Halo 4 quotes: The hype, the excitement, and the…huh?

If you think you got a tough job, try deciphering some game-industry speak. Developers can say a whole lot of nothing and still sound great while doing it. (They should be politicians!) Case in point: Check out the various quotes below from 343 Industries, developers of this holiday season’s Halo 4 for the Xbox 360, from Microsoft’s recent Spring Showcase press event. These guys can talk. These guys can tease. And if you’re a hardcore Halo fan, these guys can even get you excited.

But what are they really saying??

(For a less cynical report on the game, check out 11 new things we’ve learned about Halo 4.)

“How do we balance this respect that we have for the legacy of this great series, with our driving need to innovate?” – Josh Holmes, creative director, asking a rhetorical question but letting you know how damn serious they are about this Halo 4 business

“We want to find our own voice, and we want to push things forward…give ourselves the freedom to take risks. And so in a lot of ways, Halo 4 is a reinvention of Halo.” – Josh Holmes, getting fans excited…we think?

“We looked at two primary goals for [Master] Chief. One, obviously, was focused on gameplay and that first-person experience, which was, ‘How can we deliver on a really visceral, physical, immersive experience for the player as they embody Chief? Deliver on the fantasy of being a 900-pound Spartan badass, how can we do that to the plus 10?'” – Kiki Wolfkill, executive editor, making us wonder why other developers only settle for a normal 10

“We’ve tried to create something that definitely takes into account all the existing fiction, ties in to the canon that has been established, but we want to create something that new players as well can just step right into.” – Josh Holmes on accessibility, something literally every developer wants

“One of the biggest goals for us as a team was the reinvention of Halo multiplayer. We wanted to take Halo multiplayer to a new place, a different experience than you’ve ever experienced before. Something that is absolutely, indisputably Halo but has evolved in important and innovative ways.” – Josh Holmes, getting fans excited again…maybe?

“There’s a lot of things that we’re doing in multiplayer that dramatically change the play experience, including a new way to experience multiplayer with your friends that’s unlike anything you’ve played before, and allows you to make an impact on the story of the Halo universe.” – Josh Holmes, getting fans really pumped up now! If only we understood what this actually meant….

“We have a number of new modes and experiences that will change the way that you play Halo multiplayer. We’ll be talking about those more in the future.” – Josh Holmes, the big tease

“What do we keep? What do we throw away? What do we add?” – Frank O’Connor, franchise development director (from the vidoc below), with more rhetorical-ness

“Equally, we want this to be our Halo game and the first Halo game that 343 has developed.” – Neill Harrison, art manager (from the vidoc), forgetting to tell us that the sky is blue, too

“We’re working within the constraints of what makes Halo Halo but trying to make every aspect of it bigger and better.” – Neill Harrison (from the vidoc) also echoing what every developer says about a sequel

“We wanted to do so much more.” – Frank O’Connor (from the vidoc), not wanting to settle for less

“You have this massive team of people who’ve all come together at this one point in time that focuses on every day that we have left doing everything we can to make this game the best that it could possibly be.” – motivational speaker Josh Holmes (from the vidoc)

“It’s still Halo, but it has its own voice, and it’s extraordinary.” – Kiki Wolfkill (from the vidoc), with the final word