Well, Bungie has been upto something for a while. After their fanciful liberation from big daddy Microsoft, they’ve been upto something. But what? Rumour has it that they’re working on 3 different games, while another says that they’re also working on a Halo game. Bungie did say, however, that they wanted to explore new IPs.
This looks like it. Bungie has released something of a teaser on their site, which looks like a pseudo-ARG-viral-marketing thing. Like always it’s something all serious-looking and dangerous and stuff. The image above says “Keep It Clean” in a rather fractured kind of way. And below is this transcript of mystery:
<\\> UNSC OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE
<\\> CLASSIFIED SIGNALS ARCHIVE [ONI.SEC.PRTCL-1A]
<\ OPENED PER OFFICIAL REQUEST [DARE.V.500341(S1)]
\ SOURCE: URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE A.I. [SUPERINTENDENT]
\ RECIPIENT: PROWLER “TOKYO RULES” [COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]
>> NOTATION KEYWORD SEARCH: “EMERGENCY” “DATA” “CORRUPTION”
>> (…) ~ QUERY RUNNING
>> (..)
>> (.) \ VTT TRANSCRIPT AS FOLOWS…[SUPERINTENDENT]: “METROPOLITAN EMERGENCY!”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “METROPOLITAN EMERGENCY!”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “METROPOLITAN EMER–!”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “We know. Personnel are en route. Can you–”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “DETOUR! PROCEED WITH CAUTION!”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “–put Kinsler on the line?”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: [UNITELLIGIBLE > DOG GROWLING(?)]
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Sorry, what?”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “BE A HERO! REPORT VIOLATORS!”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Oh, come on… ”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “METROPOLITAN EMER–!”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Listen. We have a report of core data corruption.”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “I need you to upload your–”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “PARDON OUR DUST!”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK!”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER] “–logs for the last twenty-four hours!”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “KEEP IT CLEAN!”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “KEEP IT CLEAN!”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “KEEP IT CLEAN!”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: [UNINTELLIGIBLE > PROFANITY (?)]
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “We’re sending a team, alright?”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Until they arrive, all additional comm needs to route through me.”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Repeat and acknowledge.”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “OBEY POSTED LIMITS!”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “YIELD TO UPHILL TRAFFIC!”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’…”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “PLEASE REMAIN CALM!”\ ~ QUERY COMPLETE
\ ARCHIVE CLOSED \>
I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. If we’re going to look at hints:
- “Metropolitain Emergency” can probably hint at an urban disaster, of some sort.
- “We’re sending a team”: a Gears of Wars-style squad or some sort of a tactical team in general?
- “URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE A.I. [SUPERINTENDENT: An AI, possibly added for humorous effect, but maybe a funny villain like GLaDOS?
- “RECIPIENT: PROWLER “TOKYO RULES” [COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]”: Japanese setting? Is this Metropolis mentioned above Tokyo? Or maybe it’s just a Japanese Comm. Duty Officer?
- ““YIELD TO UPHILL TRAFFIC!”: I have no idea what this is supposed to mean. But it just has to be a clue.
Whatever this is, I have my eyes on it. All this looks very intriguing. Hell, I’m a sucker for viral marketing!