nwizardblog

Thank you Craig Harris, Executive Editor of the IGN Nintendo Team…

I’m actually amazed at the amount of people who are trying to debunk Casamassina’s blog entry about Halo DS, as if he went into the code of some existing Nintendo DS first person shooter (of which there are very few) and modified it with skins just to fool a public. Clearly you guys don’t know Matt — he couldn’t even program a coffee pot to brew while he slept.

Look guys, what Matt has is called a “proof of concept.” It isn’t my place to reveal all the specifics of what Matt has in hand, but it isn’t uncommon for a developer to pitch their projects with quickly produced demos to show that they’ve got the right stuff to get the job done. And that is, pretty much, what Matt and Bozon were playing.

I can completely validate Matt’s claim that Nintendo handheld Halo was being considered by Microsoft. A few years ago, I had insiders from multiple development studios telling me about a “secret project” they were pitching Microsoft on…which turned out to be Halo for Nintendo handhelds.

When I had posted a story about Halo coming to GBA/DS, that’s when everything came crashing down. The next day I was assaulted from every side imaginable: Microsoft, Bungie, and the dev studios who were working on the project. Producers from all development studios freaked out that I violated their trust…none knowing that their project was also being pitched by other studios. Hell, one development studio I had no prior relationship with contacted me and requested where I got the information from so they could plug the leak…confirming that Microsoft was secretly working with yet another studio I didn’t even know about.

Microsoft obviously had all sorts of developers working on a concept without any of the companies knowing there were others doing the same thing. If the project was to move forward, they’d pick the right team for the job. One that could do the game justice and a good price.

Obviously the project never panned out — Microsoft vetoed the idea of Halo moving to a competitor’s handheld…most likely because somewhere down the line Microsoft would be releasing a portable system that could play a version of the game.

Casamassina has absolutely no reason to pull one over on you. What he and Bozon are playing is clearly a proof of concept from a developer that has previously worked on a first person shooter for the Nintendo DS. To get the demo working as quickly as possible, the team most likely took the engine and tweaked it with Halo assets to show Microsoft that Halo DS could work…complete with the Wireless support that the team used in whatever game they worked on.

Halo DS isn’t happening anymore. But it was happening, and Matt’s got physical proof of at least one development team’s project. Deal with it.