Microsoft knows that Halo is a system seller. That’s why last year at E3 we saw the TBD titled Halo get a tease. But without knowing when the next Halo would be coming out, they needed to keep the appetite wet for gamers before the hoopla of this year’s E3 kicked in. What better way to do so than open up preorders to the world. If you head to Amazon you can place your preorder on Halo 5: Guardians which is set to ship by end of year 2015 (no doubt, this will be more formally announced with an actual release date at E3 or at least a quarter).
There are two things that stand out about Halo 5: Guardians based off the current cover artwork. The first is the name. Since Halo: Combat Evolved, this is the first proper Halo title to have a suffix attached to it. This leads one to believe it is either because they feel just another number isn’t enough of a differentiator to keep motivating new purchases or these new Guardians are that essential to the plot.
The other is the actual image. Some new Spartan looking soldier is atop the logo with Master Chief underneath in almost a second fiddle role. While I don’t foresee players not being able to be Master Chief like Halo 3: ODST or Halo: Reach, it may be an instance with a dual storyline like there was in Halo 2.
Obviously this is all speculation but we are excited to see the coming news for more on Halo 5: Guardians which will most likely be rolling out in greater detail soon.