The long-standing "voice" of Bungie, Content Manager Frank O'Connor, is leaving the Halo studio in order to "work more closely with Microsoft on the Halo franchise." In his final Weekly Update, O'Connor sends a heartwarming thanks to the community for a number of things, among them for "not following through on the death threats" (his emphasis, not ours).

The most interesting part of his goodbye later is the tease on the "coming years." Said O'Connor, "I was busy working on a story for one of our next games, an experience that is destined to surprise, amaze and entertain like nothing we've ever made before. That game has an amazing team invested in it, and one that will be tasked with building the Next Big Thing. You should see what they've already achieved, you truly should." We'll be watching with eager eyes. Take care, Frank, you'll be missed.

(Oh, and be sure to check out all the fun Frank O'Connor Photoshops.)

Everyone knows that Cinco de Mayo celebrates when Mexican Spartan forces destroyed a batch of French Covenant troops in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. So it seems only fitting that the bravery and sacrifice of those armored soldiers be honored with a Halo 3 Double XP weekend (which has already kicked off) and a new playlist for Fiesta (which spawns players with random weapons) called "Cinco de Mayo."

Two words of warning before you begin jamming cervezas and the right trigger: 1. Everyone can get double XP but you need the Heroic and Legendary map packs to play in "Cinco de Mayo." 2. The party only lasts until Tuesday, with the fiesta becomes a siesta.

When Red Storm creative director Christian Allen (of Ghost Recon fame) joined Bungie last year, we speculated that he'd be working on a Halo-themed squad game. Lending further credence to our mutagenically induced prescience, EGM's Quartermann rumor column reports that Bungie's first game post-Microsoft will be a third-person Halo prequel "chronicling early skirmishes between the ODST troops and the Covenant" (read: no Master Chief). They're not sure if this is the same as Peter Jackson's mysterious Halo project, though it would appear that they're hiring a team specifically for that. EGM says that Microsoft will be ready to reveal all once the hype-train for Gears of War 2 has come to a halt.

[Via X3F]

So, we've been hearing about Peter Jackson's Halo project since the Kennedy administration, but we've heard nary a peep in recent months. Now, MTV Multiplayer reports that it suspects Microsoft is hiring folks for the project this week, based on a recent job listing for a team to "help develop a new experience in the Halo universe."

The listings says that the team will work with an "external luminary" on the project, which has MTV thinking: Peter Jackson, duh. It has us thinking, "Are you seriously just now getting started on this?" Here's hoping we find out more about the mystery project in the coming days.

Update: Microsoft has confirmed with MTV that the job listings are for the Jackson project. "Microsoft Game Studios has been hard at work collaborating with Peter Jackson and Bungie on the development of [a Peter Jackson-helmed Halo project]. At this time, it's necessary to grow the internal team to keep pace with development. Bungie will continue to remain involved in multiple aspects of the Halo Universe with MGS."

At the MI6 marketing conference in San Francisco, GameDaily reports on how Halo 3's marketing molded the image of Master Chief. Jerret West, global group product manager at Microsoft, explains they didn't want to portray Master Chief "as a reckless American cowboy." They needed him to be accepted as a savior of humanity and integrate Halo into pop culture. West notes the team had pop culture benchmarks like making the cover of Time or Wired, and worked with numerous other companies to push marketing ideas.

Chris Lee, a product manager from Microsoft, points out that Halo didn't have an awareness problem, it had a perception problem for being too hardcore. Looks like the team's efforts to make the Master Chief mainstream worked out. Halo 3 ended up becoming one of the best selling games last year.

Last we heard, the big-budget, big screen adaptation of Halo was undeniably and reliably dead. But if a Latino Review source is to be believed, it may have another shot, thanks to a fresh script by Stuart Beattie, the same fellow working on Spy Hunter, Splinter Cell and Gears of War flicks for several studios. It's reportedly called Halo: Fall of Reach, based on the novel of the same name.

Now, even if this story is true, this is just a guy writing a script (albeit a well-known guy), so we're not about to change the film's status to "mostly dead." But if you need to do that in your heart to make your day a bit easier to bear, we completely understand.

Bungie's resident mascot Mister Chief (no, not that one) has popped up on Bungie's radar as a group effort from every single Europe, African and Asian Halo 3 player that banded together in Halo 3 multiplayer.

... Well, it was either that or some quick image manipulation job by the Bungie staffers themselves, putting a "constellation" of Mister Chief on the map. We opt to believe the first story because it's infinitely more epic. Note that one tiny blip in South Africa, which was Joystiq's own Ludwig Kietzmann's contribution.

[Via X3F]

Most companies in the gaming industry never really atone for their egregious errors -- if so, Nintendo would have sent us a check for the $180 in hard-earned allowance money that we blew on the retina-singeing Virtual Boy by now. However, our poor investment in Nintendo's unwieldy system can't compare to the tragedy endured by Nathaniel, whose personalized 360 was wiped clean during a RROD repair. Luckily, Bungie jumped to the rescue with an equally collectible Halo care package -- and a recent delivery from Microsoft served as the caboose to Nate's apologetic gravy train.

Included in said delivery was a handful of games and, most notably, a new 360 signed by the Xbox team, Bungie (including replacement artwork by Rooster Teeth Comics' Luke McKay) and, with the flourish of a solid gold pen, Bill Gates. Whether you call it an act of kindness or a lesson in public relations, we think it's a neat gesture from the folks at Microsoft -- a gesture young Nathaniel will only enjoy for the next four months, of course, at which point the button above Gates' John Hancock will blink a menacing scarlet, leaving Nate with a highly collectible paperweight.

Each week Jeff Engel and Geoff Brooks contribute Counting Rupees, a column on the business behind gaming:

Apparently, 2008 is the year of the PS3. After what most consider a very shaky first year, the media is abuzz with a comeback for the company that was once king of consoles. EGM's March issue proudly proclaims on its cover that it's "The Revenge of the PS3". EDGE's December issue was entitled "The Empire Strikes Back" and even Joystiq's PS3 Fanboy has given us 10 reasons why the PS3 is back in the swing of things. Some analysts have proclaimed that the PS3 will do at least as well as the 360 in 2008, and others have the PS3 edging out the 360 by 2010 or even the Wii by 2011. Clearly, everyone is pointing to 2008 being a turning point of sorts for the Cell-powered beast. But is it actually true?

Let's focus on, at least initially, Sony's battle against the 360. Certainly, the PS3 has a lot of things going for it. Blu-ray has officially won the next-gen DVD war; upcoming games, such as Metal Gear Solid 4, Killzone 2, and LittleBigPlanet show tremendous potential; and it has seemingly found a price point that people are willing to pay (as they did originally for the 360). In the US, at least so far this year, Sony has managed to outsell the 360 according to January and February NPD figures. But will it be enough?

Fans of Bungie's fight-finishing FPS were undoubtedly pleased to learn last month that Halo 3, though falling behind in the Xbox Live activity rankings, is in no danger of going to the cybernetically-enhanced dogs, as it were. The map-crafting wizards at Bungie are already hard at work on a new trio of downloadable arenas -- the eight-man, objective-oriented "Ghost Town" was revealed during GDC, the other two remain shrouded in mystery.

However, much like fresh Milano cookies at an Oprah's Book Club meeting, mysteries on the internet don't last very long. Bungie announced in a recent weekly update that they will reveal the second leg of their DLC tripod this coming Tuesday, dropping hints in the form of four images of the vehicles that will be playable on the map. Either these rigs have suffered a vicious antiquing, or the new map will be set in a crystalline winter wonderland -- we do so hope it's accompanied by a "Spartan Snow Angel" playlist.

I didn't actually need to hear anything to get the story here. The interview crew were wearing shirts featuring the title question (which I really thought would show up in the picture, but just trust me), and they cornered this Spartan from the 405th Infantry Division. What does green mean to you, guy dressed like the Master Chief?

I felt very lucky to witness this convergence. Such a perfect meeting is like a lol-ar eclipse.

LucasArts isn't the only developer with a proclivity to "hit the bricks", it seems -- according to the latest issue of EGM, Bungie is currently working on a heretofore unannounced project in conjunction with Lego. The brainchild of this unholy union is -- as you've probably already guessed -- Lego Halo. Set to follow the entire storyline of the Halo trilogy, and featuring gameplay similar to the other games in the Lego crossover genre (with just a dash of traditional FPS fare mixed in), this chimera is sure to sell like hotcakes to fans of Master Chief and construction toys both -- if it actually existed, that is.

As many of our loyal tipsters (as well as one of our sister sites) didn't realize, this exclusive preview ran in the April edition of EGM -- the same edition which is infamous for its history of April Fools' skullduggery. Sorry to break your naïve heart, if you didn't see this coming -- but the only way you're going to get your hot little hands on Lego Halo is if you order it from a parallel universe. Would you mind picking up a copy of Mushroom Kingdom Hearts for us while you're over there?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

If the annual shame parade known as the Spike TV Video Game Awards have taught us anything, it's this -- famous people love video games. Take, for example, "Arrested Development" star Will Arnett and "SNL" funnyman Jason Sudeikis, both of whom outed themselves as FPSophiles last week on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien".

While we were amused by Arnett's endorsement of Call of Duty 4 and his tales of domestic disrespect, we think Sudeikis pulled away with a higher chuckle per joke ratio. You can watch his entire interview after the break -- jump to 4:17 for his gaming testimonial, or to 5:48 to watch a grown man demonstrate Halo 3 teabagging in front of a live studio audience.

[Thanks, Colin.]

What was just a rumor as recently as this morning has apparently already become reality -- the Canadian Toys R Us web site is showing $50 reductions in price for the Xbox 360 Pro (now $349.99) and Halo Edition - (now $399.99). An informant at a Canadian Toys R Us has also told us that the Xbox 360 Arcade has been reduced $20 (to $279.99) and the Elite has come down $50 (to $449.99 -- all prices are in Canadian dollars, eh?)

Ironically enough, FutureShop, where this morning's rumor first originated, has not lowered their web site prices as of press time. Perhaps they're waiting until Friday to unleash that Turok Elite bundle on an unsuspecting public?

Does this surprise move mean an American price drop is in the cards? Probably not -- much like the previous Microsoft Canada price drop, the adjustment seems designed to bring prices up North in line with the weakening American dollar.

Update: Apologies for the inadvertent act of bad foreign relations. No offense was meant, Canada. Are we still cool?

[Thanks Stephen]

Sometimes it might seem like we here at Joystiq are wedded to our jobs -- that we spend every waking moment aggregating and writing about the latest video game news. Well that's just not true. We do get out occasionally, you know. To anime conventions, for instance.

But even when we're supposedly "relaxing" at incredibly nerdy gatherings, like this weekend's Katsucon in Washington DC, we can't help but think of you, the reader, and how we can be serving you. With that in mind, please enjoy the below gallery, which features some of the more unique/interesting game-related costumes on display by attendees (not included: the million or so Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts related costumes around. Come on guys... originality counts!)