Remember that rumor saying that Ryan Payton of the Metal Gear Solid 4 team upped and joined the crew of Halo? Turns out to be true. Phil Spencer confirmed it today, just little over a week before the Tokyo Game Show starts. Incidentally, Microsoft also revealed that they have a big announcement in store for Halo fans at the event. Talk about building up hype. More in the full article.

Rumors have been floating around since 2006 that a Halo MMO was in development, although this has never been solidly confirmed by any studio. It's recently revealed that the MMO was indeed real.

Unfortunately, it was canceled.

Yeah, anticlimactic huh? Anyway, check out screenshots of the never-to-be Halo MMO after the link.

Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft Game Studios, has thrown down the gauntlet. Speaking at an interview, Spencer pitted the Xbox 360's line-up of first-party games against the PlayStation 3's own, saying: "Which first party has had more success on their own platform? [...] I'll line up against Sony's first party any day." Well, someone's gearing up for the holiday spirit. More in the full article. Yes, there's more.

Microsoft Game Studios revealed earlier today that Shane Kim would be taking up a new position at the company. Kim will become corporate VP of strategy and business development for Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment business. Learn more about this after the jump!

Microsoft is sending word that they have appointed David Gosen as the new VP for Europe's Strategic Marketing division. Gosen's also expected to help handle the region's Xbox Live service, which speaks plenty for his past experience as a CEO for a mobile games company. Details on this news are in the full article.

In a recent interview with Phil Spencer, general manager of Microsoft Game Studios, he talks about Microsoft's stand on the legal brawl between Silicon Knights and Epic Games and also about the future of Microsoft in a world that seems to have grown attached to casual gaming.

Read about the interview in the full article.

Following an early announcement from an official press release, Microsoft is now slated to plant a publishing arm within the European region. The UK-based Microsoft Game Studios will be focused on delivering content published by Microsoft Game Studios, aside from establishing stronger ties with Euro-based developer studios.

The new publishing studio will be based on Reading, UK, starting May 6, 2007. The initial team will be headed by General Manager Phil Spencer, who shall report directly to Microsoft Game Studios' top brass Shane Kim. He will be tasked with continuing to publish content from numerous developers all across the globe, while establishing a European publishing team for the studio.

Helping him out with the tasks at hand, Director of European Production Shannon Loftis and Director of Business Management Todd Stevens will provide the necessary aid and guidance to the newly established team, while the team reports to the "motherlode" team back in Redmond. Spencer concluded the official announcement, commenting:

We already have an established presence in the region with some of the world’s best development talent like Lionhead and Rare, and great publishing partners like Bizarre Creations, Real Time Worlds and Remedy. I look forward to continuing and strengthening that success by building deeper relationships with the development community here.

Phil Spencer, a British TV presenter, had a lot to report regarding Halo 3, Bungie, and Crackdown. Among the more interesting topics discussed in the video, Bungie is expecting more than 1 million players to be playing multiplayer. They are currently working to avoid the excessive lag expected on its release.

In addition to this, you can hear about the apparent team-up between Bungie and Peter Jackson (Director of LoTR and King Kong). The video is very informative and if you are planning on picking up Halo 3, then it wouldn't hurt to spend five minutes to hear what the video has to say. Unfortunately, there are no lasers in this video... maybe in the next one.

If you ask Phil Spencer, Microsoft Game Studios' head of game development, he'll tell you that he wants every new Xbox 360 game to have Matchmaking. So 1UP asked him, and they also asked him why, of all the games on the Xbox, Halo 2's Matchmaking service outclassed them all. Spencer gave a sensible answer: Bungie spent a lot of time on their Matchmaking code, and it works like a dream. Lucky them.

Developers of other games have a lot on their platter, multiplayer development being one of them. Heck, Gears of War didn't ship with Matchmaking out of the box, but that's only because of the schedule:

The Epic scenario and why we don't have that code in Gears of War is really more of a scheduling issue than a "We weren't going to share the code with them, or help them add that feature to the game" because it's clearly a great feature in online shooting play. For us, it was just "could we get this done on time in order to get the game to come out when it needed to come out."

So, ask Spencer again on what he'd wish for Xbox Live multiplayer: after rattling off the merits of Halo 2 multiplayer Matchmaking, he says "it's a very innovative system and it should be across all 360 games - definitely all [applicable] first party 360 games."

This may just be the personal opinion of a Microsoft employee, but think about it. At least for all Microsoft-published games, they feature a "standard" Matchmaking service modeled on Halo 2, tweaked for the unique requirements of the game, but certainly based off Bungie's model. Spencer also said this:

As a publisher, that's our job, to take code, encapsulate it up and ship it off to other people, not because they can't figure it out but because there are other things on the schedule and if we can help other people by handing out pieces of code, pieces of technology, we should.

This statement got us thinking: suppose Microsoft offered "modular" Matchmaking code that any 360 dev can integrate into their game - based off Halo 2's example, in this case. On the down side, it kind of boxes the game's multiplayer matchups to Halo 2's model, unless the game devs work on the code some more. Still, having something to work with does save a lot of development time and effort.

Eh, but if wishes were horses... Advanced Happy Valentine's Day, hope your Matchmaking is made in heaven and not in hell.

It might be weird to see a Microsoft Game Studios title on the DS, but in an interview with 1UP, Microsoft Game Studios">Shane Kim, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft Game Studios, said that, "A Kameo or a Viva Pinata on a DS makes a lot of sense in a lot of ways from a franchise perspective."

Despite a slow start, Microsoft Game Studios is still committed to Rare's Pinata-filled IP. Phil Spencer, head of Studio Development for Microsoft Game Studios, said that Viva Pinata is "the beginning of an IP that will be a pillar for Microsoft Game Studios for a long time." Kim also expressed similar sentiments, saying, "I think it's fair to say that we're going to continue to invest in that property."

Speaking of handhelds, will these and other Rare titles make the jump to the PSP too? Don't hold your breath. Says Kim, "Whether you're talking about [publishing games on] mobile or the DS -- you probably won't see it on the PSP, though."

Buy: [Viva Pinata for the Xbox 360]
Buy: [Kameo Elements of Power (Xbox 360)]