"2559. Formerly one of the Covenant’s greatest and most fearsome warriors, Arbiter Thel ‘Vadam is now allied with his former human enemies while deeply entrenched in leading the Sangheili people to a new era of unification. But his aspirations are under constant threat, whether by the dangerous, warring factions of rival Sangheili keeps, or the relentless shadow of oppression spread by the renegade artificial intelligence Cortana.

An opportunity to break Cortana’s chains has suddenly presented itself through the rumored existence of an ancient artifact located on the hostile world of Netherop. Spartan Olympia Vale, trained with the skills to live and thrive among the Sangheili, also recognizes this alien prize as an essential means to aid humanity in reaching the same goal of freedom. But behind the scenes, both ‘Vadam and Vale are being manipulated by a mysterious figure with their own agenda. And to make matters worse, all involved are unknowingly placing themselves at perilous odds with forces beyond their comprehension."

We’ll have a full cover reveal for you in the future, but—for now—you can sit comfortably with the knowledge that we will be seeing the dynamic duo of ‘Vadam and Vale together on a mission of great significance with some fascinating ties to fiction both past and present.

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The next Halo book by Troy Denning focuses on Arbiter and Vale!

Halo Infinite is 2560 at the point of Chief being woken by Pilot so this book is less than a year prior to the events of Infinity being blown to pieces, possibly as small as a few months so it should tell us what Arbiter and Vale are up to at least, doesn't sound like Vale is with Osiris or even on Infinity.

This is the best move forward for Vale's character, I said it a few weeks ago, Vale should be a permanent fixture to Arbiter's team alongside him, Usze and N'tho. They could do an expansion with them 4 later on in Infinite, meanwhile Buck is with Alpha Nine, Locke should go solo headhunter and Tanaka should join Majestic.

It took 4 years, 7 months (55 months total) to reach 28,061 in the last Empire.

This Empire has taken 2 years, 1 month (25 months in total) to reach 28,061.

I think we're doing pretty good! Matched it in half the time, although nowhere near Jaywood's speed!

At this pace it will take 6 years in total to surpass Jaywood's thread, Lol, only 4 years to go!

I support this movement to bring back Jaywood 😏

Also I won't have to make another thread as long as Microsoft chills the F out on acquiring

Gonna have to shove Bethesda Softworks and Activision-Blizzard together.

Series S for the W

As unfair/terrible as it is to say, I think the biggest “winner” of the chip shortage in the console space is Xbox. Last generation ended with Xbox getting outsold 2.25:1, this generation they are only getting outsold 1.4:1 globally and that margin appears to be continuing to shrink.

This is going to create a snowball effect in Xbox’s historically stronger markets (US, UK, Mexico, AUS/NZ, Canada). I think it’s more or less a lock that Xbox will recapture the market share lead from PlayStation in the above listed markets. They are clearly making huge inroads back into continental Europe as well.

Also I won't have to make another thread as long as Microsoft chills the F out on acquiring

Gonna have to shove Bethesda Softworks and Activision-Blizzard together.

Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s head of gaming, has already given informal assurances that it will not take Activision’s most popular game, Call of Duty, away from Sony’s PlayStation.

But Nadella suggested that Microsoft should not need to make any formal concessions to win regulatory approval for the deal, because it would still be too small to have an anti-competitive impact.

“At the end of the day, all the analysis here has to be done through a lens of: ‘what’s the category we’re talking about, and market structure?’” he said. “Even post this acquisition, we will be number three with sort of low-teens share [of the video games market] . . . We will be a bit player in what will be a highly fragmented place.

The Microsoft chief conceded that competition regulators were also likely to focus on the deal’s impact on the future development of the metaverse, rather than just on the current gaming market.

But he said Microsoft was committed to building open computing platforms that would make it possible for people to move freely between different companies’ virtual worlds. He added that if regulators try to impose rules to keep any metaverses open and connected, they should apply the same rules to all the tech companies.

“If that is what we want to define for every entrant, all I care about is having equal rules of the road for all participants,” he said. “So if that . . . comes through legislation or through regulation or regulatory enforcement, whatever form, we will be very open to it and engaging.”

Microsoft chief hails $75bn Activision deal as grand step into metaverse | Financial Times

Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s head of gaming, has already given informal assurances that it will not take Activision’s most popular game, Call of Duty, away from Sony’s PlayStation.

But Nadella suggested that Microsoft should not need to make any formal concessions to win regulatory approval for the deal, because it would still be too small to have an anti-competitive impact.

“At the end of the day, all the analysis here has to be done through a lens of: ‘what’s the category we’re talking about, and market structure?’” he said. “Even post this acquisition, we will be number three with sort of low-teens share [of the video games market] . . . We will be a bit player in what will be a highly fragmented place.

The Microsoft chief conceded that competition regulators were also likely to focus on the deal’s impact on the future development of the metaverse, rather than just on the current gaming market.

But he said Microsoft was committed to building open computing platforms that would make it possible for people to move freely between different companies’ virtual worlds. He added that if regulators try to impose rules to keep any metaverses open and connected, they should apply the same rules to all the tech companies.

“If that is what we want to define for every entrant, all I care about is having equal rules of the road for all participants,” he said. “So if that . . . comes through legislation or through regulation or regulatory enforcement, whatever form, we will be very open to it and engaging.”

Microsoft chief hails $75bn Activision deal as grand step into metaverse | Financial Times