This is not really news, they have been hiring for 343 since 2008, same for firebird and good science.

Take any "graph card peaking" with a grain of salt. It's all about how efficient the engine is at the end of the day. Granted, there is a certain limit, but most devs who say that are just talking PR. Infinity Ward said MW2 pushes the Xbox 360 to its upper limits. Now we both know the 360 is obviously far more capable than that. Halo: Reach was said to push the 360 to its upper limits, and while it does show to an extent, there's still room for improvement. Now Gears of War 3 looks very impressive, for example, and they did say it's pushing it to the limits.

I do think Crytek's game Kingdoms should be a graphical powerhouse since they're working on one platform, but bear in mind they said the same about Crysis 2 (I think) maxing the PS3 out, and frankly, while the game looks good, it is no where near what's being hyped. Rage, IMO, looks better.

Naughty Dog said the same thing about Uncharted 2, and then after that they've been talking about how there's still a lot of room for improvement in Uncharted 3.

Anyways, OT, we all know it's a Halo: CE remake for this year with a sequel some time later.

@hasanwhy and gurgle: Can we at least wait until they ACTUALLY develop the game?

Yeah but I wanna hear MS say it. Ms is pretty defensive over their stuff so if they say it then it could be true. But yes activision should shhhhhhhhh i dont think they know what would peak a system till they do a single system. 

Crytek will do a marvelous though you are right from what i have seen of rage... wow... wow... wow... id is back... with a vengeance it would seem :)

I don't think they said the same about crysis 2 maxing out the 360 did they? If not that is a little weird, maybe they are simply talking about graph card in that aspect because supposedly the graph card on the 360 is a tad more powerful... dunno probably wrong haha

Well excuse me for asking questions from a different perspective. No harm on looking at it from another angle right? Plus, I have done some research, just not extensively. But I'm looking at it from a realist perspective. Because, well, I tend to judge games like that even PS3 exclusives like Uncharted 2 which if you haven't noticed is my thumbnail pic. Oh, and to answer your 360 queston; Yes, yes I had. A good friend of mine before leaving for college said that he'll allow me to keep his 360 before he got back. It was kinda disappointing though that his Halo 3 disc was scratched up to hell, and I couldn't play it....sigh. 

The old gits part gave me a good lol. Sorry if I was sounding doom and gloom but to be honest can a newly created studio really pull off a sequel to Halo successfully in a short period of time? Just wanted to post on a different perspective. 

hmmm, maybe, not really on the top of my to-do list, but I'll do it for you Squilliam :D 

Neither the higher ups at Activision, nor Sony, or Microsoft say anything about this. It's always the developers, though you can bet they're pressured by the higher-ups to make such statements.

As for the maxing out: I'm guessing they mean all the SPU's are being used. I don't think it's well optimized though, no, not because of the 100 SPU usage, but because of the result.

As for the graph cards: To put it simply, yes the 360's graphics card is better than the PS3's graphics, but the PS3's graphics card works with the SPU's, if I'm not mistaken.

Overall, none of it really matters, it's about how the developers make use of it.

with the names its extraordinarily possible, they also may come up with something better. They may come into it on a different point of view as well :)

Yeah fair call about the developers making but as you say the higher ups must persuade them a tad.

I think Rage may be another case of "maxing out" the systems though. I hope to god that doesnt discriminate by console (either way) because from what I have seen wow. 

Yeah heard something about the graph card, but as you mention it doesnt really matter in the end of the day. MS would be benefited from an in house like naughty dog that knows how to push, but 3rd parties like the owner of the main engine seem to be doing alright at it. I guess we will see. But if Crytek optimise correctly and enough it could be awesome :D

With the diversity that Halo universe has and the base that has already been built upon with the previous installments, the studio will have to be extremely gifted at fucking things up, to fuck up this franchise. Besides, the staff at the studio mostly seem to be veterans from assortment of studios including Ensemble which closed down, Pandemic which also unfortunately shut down, Bungie and even a person from MGS.