[Mark Hodgkinson]

Work on Halo 5 already under way

In a press release on the Halo 4 Infinity Challenge, Microsoft slipped in the detail that the Halo franchise has now sold over 50 million copies worldwide. Six of which can be accounted for by yours truly.

Sales prior to the launch of Halo 4 stood around the 46 million mark so it wouldn't take advanced mathematics to conclude Halo 4 is responsible for 4 million sales.

Also, in a not very shocking admission, franchise development director Frank O'Connor has told CVG that work on the next game in the Halo franchise began even before Halo 4 launched.

"A lot of people at 343 are already prototyping ideas and software and art for future Halo products," said O'Connor.

"I can't say more than that, but work on the game started actually before we launched Halo 4 and continues apace as we cycle staff through the team's vacation breaks. We're excited about the next game."

But that's for the future and O'Connor promised lots of upcoming content for Halo 4 players:

"Spartan Ops season 2 is yet to be decided, we're looking at how the first season does," said O'Connor.

"We got such great responses from [live-action web series] Forward Unto Dawn and Spartan Ops that we're pretty happy with it and we're learning a lot of really interesting stuff for the future," he added. "You are going to see a spectrum of Halo support though the next year and beyond."