Tag Archives: bungie

Meet the ‘Halo 4’ Engineers Delivering ‘30 Seconds of Fun’ – Early and Often

“Halo 4” launches tomorrow, and millions of fans will start blasting their way through the biggest and most detailed “Halo” universe yet.

REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 5, 2012 — It happens early and often in every “Halo” game: the ‘30 seconds of fun.’

That phrase refers to the heart-thumping period when players risk pixelated life and limb to take on teeming hordes of enemies. The ‘30 seconds of fun’ mantra began with Bungie, the game studio that created the first five games of the “Halo” franchise.

But “Halo” has always delivered a rich story alongside the action; the game’s universe has spawned comic books and New York Times bestselling novels. “Halo” takes the Goldilocks approach to gaming: it doesn’t exhaust you with long storytelling animations nor numb you with nonstop battles. It finds a middle ground: It’s just right. (more…)

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Meet the ‘Plumbers’ Powering ‘Halo 4’ Infinity Multiplayer

Members of 343 Industries talk to the Microsoft News Center about the infrastructure behind the “Halo 4” Infinity Multiplayer suite and the video game industry’s shift to a world of 24/7 live services.

REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 31, 2012 — Meet Jerry Hook and Tamir Melamed, the hardest-working plumbers in the video game world not named Mario or Luigi.

Hook and Melamed lead the engineering team laying the subterranean IT structures that will power every pixel of the multiplayer experience in “Halo 4.” Everything fans experience online – stats, screenshots, the simple joy of blasting a friend or stranger to smithereens – depends on the infrastructure they’ve built over the past year and half. That infrastructure is supported by Windows Azure, which provides the team with the affordable scalability they need to keep a game like “Halo 4” running smoothly for fans. (more…)

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