Halo Encyclopedia coming

For those who can’t get enough Halo information, DK Publishing has announced they are publishing the Halo Encyclopedia in 352 glorious full-color pages. The book is planned for a November 2009 release.

The press release at this point says the book will cover just the games. A call to the publisher has them scrambling to check if the books will be included as well, since the stories were sanctioned by Bungie and Microsoft. The forward of the encyclopedia will be written by Frank O’Connor, who left Bungie as content manager in May of last year to work at Microsoft and more closely with the Halo franchise.

We’ve had initial chats with DK to publish an excerpt or two of the encyclopedia as it gets closer to release, along with getting a few copies for a giveaway to our readers, so stay tuned.

‘Halo’ Writer Quits Bungie to Work on ‘Halo’

Even though Bungie won’t be heading the development of the next Halo game for Microsoft (MS owns the Halo license), the big Redmond giant is showing that they are still very much keen on continuing the incredibly successful Xbox system-seller series. To that effect, word reached us that writer Frank O’Connor has quit Bungie to continue working on the Halo brand at Microsoft. While this may sadden Bungie fans looking beyond the Halo phenom, Master Chief aficionados should likely rejoice.

“I am leaving you. I am off to work more closely with Microsoft on the Halo franchise, so I shan’t be too far away, but I wanted to take this last chance, appropriately enough in a Weekly Update, to tell you a very fond thanks,” wrote O’Connor on the Bungie website.

“It was very hard for me to make the decision to move on, but one thing that made it just a bit easier was seeing the amazing work that’s coming down the pipe. 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.

“And there are other things rumbling at Bungie, just as secret, just as epic and just as incredible. And the thing that turns all that rumbling into incredible gameplay experiences is, has always been and will always continue to be, the people. The brilliant, talented, industrious gang of geniuses who brought you everything from a monochrome Pong clone to the staggering vistas and vision of Halo 3,” added O’Connor.