First Episode Of Forward Unto Dawn, Live-Action Halo 4 Web Series, Is Now Online

By David Wharton | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

The next installment in the acclaimed science fiction shooter series, Halo is set to release next month, and as with all the Halo games that came before, this one is sparing no expense on the marketing push. While the franchise has a history of expensive, high-quality, live-action trailers, Halo 4 is taking the next step and producing a full-on web series called Forward Unto Dawn. The first episode is now online, and it’s pretty damned impressive.

The first thing that blew my mind about the video is that it’s 20 freakin’ minutes long. Sure, the earlier Halo trailers have been top notch, but this is a whole other level. Indeed, Forward Unto Dawn is Microsoft’s most expensive ever live-action promotion, costing the software giant nearly $10 million. That’s a jaw-dropping figure, but when you consider the Halo franchise’s history of financial success, there’s little doubt that Microsoft will make its money back many, many times over. Also, Microsoft is planning to package the full 90-minute collection of Forward Unto Dawn is being packaged with the Halo 4 limited edition, and it will also be available on Blu-ray, DVD, Xbox Video, iTunes, and on demand services.

For those of you at work who are curious but can’t sit through the full 20-minute episode, here’s a short synopsis: “Hastati Squad, the newest batch of freshman cadets at the UNSC’s Corbulo Academy of Military Science, pays the price for cadet Thomas Lasky’s tactics.”

Halo 4 is set to release on November 6th for the Xbox 360.