Tag Archives: Brian Jarrard

With the release of Halo: Reach looming in the not-so-distant future, Bungie’s Brian Jarrard was asked if the developers had put any thought into which platforms it plans to create games for next.

Turns out, all are under consideration.

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Bungie’s not confirming if the new IP the studio has in development is coming to PS3 – but when speaking to CVG, it didn’t deny it neither.

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Bungie has said that it may one day revisit the Halo series, stating that Reach being considered its swan song is a bit “premature”.

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Bungie has said that it regrets leaving out matchmaking in Halo 3: ODST’s Firefight mode.

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Bungie’s Brian Jarrard has said that the matchmaking system in Halo 2 caused some concern with some of the team members working on the game, as some weren’t too sure it was the right decision.

“I remember matchmaking, when we rolled that out with Halo 2 it was such a big risk,” Jarrard told OXM. “We walked away from the established norm, there were no server lists – we turned the whole thing upside down and it was a big leap of faith.

“Even internally there were a lot of people saying, ‘I don’t know’. But I think it’s really important that that social simplicity, finding people who are similar skill very quickly, in two button presses.

“Even in the beginning, we were watching it very carefully for backlash. But then, over a couple of months people warmed up to it, and now it’s funny to see it come full circle. In a lot of ways its become one of the new standards for how people expect to play online.”

Via CVG.

Halo: Reach has been in development since development ended on Halo 3.

That’s what Bungie’s Brian Jarrard told VG247 at GamesCom.

The community manager made the admission as he was talking to us about Halo 3: ODST and how life hasn’t changed much since the studio became an independent studio again after breaking away from Microsoft Games Studios.

“Day to day life hasn’t changed that much. We’ve been super-busy, obviously. We’ve finally been able to announce Halo: Reach, which has been in development right since the end of Halo 3.”

“Having a portion of our team working on ODST while Reach has been going full steam; we’ve been too busy right now to think about too much else. We’re just heads-down making great games. Right now that’s our focus.”

Reach is set long before Halo: Combat Evolved and long before Master Chief was the only spartan left standing, although story specifics are little to zip right now.

The game is due out in fall 2010, but a multiplayer beta token will come with Halo 3: ODST when it launches on September 22.

Catch our interview with Jarrard and CJ Cowan of Bungie here.

Bungie’s Brian Jarrard has told VG247 at GamesCom that Halo 3: ODST, in between having an E3 2008 reveal being pulled at the last minute, an accidental reveal from senior vice president of Xbox, Don Mattrick and a name change from Halo 3: Recon, has been “a different product”.

“Yeah, ODST has been a different product for us a lot of respects. It’s the first time we’ve had a game that we’ve basically done on an accelerated 12 month schedule with a small team.”

But despite what it has gone through within the past year, Jarrard does insist that Bungie are still proud at what they have done with ODST.

“We’re definitely proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish in a short time. It’s been a first in many ways, but I think that the final product came out even better than we had hoped, and it’s going to speak for itself when it comes out next month.”

Go read up the full interview here, you’ll find out loads of “different” info on ODST and the recently announced Halo Reach.

Interview by Patrick Garratt.

During GamesCom, Bungie’s community manager Brian Jarrard and director of cinematics CJ Cowan sat down with VG247 to talk a bit about all things Halo.

The guys also spoke a bit about the split from Microsoft, why Reach does not fit into the Halo trilogy,and how ODST is a new way to propel the missions and the narrative structure of Halo 3.

Loads more on past the break.

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Bungie’s Brian Jarrard has told IGN that over 1 million unique users play Halo 3 daily.

That’s it. Go and shoot something in celebration.

In an interview with GI, Bungie’s Brian Jarrard has said that the company’s next IP will not be tied to Microsoft.

“No, we’re not [tied into a specific platform for new IP],” said community and PR director Brian Jarrard, when asked if Bungie’s new IP would be tied to MS. “We haven’t gotten that far yet to be totally honest.

“”In theory we do have every means to go out and find the right ecosystem, the right partners, to align with. So who knows what the future will bring us.”

Full interview through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Speaking to Joystiq, Bungie’s Brian Jarrard has said that Halo 3: Recon should be seen as two products.

“Think of Halo 3: Recon really as two games in one,” he said. “You have the new Recon campaign that is a separate ‘title ID’ and includes 1,000 GamerScore and Achievements, etc. It’s campaign only.

“The multiplayer maps are more Halo 3 goodness, still considered ‘regular’ Halo 3 content and the multiplayer stuff is interchangeable in that regard. If you purchase the Mythic Map pack via the Xbox Live Marketplace early next year, but your friend doesn’t get those maps until the Recon disc comes out, they will work together just fine.”

The game releases in spring 2009. Plenty more through there.

Speaking to GI at TGS, Bungie PR boss Brian Jarrard has claimed that Bungie only had a vague idea anyone was working on a Halo MMO, and that creating one would be “pretty challenging” thanks to the necessary creation of “a whole new layer of fiction” in the Halo universe.

“They are like our lunchtime discussions at the studio,” he said. “A Halo MMO wasn’t something that at the studio we had a lot of preview on. We’d heard rumblings and on paper, if someone says ‘Let’s take Halo, plus Warcraft, equals dollar signs…’

“So it was interesting when that whole thing came to light, there was more there than we ever really thought there was. I don’t know, we’ve had a lot of heated discussions – there’s a big, vast, rich universe, but then again it’s hard for me to imagine.

“Everybody wants to be Master Chief, they all want to be the Spartan. You’d have to create a whole new layer of fiction and new characters that don’t currently exist – not that it couldn’t be done,” he added.

“I don’t know if I would want to invest and become a Warthog mechanic in a garage, when all my friends were out there kicking ass on the front lines. I’m sure there’s probably enough there to work with where something could of come of it, but I think it would have been pretty challenging.”

More through the link.

Bungie’s defended the choice of announcing Halo 3 Recon at TGS, saying it’s a good show to get the game out in the open thanks to global media interest.

“TGS is a game show where the worldwide media does descend on it,” said developer Luke Smith, talking to the Guardian.

“Regardless of the product’s individual success here, the simple fact is that this is a place where the world’s eyes are watching. And where we have that opportunity, that’s a great place for Bungie to announce a game.”

Bungie PR director Brian Jarrard added: “I would agree, and I think it happened to work out also nicely that the theme of TGS this year seems to be the globalisation of gaming.

“It’s nice to be able to bring the western games over here, and I believe Xbox as a platform is doing very well over here recently as well.”

There’s a ten-minute video interview through the link.

In this interview with Eurogamer, Bungie’s Brian Jarrard says that although Halo 3 Recon will be a boxed product, there might well be a surprise for existing Halo 3 owners.

“It’s a standalone disc as well, so you won’t have to have Halo 3 to experience Recon,” he said.

“There might be a surprise later that we’ll talk about, that might benefit people who have Halo 3, but it’s not a requirement.”

When asked if it was downloadable content, Jarrard replied: “Let’s just stay right there, but there might be a connection there to be made a little bit later.”

Full thing through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Speaking to Eurogamer, Bungie PR boss Brian Jarrard has confirmed that Halo 3 Recon isn’t a full game, as many had hoped yesterday.

“It’s hard to put a number on it,” he said when asked how long the campaign would be.

“It’s going to represent hours of new campaign gameplay, but it’s not a full, entire game like Halo 3. I think we have a lot of value on the disc.”

Developer Luke Smith added that Recon was essentially fan service.

“This project is one that we just had to do,” he said. “It’s a project that is for our fans. Just like pretty much everything we do at Bungie, it’s always about how we can serve our fans best.”

More through there. Recon’s out next year.

Speaking to GI in Tokyo, Bungie PR director Brian Jarrard said that Halo 3 Recon would signal an end to Bungie’s work on the current Halo trilogy.

“I don’t think so,” he said when asked if we can expect more from the developer on the series.

“We’ve already put a couple of map packs out, we do have more maps on the way. We actually have a Mythic map pack coming out early next year. We don’t have firm details or a date yet, but we do have one more map pack coming out, and then we do have some maps associated with the actual Recon retail release.

“But I think when this project wraps up in a couple of months that will be the time when that team moves on to something else – part of that team will move on to something else and part of them will probably be absorbed into one of the other projects that are already on the way.”

More through there. Recon’s out next year.

Posting on the official Halo forums, Bungie writer Luke Smith (Lukems) assured everyone that the “Maddie, where are you?” slogan in yesterday’s teaser was pure coincidence as far as any relation to the 2007 Maddie McCann disappearance goes.

“As always, all of the characters in our games are fictional,” he wrote. “Any similarities between real life and the characters in our games are purely coincidental.”

“That said, this is both an unfortunate and untended [sic] coincidence,” he added.

In yet another rebuttle, Bungie’s Brian Jarrard, aka Sketchfactor, has posted a note over at fansite Halo.Bungie.org: “This is an unfortunate coincidence but there is no connection between Bungie’s game and the tragic disappearance of that little girl.”

That’s that then.

By Mike Bowden

In this huge feature on Gamasutra, Bungie’s picked over the bones of Halo 3′s development, talking about everything from art decisions to the mood within the company itself running up toe the game’s launch.

There are actually two interviews there, one with environment artist Mike Zak and community and PR director Brian Jarrard, and one with engineering lead Chris Butcher.

Definitely worth a read.