Halo 4

"Wake up, John."

- Halo 4 tagline.

Halo 4 is the recently announced seventh installment in the best-selling Halo franchise. The game was first revealed on Microsoft's homepage, hours before the start of their E3 press conference, due to a mistake in the editing department which revealed Halo 4 and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. The game was officially announced at the end of Microsoft's E3 2011 press conference. It is said to be the start of "a new trilogy", developed by 343 Industries, Microsoft's new internal development company.

Frank O'Connor has confirmed that the planet is the Legendary planet seen in Halo 3 (during the Legendary epilogue). He has also said "it is safe to say it's not human".

The game is currently expected to be released in "Holiday 2012", following the release of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary on 15th November 2011.

Awakening
Little is known about the game at this point. The teaser-trailer debuted at E3 2011 - titled, Awakening - is, thus far, the major source of information.

In the teaser, Master Chief, asleep in his cryo-tube, awakens as Cortana shouts for him to wake up. Although slow to wake from his stasis (as normal for cryo-sleep), the Chief characteristically snaps into action. He gets out of the tube and approaches Cortana, reassuring her that he is awake and present. An explosion reverberates through the hull, cutting their brief reunion short and alerting John to the danger of the situation. With little time to lose, he transfers Cortana to her data chip and exits the room, drifting weightlessly through the disintegrating interior of the with the aid of a thruster pack. As he maneuvers through the debris-filled corridor, he grabs what seems to be a pistol that fires off single-use explosive projectiles. He uses the weapon to blast open an opening in the aft section of the ship. Exiting through the torn section, the Chief prepares to face whatever warranted his awakening, as the Dawn approaches a mysterious planet/unknown construct with a massive portal/tunnel opening and seeming to lead into it.

The Master Chief's armor has taken on several asthetic changes. The details on his armor have been increased and the look and feel has changed, although still remaining similar to the Halo 3 Mark VI Armor. This is probably because 343 Industries didn't want to stray too far from the original version of Halo 2 and Halo 3. The armor is the same the Chief used in Halo 3, as the scratch on the chest-piece he received when he fell from the Forerunner Dreadnought is still visible.

There are rumors there might be a new voice actor for Cortana, because during the trailer, Cortana's voice sounds distinctly different from Jen Taylor's, the voice actor in Halo, 2, and 3. They, however, may have just used a temporary-replacement for the teaser only (and Jen Taylor may be voice-acting for Cortana in the actual game), or it was because when her voice was heard the video was panning "inside" Master Chief's body, and therefore muffled her voice.

There's speculation that the planet the Dawn is approaching is Onyx - this theory is supported by the novel Halo: Ghosts of Onyx - the portal may be opening to release what is left of the SPARTAN IIIs, and the rest of Blue Team. This is, however, based on speculation and may not come to be. This scenario is unlikely, primarily because Onyx's planetary shell was destroyed by the trillions of Onyx Sentinels that comprised the superstructure of the construct, leaving only the slipspace rift, whereas the planet seen in the Halo 3 Legendary ending is intact.

The website mentions an "ancient evil". This ancient evil, stated on the leaked Halo E3 page, could be the Precursors, the Forerunners, the Flood, or something entirely new and unexpected. It also should be noted that the construct shown in the trailer looks to not be of Human, Covenant, or Forerunner origin. Many ideas, though, have sparked about the Forerunners arriving from a different galaxy after the first - and only - activation of the Halo Array.

Trivia

 * In the Halo 3 ending, the last words heard are spoken by the Chief, as he speaks to Cortana before entering his cryo-chamber: "Wake me, when you need me"
 * In the Halo 4 teaser-trailer, the first words that one can hear are screamed by Cortana as she tries to wake the Chief: "Chief! I need you!".
 * Cortana's current condition is unknown. A Halo Legends story, Origins, puts the year at no earlier than 2556.