First piece of Halo 5: Guardians concept art shows outpost in desert canyon

Concept art for Halo 5: Guardians has been released and it shows what appears to be and outpost nestled deep within a desert canyon.

343 Industries posted the art on the Halo Waypoint website, and stated that it will explain next month why Master Chief was shown wearing a cloak when we last saw concept art for the game during E3 2013.

"Getting the Halo 5: Guardians announce out of the way is a big weight off our shoulders," said Halo franchise development director Frank O’Connor. "This audience has correctly stated and assumed that you can’t necessarily squish a full Halo game into anything less than a three year development schedule – and at least up to and including Halo 5: Guardians, that’s more or less true.

"We’re not just making a new game in that three year span, we’re also making a new engine. During the development of Halo 4, we pushed the Xbox 360 and the engine to its limits, and we were happy with the way we were able to make the Halo universe look.

"The Xbox 360 still has a few tricks up its sleeve, even now. We are moving to a whole new platform with the Xbox One – a new architecture, new graphics hardware and bluntly some new ways to think about gaming, period.

Last year at E3, my boss and studio head for 343, Bonnie Ross called out 60fps and dedicated servers – attractive, desirable, and possibly expected upgrades to the Halo experience. After all, we won’t be the first 60fps shooter out there. That said, these must-haves are not necessarily easy to achieve.

"In building Halo 5: Guardians, we want to push the ecosystem as well as the universe. And we’ll have some surprises in store for new and loyal players of the series."

Expect more to be announced and shown off at E3 next month.

Halo 5: Guardians due autumn 2015.