Official Xbox Magazine interviewed 343 Industries general manager Bonnie Ross for the upcoming Fall 2014 issue. The focus of the discussion, of course, was on the studio's upcoming works in the Halo franchise, specifically Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Halo 5: Guardians, as well as the Halo: Nightfall live-action show. Gamer Headlines was able to pull a small excerpt from the interview and post it online.
One of the more enlightening pieces of news was that, just as Activision has stopped numbering Call of Duty installments, 343 Industries would like to eventually stop numbering Halo. As Ross explained, when asked why the latest chapter has the "Guardians" subtitle:
At some point, we do want to stop numbering. Especially on Xbox One. If I had my druthers, we wouldn’t have called Halo 4 that — we really look at that game as the start of where he’s going. At some point we need to drop the number and still (let you) know you’ve got a big story coming.
It might still be a Master Chief story. I’m just saying, at some point we don’t want to be Halo 17, when Master Chief’s like 80. We’re not Final Fantasy, we can’t do it. So we kind of open that door — it doesn’t mean it’ll be a Master Chief story or not. That’s something for us to decide in the future.
As for Nightfall, 343 is using it as a vehicle to introduce the new character Jameson Locke, who will have a playable role in Halo 5. The idea is to really start expanding the Halo universe's supporting cast so that future chapters don't solely focus on Master Chief.
Halo 5: Guardians will hit Xbox One late in 2015.
