Halo 4 hits Nov. 6, Microsoft announced this morning, confirming The Verge's earlier rumors that the games' fall launch will be "celebrated" tonight on Conan O'Brien's show.

"We are beginning a new saga with Halo 4 and embarking on a journey that will encompass the next decade of Halo games and experiences," said Phil Spencer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Studios. "Millions of fans worldwide have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to step back into the boots of Master Chief, and, with Halo 4 leading the charge, we're confident 2012 will be the most successful year in Xbox history."

Developed by 343 Industries, this will be the first major outing by the Master Chief not developed by Bungie. Bungie's Halo trilogy concluded in 2007, but ended with some unanswered questions about the Master Chief and his AI sidekick Cortana. Halo 4, which Microsoft says will "set a new standard for blockbuster interactive entertainment", takes place four years after the events of Halo 3 and kicks off a new Reclaimer Saga for the series.

Master Chief returns, according to the press release, to "confront his destiny and face an ancient evil that threatens the fate of the entire universe."

Tonight, Conan O'Brien will "help celebrate" the news of the Election Day release of the game with a special segment on his TBS show at 11 p.m. Pacific.

http://www.theverge....-airing-tonight

Let the artery clogging of October, November and December game releases begin.

I foresee either Halo 5 or 6 being Microsoft's strategy for releasing the next Xbox...

I foresee either Halo 5 or 6 being Microsoft's strategy for releasing the next Xbox...

Agreed. I think we'll see a Halo 2 Anniversary before Halo 5 though.

Conan O'Brien? Why there? lol

Conan O'Brien? Why there? lol

More views than Jimmy Fallon?

I guess they get to dust off the old warthog and drive it around NY now. =]

I have to admit, it was pretty great with Conan. I enjoyed the segment.

Big article in Game Informer on this. I don't like the release date, but I'm liking the direction they are taking with the game. With luck it will turn out to be good and a bit different.

I read that article too. The single player sounds pretty interesting, but I'm not liking the direction they're heading with multiplayer. Yet another CODitized game. Halo MP was always skill based, all weapons and abilities were available to all players, so the battlefield was mostly balanced by skill level and game/level familiarity. Now they're adding junk like perks and weapon sets. It just means that it will be even harder to get into for new players when the veterans have all the crazy stuff already. Hopefully they'll still have a good matchmaking system the likes of which Bungie pioneered.

Eh, it all seems kinda uniteresting to me. Once they revealed the first enemies, which were just elites again, I comletely lost interest in the single player. I was hoping they would go all out with changing it up. As for multiplayer, not a fan either of all the CoD influences, and I need to see the matchmaking first, I absouletly hated the way it worked in the Halo games. I started out with Halo 1 on PC, so I like to just go and find the map and mode I want to play, not be stuck hoping to get on it and up playing an hour before that happens.

Eh, it all seems kinda uniteresting to me. Once they revealed the first enemies, which were just elites again, I comletely lost interest in the single player. I was hoping they would go all out with changing it up. As for multiplayer, not a fan either of all the CoD influences, and I need to see the matchmaking first, I absouletly hated the way it worked in the Halo games. I started out with Halo 1 on PC, so I like to just go and find the map and mode I want to play, not be stuck hoping to get on it and up playing an hour before that happens.

Did you read the Game Informer article? They're introducing an entirely new species/class of enemies, including a new set of weapons created by that race, something that hasn't really been done since the Brutes in Halo 2, and they were basically just like elites that movied differently with physical armor instead of an overshield.

I'm still kind of turned off by the idea that it's a non-Bungie Halo, but it does sound interesting.

Aren't 343 made up mostly of bungie though? And yeah, I know its not gonna be entirely covenant, but still....I have that feeling that it will just turn out like the flood, with them only being in the later half the of game.