[Editor's Note: In the original transcription of this interview, the word "interactive" was mistakenly replaced with "animated". The corrected text follows.]



If there's anyone that wants Halo 3 to succeed, it's Microsoft Game Studios' Shane Kim. We've had the pleasure of talking to Mr. Kim about the future of Xbox 360 in the past, and he was quite enthusiastic about painting an optimistic future for Halo 3 and what this game means to Microsoft this generation.

GameSpy: What is it about the Halo franchise that has allowed it to capture the attention of such a broad audience?
Shane Kim: It starts with gameplay. What Bungie has done with the gameplay, and I give them a lot of credit particularly in the online multiplayer space, is first and foremost what makes it stand out above the crowd. There are a lot of other factors that contribute on top of that. I'm not a hardcore gaming guy, as you well know. But I love the Halo story, and I love the Halo universe, which is part of why I'm very excited to see a movie get made. A really good movie, of course. There's so much story there, we're building Halo Wars with Ensemble Studios, I think there are lots of stories that can be told within the Halo universe. And I think this storyline resonates not only with the hardcore gamers, but also with the mass market audience, in my opinion.

The music is also awesome, and there's so much [more] depth to the quality of the Halo series than you find in a traditional game. That's really what's helped differentiate it from other games. There's also the cult effect, and it's become a pop-culture phenomenon, and then it becomes like a snowball rolling downhill.
GameSpy: You mentioned the Halo movie. This is the third game in the Halo trilogy, and you have Halo Wars coming up. Are you wracking your brains to figure out what to do next? Perhaps a "Halo: the Movie" game?"
Shane Kim: Well, we don't do games based on movies. So this is actually the reverse. I'm not nervous at all about the trilogy ending. I was talking about this with someone else earlier. The feeling I want people to have after they finish Halo 3 is the same feeling they had when "Return of the King" ended. Satisfied, but sad. But there will be other stories to tell in the Halo world, just like there are other stories to tell in that world as well.
GameSpy: And Bungie will be the storytellers, exclusively for Xbox 360?
Shane Kim: Bungie is working directly with Peter Jackson on the Halo interactive series, and Bungie will definitely be involved, and continue to be involved on Halo. But like any creative entity, I know that Bungie has other stories that they want to tell. It's a tricky situation for them. They have a lot of people that are obviously very passionate about Halo, and they also have some people that are interested in telling other stories and doing new things. That's part of the studio process, where they have to figure out what they want to do, and we have to support them on our side as a publisher.