Microsoft’s Spielberg-Produced ‘Halo’ TV Series Hitting Xbox in Early 2014?
Earlier this year, Microsoft dropped a tremendous bombshell on the TV industry in revealing that it would follow in the footsteps of Netflix and Amazon to create its own original content, most notably a Steven Spielberg-produced 'Halo' live-action series, following so many cinematic stalls. No news has emerged of the effort since, but is Microsoft prepping its new series for an Xbox One launch in early 2014?
During an industry breakfast this week in LA, Microsoft's president of entertainment and digital Nancy Tellem explained the development on the series had been moving more slowly than anticipated, though the company hoped to debut something from its original lineup by at least the second quarter of 2014. Whether that involves the long-awaited 'Halo' series, or an October announcement for a series chronicling real-life street soccer players remains to be seen, as Tellem indicated that Microsoft needs to find its own method of distributing and producing content.
We aren’t Netflix, we aren’t Amazon, we’re a different animal. We’re neither or we’re a little like them. It all depends. The lack of black and white and this is the template and this is what we’re following is very difficult. As we continue to do deals everyone’s going to get more comfortable.
Depending on the piece of content, the deals change. We’re talking about exclusives, exclusive first windows, exclusive second windows. We play a lot with windows and co-production arrangements” and “whether we feel these are ideas are franchise building or we can own completely.
No doubt Microsoft attempted to capitalize on the chaos and breaking news of the 2013 Upfront process by revealing news of their 'Halo' TV series alongside the Xbox One announcement, though it remains to be seen if they deliver on their latest projection. We'd imagine the wheels turning for a Spielberg 'Halo' series far longer than to arrive in early 2014, but in this case, no news doesn't seem to be good news.
What do you think? Will Xbox's first original series end up as the long-awaited 'Halo' project sometime in 2014? What model would you want to see the game station use for producing and distributing new content?