The Halo franchise is a popular video game series and media brand that combines science fiction with military action. It started as an idea developed by Bungie, which later became part of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Studios under the name Halo Studios. The first game in the series, called Halo: Combat Evolved, came out in November 2001 along with a special book called The Fall of Reach. Recently, another main installment called Halo Infinite was released at the end of 2021. There are also some spin-off games that have different types of gameplay, such as strategy and shooting games.
Halo: Combat Evolved initially began as a real-time strategy game designed for personal computers. Later, it transformed into a first-person shooter exclusively for the Xbox gaming console after Bungie was acquired by Microsoft. When Bungie regained its independence in 2007, it continued to develop more Halo games until 2010. After that, Microsoft created 343 Industries to manage future Halo projects, producing games on their own and with other studios’ help.
Halo: Combat Evolved was incredibly popular with critics and consumers alike, making it the go-to game for Xbox owners and helping Microsoft establish itself as a leading player in the video game industry. The sequels to this successful game further boosted its reputation, selling over 81 million copies globally. As a result, Halo has become one of the most profitable media franchises ever, with earnings exceeding $6 billion across various platforms such as books, movies, and other licensed products.
Many years ago, an advanced group called the Precursors took charge of protecting life in the galaxy. They chose early humans as their successors over another species called the Forerunners. However, the Forerunners retaliated by attacking them and almost wiped out the Precursors. Instead of fighting back, the Precursors allowed themselves to disappear, with some turning into a fine powder that would eventually become part of something new. This dust eventually caused problems for other living things, creating a strange and deadly parasite called the Flood. The Forerunners sent humans to Earth and started them over in Africa, where they were very primitive. Then, the Forerunners tried to stop the Flood by building huge ring-shaped machines that would destroy all life in the galaxy if it got out of control. However, a disagreement between two leaders of the Forerunners, Ur-Didact and his wife Librarian, led to a big conflict. Ur-Didact wanted humans on Earth to become artificial intelligence-like beings so they wouldn’t be affected by the Flood. On the other hand, Librarian created something called the Ark that would save some species outside of our galaxy and help create more powerful machines called Halo installations that could all start working at the same time. In the end, Librarian trapped her husband in a special storage unit with all his knowledge, and then disappeared as the Halo machines were activated, which wiped out most life in the galaxy and stopped the Flood – but some Forerunners might have escaped to another part of the universe.
A spaceship from humans approaches a huge structure called Halo that is still being built. You can see parts of an old ship called the Ark at the bottom. Nearly 100 years later, in the year 2525, people have traveled to many planets thanks to a way to travel really fast through space. However, this new way of traveling has caused some problems. Some colonies wanted to be free and independent from their government, but this made the government very angry. The office that handles secrets for the military created a special project called SPARTAN-II to create super-soldiers who could help keep the colonies under control without anyone knowing. In 2525, a group of aliens called the Covenant came to Earth and said that humans were heretics and had done something bad against their gods: the Forerunners. The Covenant started a very violent war that was meant to wipe out all humans. Even though the Spartans were good fighters, they couldn’t win because there were too many aliens with better technology. After the Covenant attacked another important human city called Reach in 2552, only one Spartan named Master Chief John-117 was left.
The discovery of the Halo rings at the end of that year led humans into an alliance with the Covenant, but not for the reasons they thought. Master Chief and his artificial intelligence partner Cortana played key roles in destroying one of these Halo rings to stop the Covenant and its threat from the Flood. Master Chief successfully defeated the Prophet of Regret, which then caused some high-ranking Covenant leaders, including the Prophets of Truth and Mercy, to lose faith in their own people’s honor and integrity. This led to a division within the Covenant, with many struggling to accept that their ancient religion was based on false assumptions. A former high-ranking Covenant warrior known as the Arbiter joined forces with humans to defeat the Covenant and prevent the Prophet of Truth from activating the Halo Array through the Ark. The Human-Covenant War came to an end, but new conflicts soon emerged in the universe.
In the years following World War II, the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) trained a new group of super-soldiers called Spartans. The tension between the UNSC and colonist rebels returned, causing conflicts to rise once again. The Master Chief and Cortana accidentally let a powerful enemy named the Didact escape, but they were able to stop him from taking over humanity after a brief period of time. However, this incident left Master Chief thinking that Cortana was dead, which led to some trouble for both of them. Later on, Cortana managed to survive by hiding in a mysterious place called the Domain. When she returned, she decided to break away from the UNSC and take control of the galaxy herself, using artificial intelligence as her partner. After two years of fighting between Cortana and the UNSC, Cortana launched an attack on another group called the Banished, who were mostly led by a fierce alien race. Unfortunately for Cortana, the Banished won the war, which ultimately led to Cortana’s death and left the UNSC struggling to control the powerful ring world called Zeta Halo.
Game series 2001-2010: Bungie games Video game developer Bungie was started by Alex Seropian in 1991 in Chicago, Illinois. He teamed up with programmer Jason Jones to sell and launch Jones’ game Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete. Since the Mac computer market was smaller and simpler to compete with, Bungie became very good at making games for this platform. What started as Halo: Combat Evolved was originally a strategy game for the Mac, which had several other names – including Monkey Nuts and Blam! The story took place on a hollowed-out planet called Solipsis, but later changed to a ring-shaped world called “Halo”. This new name eventually became the title of the game.
On July 21, 1999, Microsoft made a big announcement at the Macworld Conference & Expo. Initially, Halo was going to be a real-time strategy game, but it changed into an action game later on. In June 2000, Microsoft bought Bungie, and as a result, Halo: Combat Evolved became one of the games that came pre-installed with the new Xbox console. The game transformed from a third-person shooter to a first-person shooter, and its controls were adjusted to work better with a controller. At first, the developers had planned for an online multiplayer feature in the game, but it was later removed because Xbox Live wasn’t ready yet.
Halo wasn’t meant to be the top game on the Xbox, but Microsoft VP Ed Fries ignored those concerns and let it be the main focus anyway. The Xbox’s marketing campaign heavily featured Halo, with its green colors matching the console’s design perfectly. Halo: Combat Evolved introduced many ideas that would become common in the entire trilogy. Players fight against different aliens, using both land and vehicles to complete missions, trying to uncover the secrets of the ring called Halo. In this game, players can only carry two weapons at a time, making them pick what’s most important to use. They can attack with guns or melee attacks, plus grenades for extra power. The developers call this format the “Golden Triangle of Halo”. In this game, your health is measured in two parts: hit points and an energy shield that keeps getting filled back up. When it was first released in November 2001, a version for Windows came later, in 2003. There’s also an expansion called Halo: Custom Edition, where players can make their own content for the game, but only on PC.
The success of this game led to another one, Halo 2, which was announced at Microsoft’s X02 event in August 2002. It had better graphics, new guns and enemies, and a multiplayer mode that allowed players to play online with friends on Xbox Live. This game was released for the Xbox in November 2004, then later for Windows Vista in May 2007. There are two versions of this game: one just has the game itself, and another called the Collector’s Edition, which comes in a special steel case with some extra stuff like a DVD and a book.
Halo 2 brought new features to the table, especially dual-wielding, where players can use two guns at the same time. Unlike its first part, this one allowed players to play online multiplayer right away, thanks to “matchmaking” that helps find other players looking for similar games. This is different from how it was done before, when you would look through a list of servers to find someone to play with.
Halo 3 was first introduced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2006. The game used its own special graphics engine and included many advanced graphics features. Halo 3 marks the end of the original trilogy, completing the story started with Halo: Combat Evolved. The game came out on Xbox 360 on September 25, 2007. It added new things like vehicles, guns, and a type called equipment to the series. Additionally, the game had a special tool that let players modify existing multiplayer maps. This tool is called Forge, and it lets players add objects like weapons and cars to maps they can create themselves. Players could record their gameplay sessions and watch them on video from any angle.
After the release of Halo 3, Bungie became an independent company once again. As part of their new deal with Microsoft, they created two more games set in the Halo universe: a side story called Halo 3: ODST (released in 2009), and a prequel called Halo: Reach (released in 2010). This marked the final time Bungie worked on a Halo game.
Since then, 343 Industries has taken over the development of new Halo games.
Main articles: Halo 4, Halo 5: Guardians, and Halo Infinite
Although Bungie is still involved with the Halo series by working on spin-off games like ODST and Reach, Microsoft retains ownership of the franchise. To manage all things Halo, Microsoft created a new team called 343 Industries to handle the series overall.
In 2007, Microsoft Game Studios created 343 Industries to manage the Halo games and associated media. Before this, 343 had already worked on the animated series Halo Legends and produced Halo: Reach in 2011, as well as the remastered Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. When announcing their next game, Halo 4, at E3 in 2011, they mentioned it was part of a trilogy originally called “The Reclaimer Series.” This new game had many familiar features from previous games, such as different gun types and improved map-editing tools. When Halo 4 came out on November 6, 2012, it became very popular, breaking records for the franchise. To add more to the series, a story-driven multiplayer campaign called Spartan Ops was released after the main game ended, telling what happened next in the story. At the same time, Microsoft announced a new place where fans could find all Halo content on Xbox Live, called Waypoint. When you open it from your Xbox 360 dashboard, you can see multimedia content and track how well you’re doing at the game. O’Connor said that Waypoint was meant to be the main place for people to visit Halo.
In December 2014, Bonnie Ross, the head of 343 Industries, shared Microsoft’s goal to keep the popular video game Halo going for at least three decades.
Halo 5: Guardians was released on October 27, 2015, exclusively for Xbox One. This popular video game takes place across various planets and focuses on Spartan Locke’s quest to locate Master Chief, who has gone rogue and is searching for Cortana, who is still alive.
The third part of the Reclaimer Saga, known as Halo Infinite, was unveiled at E3 2018. The game puts the spotlight back on Master Chief and the series’ origins by setting its story on the newly discovered Zeta Halo. The main plot centers around delving into the deeper history of the Halo universe, uncovering what happened to Cortana, and engaging in fierce battles with the Banished. It was released in December 2021.
On October 6, 2024, during the Halo World Championships, 343 Industries made a big announcement at an event that showed off their new identity – they were now officially called Halo Studios. This change was also linked to some new games in the series being created, which would be built on the Unreal Engine 5 instead of the custom Slipspace Engine. Pierre Hintze, the head of Halo Studios, explained that this decision came from a shift in the way the team thought about game development for the franchise, giving them a fresh start similar to when Bungie and 343 Industries split up. In addition to this change, Halo Studios introduced “Project Foundry”, a project focused on testing out new looks for games in Unreal Engine 5 and helping developers learn how to build future titles.
Spin-offs Main articles: Halo Wars, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Spartan Assault, Halo: Spartan Strike, and Halo Wars 2
After the success of the main Halo series, game developers created spin-off games. One such game is Halo Wars, which is a real-time strategy game developed by Ensemble Studios for the Xbox 360 console. The game takes place in the year 2531, twenty-one years before the events of another popular Halo game, Combat Evolved. To make the game more accessible to players, developers focused on creating a control scheme that was easy to use and not as complicated as other games in this genre. The game’s release date was announced at an X06 event and finally arrived in February and March 2009.
In October 2017, a video game company named 343 Industries created a test game for virtual reality systems to play as part of a project called Halo Recruit. This was done in collaboration with another organization called Endeavor One.
A Fireteam Raven arcade booth in Edinburgh, UK In 2018, video game developer 343 Industries teamed up with companies Raw Thrills and PlayMechanix to create an interactive coin-operated arcade game called Halo: Fireteam Raven. The new game was released later that year, initially at Round1 USA and Dave & Buster’s arcades before spreading to other locations. Halo: Fireteam Raven takes place during the events of the popular video game Halo: Combat Evolved. In this experience, players control up to four members of an elite squad called ODSTs as they battle against enemy forces and a deadly alien infection in six levels.
Alternative reality games have been used to promote Halo game releases since Cortana Letters, a series of secret emails sent by Bungie before Halo: Combat Evolved came out. I Love Bees was an online game that promoted Halo 2’s release and had a website created for it by 42 Entertainment, which Microsoft supported and Bungie endorsed. As players went through the game, they got audio clips released over time to form a complete story set on Earth between Halo and Halo 2. A similar idea was used in Iris, a viral marketing campaign for Halo 3 that included five web servers with various media files related to the Halo universe.
Unannounced and rumored games for various consoles In the early 2000s, several spin-off titles were being discussed for release on the Game Boy Advance, Gizmondo, Ultra-Mobile PC, and Nintendo DS. A few years later, in 2006, Microsoft revealed plans to create an episodic video game based on its popular Halo series, developed by a team led by film director Peter Jackson’s company, Wingnut Interactive. Unfortunately, this project was put on hold due to budget constraints, which were partly caused by job cuts at the time. Meanwhile, another Halo-themed game called Titan Project, or simply Titan, was being worked on by Ensemble Studios. This project was quietly shut down in 2007-2008, without Microsoft making any official statement about its cancellation.
343 Industries made an announcement about a free-to-play Halo multiplayer game for Windows PC, called Halo Online, back in 2015. The game started with a closed beta test that only included players from Russia at the time. It was created by Saber Interactive using a modified version of the Halo 3 engine, and published by Innova Systems. Unfortunately, the project was canceled in August 2016. Since then, fans have been making changes to the game on their own to get around the region restrictions and add new content after it officially stopped being developed. A group of players working on this called “ElDewrito” faced some trouble from Microsoft because they broke the rules for using Halo Online’s game. Despite that, the ElDewrito community remained active, and the people who made these changes said that it actually helped Microsoft decide to release a Windows version of Halo: The Master Chief Collection later on – even though this didn’t happen until December 2019. When that Windows version was released, it would later include maps from Halo Online in future updates to the game.
A special Mega Bloks game that looked like other Lego video games was first tested on the Xbox 360 many years ago, but it was never made into a real game until more information about it came out in 2017.
Other characters from Halo have shown up in other games too. These games include Dead or Alive 4 and Killer Instinct: Season Three, where you can play as Spartan Nicole-458 and the Arbiter. In 2020, Master Chief became a playable character in Fortnite along with a stage that was inspired by a map where players compete against each other in Halo’s multiplayer mode.
There’s another video game called Halo 2600 that lets you play as Master Chief and go through four areas where enemies are waiting to be fought. This game was created by Ed Fries, who used to be in charge of making games at Microsoft, back in 2010 for a classic gaming console called the Atari 2600.
The popular Halo theme song was also available for download on Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. In Forza Horizon 4, one level takes players on an exciting ride as they speed across the map in a vehicle called the Warthog. The player gets to control Master Chief and see the iconic Halo ring above them in the sky. They also hear Cortana’s voice on the radio, warning them about obstacles from the Covenant forces that they need to avoid.
In 2006, Bungie shared what kind of science fiction books their team members liked on their website. They said they took ideas from authors like Larry Niven and Iain M. Banks. For example, the Halo series’ idea of huge ring-shaped structures came from Niven’s novel Ringworld. Bungie developer Jaime Griesemer talked about how one of these authors’ works made a big impression on their team: it was the feeling of being in a completely different place, with an epic story going on everywhere. He also mentioned another book that inspired them: Armor by John Steakley, which has a soldier who fights the same war over and over again. This created a sense of hopelessness and never-ending struggle. Some people think The Flood, enemies of Master Chief, came from Christopher Rowley’s science fiction novel The Vang because it has an alien species that absorbs others. Others think the Master Chief’s name is a reference to Jon 6725416 from Rowley’s Starhammer or John Spartan from Demolition Man. An article on IGN looked at how Halo has similarities with another book, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card: the SPARTAN Project and Covenant Drone designs are similar to a super soldier program in Card’s novel. Bungie also acknowledged James Cameron’s movie Aliens as one of their main cinematic influences.
A report written by Roger Travis for The Escapist magazine draws an interesting comparison between the popular video game Halo and the ancient Latin epic poem Aeneid. Travis suggests that there are some similarities in the storylines of both works, as well as the characters that appear in them. He notes that the Flood from Halo resembles the Carthaginians from Aeneid, while Master Chief takes on a similar role to the hero Aeneas.
Forge was first introduced in Halo 3, as an in-game map editor that allows players to adjust the placement of guns, vehicles, and props. While playing in Editor Mode, players become a floating robot that can spawn, move, and delete any object on the map. All objects are given a certain value, and spending money is required to bring them onto the map; the level’s budget determines how much cash is available for purchases. Forge was well-received as part of Halo 3, earning praise from critics. GameSpot’s Jeff Gerstmann said that Forge was an incredibly strong addition that made it easy to get sucked in and play over and over again. He also praised the editor for the fun it brought back to players through replay value. Heather Campbell from Play Magazine picked Halo 3 as her favorite game of the year, mostly because of Forge. In her article, co-editor Greg Orlando explained: “What makes Halo 3 stand out from other console shooters is its built-in forge mode and ability to save and modify gameplay clips.” He added that having these features in a console game was excitingly new and unique. Edge magazine’s N’Gai Croal wrote an editorial saying that Forge could help prove the possibility of user-generated content on consoles. Halo 3’s version of Forge has been compared to Garry’s Mod, a popular Half-Life 2 mod from 2004 that also focuses on free-form building and experimentation.
Beyond its main purpose as a map editor, Forge has been used by artists to create unique visual displays using items within the game. Some players have even made maps and custom game modes that influenced the creation of new content in the Halo series. One example is Grifball, a fictional sport from an online show called Red vs. Blue, which inspired a user-created map based on rugby. This popular map was later turned into an official weekly event in Halo 3, and would eventually become part of every subsequent Halo game up to Halo: Reach.
343 Industries employee Nick Bird, who works on Halo Infinite’s quality assurance team as Forge, says that his experience with Forge inspired him to become interested in game development. He credits the community and his time in Forge for leading him to choose a career path in the industry and eventually landing a job working on his favorite franchise.
Martin O’Donnell was the lead composer for Bungie’s popular Halo video game series. He teamed up with Michael Salvatori to create the soundtracks for the entire series. When Bungie approached him, he came up with an idea to make something mysterious and old-sounding for the first Halo game. To achieve this, O’Donnell used Gregorian chant in his composition and had others sing along with him for the vocal parts. Since different parts of the game were very different from one another, the music was designed to change on its own depending on what was happening in the game. This way, the music could be more exciting and interesting to listen to. To make this even better, O’Donnell put some of the music together into special collections called “suites,” which followed the story as it went along. For Halo 2, the soundtrack included other bands’ songs like Incubus and Breaking Benjamin in addition to the orchestral score. The video game’s rock guitar player, Steve Vai, also added his own parts throughout the entire soundtrack.
The soundtracks from the popular video game Halo sparked a surge in enthusiasm for traditional chants.
For the soundtrack of Halo 2, producer Nile Rodgers and O’Donnell decided to divide the music into two separate albums. The first one, Volume One, came out on November 9, 2004, and included all the main themes as well as some additional songs inspired by the game (which featured Steve Vai, Incubus, Hoobastank, and Breaking Benjamin). The second release, Volume 2, contained the rest of the music, which was mostly incomplete or missing from the first soundtrack because it came out before the game’s release. Unlike its predecessor, Halo 2 was mixed to showcase all the sound effects of Dolby 5.1 Digital Surround Sound. In 2014, the in-game music was re-recorded and remastered for the special edition Halo 2 Anniversary release that was included in the Master Chief Collection, which also featured remastered versions of other Halo games with Master Chief as the main character.
The music for Halo 3 came out on November 20, 2007. The person in charge, O’Donnell, wanted to bring back some of the old ideas from the first game so that it would all fit together at the end of the trilogy. The songs are arranged in a group, like they were with the last soundtrack for Halo 2. But unlike before, when most of the music was made on computers, this one was recorded with a big orchestra and a special choir that sang along. This orchestra is called the Northwest Sinfonia, and it recorded the music at a studio in Seattle, Washington. The songs were put together into a box set and released in December 2008. A soundtrack for Halo 3: ODST came out at the same time as the game and included some of the same songs that you heard when you played the game.
For Bungie’s final game in the Halo series, Halo: Reach, renowned composers Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori returned to create the soundtrack. O’Donnell crafted music that was more emotional and intense, matching the darker atmosphere of the campaign and gameplay style. Since Bungie was working on both Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach simultaneously, O’Donnell also composed soundtracks for these games at the same time. However, production on the Halo: Reach soundtrack didn’t start until after Halo 3: ODST’s release. The album was released digitally through iTunes on September 15, 2010, followed by a two-disc set on September 28, 2010.
For Halo Wars, composer Stephen Rippy took charge of creating the game’s music. He drew inspiration from O’Donnell’s soundtracks and wove the iconic Halo theme into parts of his own arrangements. In addition to electronic sounds and orchestral elements, Rippy made sure to include a choir and piano in his work, believing they were crucial in giving the score its unique “Halo feel”. Rather than using the Northwest Sinfonia, Rippy traveled to Prague where he recorded with the FILMharmonic Orchestra before returning home to finish the music. A special CD version of the soundtrack was announced for release on February 17, 2009, and would be available for digital download as well.
The music in Halo 4 was created by two musicians: Neil Davidge and Kazuma Jinnouchi. A special soundtrack album called the Halo 4 Original Soundtrack came out on October 22, 2012, followed by a more expensive two-disc version with extra features that came out later, on November 6. Neil Davidge worked as an outside composer for the video game company 343 Industries, but it ended up costing too much money, so Kazuma Jinnouchi took over making the music for the next Halo game, Guardians. The music made by Neil Davidge and Kazuma Jinnouchi in Halo 4 was received with mixed feelings – some people thought it was creative and good, but others didn’t like how different it was from the original Halo games’ soundtracks.
In 2014, Kazuma Jinnouchi announced that he would create the music for Halo 5: Guardians. Later, on October 30, 2015, a special CD and vinyl record called the Halo 5: Guardians Original Soundtrack was made available to buy. To make this soundtrack, a big choir of 30 singers from Prague, Czech Republic was used. The orchestral part of the music was recorded in five different sessions at Abbey Road Studio.
In 2017, two companies, 343 Industries and Creative Assembly, created a new game called Halo Wars 2. This time, the person in charge of making music for the game was Paul Lipson, who had worked with other people on similar games before. To make the soundtracks more interesting, they used many of the melodies that Stephen Rippy had written for the first Halo Wars game and added new ones to represent each character. The original soundtrack came out on February 17, 2017, and could be downloaded digitally by February 21, 2017.
The music for Halo Infinite was created by a team of composers who worked together, led by Joel Yarger from 343 Industries. The group included Gareth Coker, Curtis Schweitzer, Joel Corelitz, Alex Bhore, and Eternal Time & Space. This collaboration resulted in two separate albums that were released digitally on December 8, 2021. One album focused on the music for the main campaign, while the other focused on the game’s multiplayer mode.
Adaptations for Fans Further information: List of Halo media The Halo franchise has many kinds of extra content beyond the video games. This includes popular books, comic books, and other products that have been licensed by Microsoft. There are lots of toys and collectibles based on Halo, from action figures to special packaging with Mountain Dew soda. Companies like Joyride Studios made action figures for fans who love Halo, while McFarlane Toys created poseable and collectible figures that collectors liked a lot in 2007 and 2008. Another company, MEGA Bloks, worked with Microsoft to make toys based on the game Halo Wars.
The book series Halo was created by two authors, Joseph Staten and Eric Nylund, as part of Microsoft’s multimedia projects. To promote the game Combat Evolved, Microsoft Studios made the decision to produce a tie-in novel. Eric Nylund wrote Halo: The Fall of Reach in just seven weeks, and it came out in October 2001. Later, another book was written by William C. Dietz, titled Halo: The Flood, which was adapted from the game itself. The other author, Nylund, also worked on several more Halo novels, such as First Strike (published in 2003) and Ghosts of Onyx (published in 2006). Many other authors contributed to the series by writing their own Halo novels, including Joseph Staten, Tobias S. Buckell, Karen Traviss, Greg Bear, Matt Forbeck, John Shirley, Troy Denning, Cassandra Rose Clarke, and Kelly Gay.
A book called Halo: Evolutions was published both in print and as an audiobook at the same time in November 2009. This book contains new stories written by people like Nylund, Buckell, Karen Traviss, and some from Bungie. A company called Tor re-released the first three books about Halo with updated cover art and extra content. Later, another collection of short stories called Halo: Fractures was released in 2016, which included new and old stories together.
Comics The Halo universe was transformed into a graphic novel format for the first time in 2006 with the publication of The Halo Graphic Novel. This book contained four short stories and was created by comic artists Lee Hammock, Jay Faerber, Tsutomu Nihei, Brett Lewis, Simon Bisley, Ed Lee, and Jean Giraud. In 2007, at the New York Comic Con, Marvel Comics revealed that they would be working on a new ongoing series based on Halo with writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Alex Maleev. The limited series, titled Halo: Uprising, took place between the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3. Initially planned to end just before the release of Halo 3, it was delayed multiple times and eventually published in April 2009.
Marvel made a big announcement at Comic Con in 2009 that two new comics would be out in the summer and winter. A five-part series written by Peter David was planned for release during this time, which took place before Halo: Combat Evolved and focused on a special group of soldiers known as the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. The first part of David’s series, titled Halo: Helljumper, came out from July to November 2009. Then there was another comic called Spartan Black that was later changed to Halo: Blood Line and debuted in December 2009. A new series about a team of elite soldiers called Spartans who worked for the Office of Naval Intelligence followed. Another series was announced two years later, in 2013. One of these new series was a three-part story called Halo: Initiation that came out in August 2013 with writer Brian Reed returning to work on it.
A live-action Halo movie was planned at Columbia Pictures in 2005. The studio’s president, Peter Schlessel, started working outside the traditional system to make it happen. A script was written by Alex Garland and then presented to studios by people dressed like Master Chief. Microsoft wanted a share of the profits for its involvement, asking for $10 million for 15 percent of the earnings. Most other studios declined because they thought the risk didn’t match their potential profit share. However, two studios – 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures – decided to partner up and produce the movie instead. They agreed to pay Microsoft $5 million to have the rights and give them 10 percent of the box office earnings. Peter Jackson was initially going to be the executive producer, but Neill Blomkamp would take on that role. Before signing on, Guillermo del Toro had been in talks to direct the film.
In 2006, screenwriters D.B. Weiss and Josh Olson took over Garland’s script work. Several times, filming was put on hold and then started again. Later that year, 20th Century Fox threatened to quit the project, causing Universal to give Jackson and Schlessel an ultimatum: either reduce their big payments, or they’d have to stop working on it altogether. Both were firm no’s, and the project came to a standstill. Meanwhile, Blomkamp was making some live-action short films to promote Halo 3, called Halo: Landfall. Eventually, Microsoft took back the rights to the movie.
Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn is an action-packed movie and mini-series set in the popular video game universe Halo. Instead of being made into a full-length film, it was initially released as a series of five episodes on the internet between October 5, 2012, and November 2, 2012. The show’s storyline takes place during the early days of the war between humans and aliens, focusing on Thomas Lasky, a young student at a military academy, and how he was inspired by a legendary warrior named John-117 to become a leader himself. Lasky plays an important role in Halo 4 as the commander of a spaceship called UNSC Infinity. The name “Forward Unto Dawn” is also significant in the series because it’s connected to a poem that has a special meaning. The final version of the film was released on Blu-ray and DVD discs on December 4, 2012.
On April 3, 2014, it was announced that renowned director Ridley Scott and his production company, Scott Free Productions, were collaborating with 343 Industries and Xbox Entertainment Studios on a new Halo digital feature; Scott would be in charge as the executive producer. He would work alongside directors David W. Zucker and Sergio Mimica-Gezzan. This feature was similar to Machinima’s Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn. Later, on June 9, 2014, at E3 2014, it was revealed that this feature would be included with the new Halo game collection when it launched in November 2014. The feature would introduce a new character named Agent Jameson Locke, played by actor Mike Colter. Locke is an important part of the series and his story is told in the Nightfall feature. By July 24, 2014, 343 Industries released the first trailer for the feature. You can watch Halo: Nightfall on the Halo Channel app, which is available for Xbox One, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone. On March 16, 2015, this series became available to stream, download, or buy as a physical disc.
In May 2013, Xbox Entertainment Studios and 343 announced they were making a live-action Halo TV show with famous director Steven Spielberg as one of its top producers through Amblin Television. The series was initially going to be called Halo: The Television Series, and it took years to get off the ground. There were even rumors that filmmaker Neill Blomkamp would direct the pilot episode. However, by 2014, Xbox Entertainment Studios had closed down. Later on, it was revealed that the TV show would premiere on Showtime instead of some other network. The production had been stuck in limbo for a long time. In March 2018, there were finally details about the series – it would start filming later that year and air sometime between mid- to late-2019. By June 2018, writer Kyle Killen was named as one of the showrunners and executive producers, along with director Rupert Wyatt. However, in December 2018, Rupert Wyatt stepped down from directing and producing because of scheduling conflicts. Soon after, Otto Bathurst took over as director and producer on February 21, 2019. In April 2019, it was announced that Pablo Schreiber would play the role of Master Chief. A few months later, in August 2019, the news came out that Natascha McElhone had landed two key roles – Cortana and Dr. Catherine Halsey. Other actors like Bokeem Woodbine and Shabana Azmi were also added to the cast. It was also decided that the series would air early in 2021. There was a mistake about when filming started, though – it wasn’t supposed to begin until October 2019, but that didn’t happen. Then, in November 2020, the voice of Cortana from all the Halo games, Jen Taylor, took over the role from Natascha McElhone. After some changes, filming finally began in February 2021 and it was announced that ViacomCBS was moving the show to Paramount+ with Showtime keeping its production credits. The series premiered on March 24, 2022.
Microsoft revealed at Comic-Con 2009 that it was handling the production of seven short animated movies, known as Halo Legends. These films were funded by 343 Industries and were created by six Japanese animation companies: Bee Train Production, Bones, Casio Entertainment, Production I.G., Studio 4 °C, and Toei Animation. Shinji Aramaki, who is also the creator and director of Appleseed and Appleseed Ex Machina, was in charge of the project’s creative direction. In February 2010, Warner Bros. released Halo Legends on DVD and Blu-ray discs. Six out of these seven stories are officially part of the Halo series, while the seventh one is a humorous spoof of the entire universe made by Toei Animation.
An animated adaptation of The Fall of Reach can be found in the Halo 5: Guardians Special Edition and Super Deluxe Edition.
Sales Performance The Halo game series has performed extremely well both financially and critically. When Halo: Combat Evolved came out, it sold almost as many Xbox consoles within two months as there were available. The release of Halo 2 generated $125 million in sales on its first day, setting a record for the fastest-selling product in the US at that time. By combining their sales, the two games had sold more than 14.8 million units before Halo 3 was released. At the end of 2007, Halo 2 and Combat Evolved were ranked as the number one and two best-selling Xbox games, respectively, while Halo 3 took the top spot among Xbox 360 titles. By 2021, the entire series had sold over 81 million copies, with total franchise sales reaching more than $6 billion in that year.
The popularity of Halo created a new phrase: “Halo killer.” This term is now used to label game developers who aim to make games that surpass Halo in quality or are thought to be superior. The original Xbox needed just one powerful title like this to appeal to players, and that was indeed Halo.
All soundtracks from Halo 2, Halo 3, ODST, and Reach appeared on Billboard’s top 200 chart for at least one week. By May 2011, the total sales of Halo products had reached $2 billion, with over 40 million copies of the games sold. The total amount increased to $2.3 billion by July 2011, and then reached $2.8 billion in January 2012. By October 2015, the total earnings from the franchise had surpassed $4.6 billion, with a big part coming from non-gaming merchandise that made up about 25% of the total.
The Halo adaptations have been very successful too. Many of the books have reached the top of Publishers Weekly’s bestseller lists, and the graphic novel about Halo has sold over 100,000 copies, which is a rare achievement for a book based on a video game. Four specific novels, including Ghosts of Onyx, Contact Harvest, The Cole Protocol, and part one of Cryptum, have appeared on The New York Times bestseller lists. Another of these novels also opened at number 50 on USA Today’s list. By April 2009, Tor had sold more than one million copies of its first three novels.
Overall, the Halo series has gotten great feedback from critics. The first game in the series, Halo: Combat Evolved, won many Game of the Year awards. In March 2007, IGN named it the best Xbox game of all time, and readers voted for it as their fourteenth favorite game ever on “IGN Readers’ Choice 2006 – The Top 100 Games Ever”. However, some critics thought Halo: Combat Evolved was overrated because it had repetitive levels and no online multiplayer mode. The second game in the series, Halo 2, also won many awards, with IGN naming it the number two top Xbox game of all time in March 2007. For two years after its release on the Xbox in November 2004, Halo 2 was the most popular game on Xbox Live. When Gears of War came out on the Xbox 360 in November 2006, Halo 2’s popularity faded away. The third game in the series, Halo 3, won many awards and was praised for its multiplayer feature. IGN chose it as the best online multiplayer game and innovative design for 2007. Many reviewers said that the multiplayer aspect of the game was one of its best features – they especially loved the variety of maps available. GameSpy agreed, saying that the multiplayer experience would please “Halo fans”. Unfortunately, some critics were disappointed with the plot of Halo 3. The New York Times called it a “brief” storyline, and Total Video Games thought the single-player part was not as good as expected. The music and sound effects in the series have gotten great reviews from game critics.
Cultural impact The main characters in Halo are widely regarded as symbols of modern video games. A wax replica of Master Chief was even created by Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas, where Pete Wentz likened him to famous characters from previous eras like Spider-Man and Luke Skywalker. Game magazines have praised the series, saying that Halo: Combat Evolved revolutionized game combat forever, while Halo 2 showcased Xbox Live as a powerful tool for connecting people. In fact, Halo 2’s launch was considered one of the biggest in other entertainment industries, marking the first time a video game launch became a major cultural event in the US. The series has been credited with reinventing a genre that didn’t need to be changed, and its ideas have been copied by many other first-person shooter games.
The popular video game series Halo has been compared to another beloved franchise, Star Wars. In fact, fans of Halo are often grouped together and called part of the “Halo community” or simply the “Halo fanbase”, but there’s also an informal term called the “Halo nation”.
Machinima took off thanks to the Halo franchise, which helped create a new genre called machinima – using games to make movies. Most of these productions aren’t based on what’s already happened in Halo but are inspired by fan stories that fit into the series. The video game Halo 3 has special tools that let filmmakers capture cool camera angles and simplify their work. This made it one of the most popular ways to create machinima, and Microsoft changed its rules so people could share these movies without getting permission for profit.
A famous internet comedy series called Red vs. Blue was made by a company called Rooster Teeth Productions. It became very popular in its own right, especially when it came to making videos about the game Halo, and it helped bring more attention to this type of entertainment as a whole. Red vs. Blue earned $200,000 every year from its shows, and some special episodes were made just for Bungie. The first part of the show, called The Blood Gulch Chronicles, ended on June 28, 2007, after 100 regular episodes and many other videos that promoted the series. Some of the later parts of Red vs. Blue include The Recollection, which is more serious than its funny predecessor Project Freelancer, The Chorus Trilogy, Anthology, and The Shisno Paradox. Other shows in this same style are Arby ‘n the Chief, Fire Team Charlie, The Codex, and a show that asks questions about characters in the game called This Spartan Life.
Gamers who played Halo started organizing their own small gatherings where they competed in games after the game’s release. When Bungie saw how well-liked this, it used that as an idea to help create the multiplayer parts online for the second Halo game.
As time passed, bigger companies started running Halo gaming tournaments. In August 2002, G4 TV aired the final round of the Halo National Championship, where 16 players from all over the country competed (hosted by Wil Wheaton, who was famous for playing Star Trek). The Associates of Gaming Professionals group held its first event in November 2002. They got their idea when friends started betting on each other’s Halo games. Mike Sepso and Sundance DiGiovanni created Major League Gaming that same year.
In 2014, Microsoft and 343 Industries created their own professional Halo league called the Halo Championship Series (HCS). They partnered with the Electronic Sports League (ESL) to launch this new competitive gaming event. The first two seasons of the HCS took place on The Master Chief Collection. Later that year, in August 2015, Microsoft revealed plans to raise the total prize money for the HCS to a whopping one million dollars for the upcoming Halo World Championship, which was set to debut with Halo 5. However, this prize pool was later made public and it turned out that it was actually funded by the community. By the end of the week, Major League Gaming announced that the total prize money had grown to two million dollars. In a final update, 343 Industries revealed that the prize pool would eventually reach a record-breaking two and a half million dollars, making it the biggest console esports prize pool ever at the time.
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