halo 5 would be to the next Xbox? You can see the section of questions relevant to Halo 5, or whatever the next game will be called, below and this image also contains the answers from O’Connor.

From the answers given above you can pretty much count on a Halo 5 arriving at some point, unless Halo 4 is a complete disaster, and the fact that it will be crucial to the the Xbox 720 launch. You can read the full interview in this article, which delivers some interesting information but certainly lacks the finer details we’d all want to know about Xbox 720. The interviewer had been digging for juicy details and they would’ve been hoping for something to slip out during questioning.

343 Industries also made it clear that they have no plans to launch Halo 4 on PC at this time, which won’t make PC gamers happy and certainly shows how times have changed since the last Halo game. Considering how old the console hardware is and how good PC graphics are in comparison, it is a shame that gamers won’t be given the option of Halo 4 on PC.

Are you looking forward to playing Halo 4 on Xbox 360, and would you have liked a PC option as well?

We were informed that there is to be a new Halo trilogy, and Halo 4 is just the first. Given how long it takes to develop these games, the Xbox will be an old man by then. The first 360 was released in 2005, and although there has been a little refresh, the console will be 7 years old come 2012.

Let us say for arguments sake that Halo 5 was released two years after that, that would mean you would be playing it on a device that was released 9 years before. Developers work hard to get these games perfect, so not certain they will want to develop such a game on such an old games console?

We all know that the likes of the 360 and the PS3 have a shelf life, but developers will be faced with a dilemma when they start to get closer to the end of their life cycle. This could mean that gamers might have to put up with more scrap games than decent ones, as the developers will not want to commit time and money until they know from Sony and Microsoft what their plans are.

There is no cause for alarm at the moment, but there will come a stage in a couple of years time when this will be a big concern.