Halo is a video game series and media franchise that combines military and science fiction themes. It was first created by Bungie and is now managed and developed by Halo Studios, which was formerly known as 343 Industries. Halo Studios is part of Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios. The series began in November 2001 with the first-person shooter game Halo: Combat Evolved and its related novel, The Fall of Reach. The most recent major release, Halo Infinite, came out in 2021. Other versions of the game include real-time strategy and twin-stick shooter formats.
Bungie started by making computer games for the Macintosh platform, including Marathon 2: Durandal in 1995. In 2000, Microsoft acquired Bungie, and the company's ongoing project, which was originally a real-time strategy game, became Halo: Combat Evolved, a first-person shooter game. This game was the exclusive launch title for Microsoft's Xbox console. After Halo became successful, Bungie created more games in the series before becoming independent again in 2007. Microsoft later formed 343 Industries to manage the Halo franchise, producing games alone and with other studios. In 2024, 343 Industries was rebranded as Halo Studios. This change included plans to develop new games that would be available on multiple platforms, not just Xbox and Windows.
Halo: Combat Evolved was the Xbox's most popular game, helping Microsoft become a major competitor in the video game console industry. Its sequels introduced online matchmaking, social features, and new ways to market video games. The Halo games have sold more than 81 million copies worldwide. The franchise has generated over $6 billion in sales and is among the top 100 highest-grossing media franchises of all time. It includes novels, graphic novels, comic books, short films, animated films, feature films, fan-made animations, and other licensed products.
Story
Millions of years ago, a powerful group of beings from another galaxy called the Precursors spread life throughout the galaxy. One of the life forms they created, the Forerunners, fought against their creators and nearly caused the Precursors to disappear. Some Precursors turned into dust, hoping to be reborn later. This dust became damaged and infected other life forms, creating a new species called the Flood. This species was connected through a shared mind, like a hive. Ancient humans who traveled through space fought both the Flood and the Forerunners. After defeating humans, the Forerunners reduced human technology and society to a basic level and focused on stopping the Flood. The Forerunners built the Halo Array—massive ring-shaped structures designed to destroy all intelligent life in the galaxy to stop the Flood. The Array could be controlled from the Ark, a place where life forms were stored safely away from the Halos. When all other options failed, the Array was activated, ending the Flood outbreak. The remaining Forerunners restarted life and left the Milky Way galaxy.
Nearly 100,000 years later, in the 26th century, humans, led by the Unified Earth Government (UEG) and the United Nations Space Command (UNSC), explored many planets using faster-than-light travel through a space called "hyperspace." Conflicts arose between the government and colonies that wanted independence. To control rebellions, the UNSC’s Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) created the SPARTAN-II Project, training soldiers with special abilities. In 2525, human worlds were attacked by the Covenant, a religious group of alien races that believed humans were disrespectful to their gods, the Forerunners. The Covenant started a war to destroy humanity. Their advanced technology and large numbers made them strong, and while the Spartans fought well, they were too few to save humanity. After the Covenant invaded Reach, a major human stronghold near Earth, only a few Spartans, including Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, remained.
The discovery of the Halo rings led to a battle with the Covenant, who believed the rings were sacred tools for spiritual growth. Master Chief and his AI partner, Cortana, helped destroy a Halo ring to stop the Covenant and the Flood. Conflicts within the Covenant and the truth about the Halo Array’s purpose caused the group to split into a civil war. A former Covenant leader, the Arbiter, joined humans to stop the Covenant from activating the Halo Array through the Ark. The war between humans and the Covenant ended.
After the war, the UNSC trained new Spartans, and tensions with rebels returned. Master Chief and Cortana accidentally released the Forerunner commander Didact, who tried to dominate humanity. Master Chief and Cortana stopped Didact’s plans, though Cortana was thought to have died during the attempt. Cortana survived and later broke away from the UNSC, claiming control over the galaxy for artificial intelligence. After two years of fighting, Cortana attacked the Banished, a group of former Covenant members who fought for money. The Banished defeated Cortana and fought the UNSC for control of Zeta Halo.
Game series
Video game studio Bungie was founded in 1991 by Alex Seropian in Chicago, Illinois. The next year, Seropian partnered with programmer Jason Jones to market and release Jones’ game Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete. Bungie focused on the Mac game market because it was smaller and easier to compete in. This helped Bungie become a leading game developer on the Mac platform, with successful releases of Myth and Marathon.
In 1997, Bungie began developing a new game. It was first called "Monkey Nuts," but later renamed "Blam!" because Jones found it hard to say "Monkey Nuts" to his mother. "Blam!" was planned as a science fiction real-time strategy game set on a hollowed-out world called Solipsis. Over time, the world became a ringworld named "Halo," which became the game’s title.
As the team experimented with vehicles and realistic physics, they moved the camera closer to the action. Bungie decided it would be more fun to directly control units, shifting the game to a third-person shooter. Halo was announced on July 21, 1999, at the Macworld Conference & Expo. The game’s title was finalized only days before the announcement.
At the time, Bungie faced financial challenges. Microsoft was looking for games for its new Xbox console. In June 2000, Microsoft acquired Bungie, and Halo—now a first-person shooter—became a launch title for the Xbox. Bungie moved from Chicago to Redmond, Washington, and had about 14 months to finish the game before the Xbox launched.
The story began to take shape, with Bungie debating how much personality to give the main character. Writer Joe Staten wanted the player character to have more depth than "empty vessel" characters like Half-Life’s Gordon Freeman. The character was given a sense of humor and referred to by his naval rank, "Master Chief." Despite a busy schedule, Halo: Combat Evolved was released as an Xbox launch title on November 15, 2001. The Xbox’s marketing highlighted Halo, which matched the console’s green color design. Halo was a critical and commercial success, selling with half of every Xbox sold. By July 2006, the game had sold 4.2 million copies and earned $170 million in the United States.
Halo: Combat Evolved introduced key elements of the franchise. Players fight enemies on foot and in vehicles across alien landscapes. The game limited weapons to two, forcing players to choose carefully. Combat included ranged attacks, melee weapons, and grenades. Bungie called this "weapons-grenades-melee" format the "Golden Triangle of Halo." The player’s health is measured in hit points, which must be replenished with health packs. The player also has a recharging energy shield.
Although Halo was not planned as a series, Bungie wanted to create a sequel using ideas from Combat Evolved and inspired by fan reactions. Many fans used the System Link feature to play multiplayer in LAN parties. With the launch of Xbox Live, Bungie aimed to bring Halo multiplayer online.
Halo 2 was announced on August 8, 2002, at Microsoft’s X02 event. A demo was shown at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2003, featuring new features like dual-wielding weapons and hijacking enemy vehicles. However, development was troubled. The graphics engine was scrapped due to hardware limits, leadership changes caused conflicts, and some assets were not used. A planned multiplayer mode was cut, leaving a smaller local mode as the only option. The release date was delayed, and the team worked long hours to finish the game. Halo 2 was released on the Xbox in November 2004 and later for Windows Vista in 2007. Marketing included an alternate reality game called I Love Bees, which told a story set on Earth between Halo and Halo 2. Halo 2 was a critical and commercial success, earning $125 million on its first day and becoming the highest-grossing release in entertainment history at the time. It sold 8 million copies and became the best-selling Xbox game. It also boosted Xbox Live subscriptions.
Frustrated by Halo 2’s development, Bungie wanted to finish the series with Halo 3. Jason Jones took a break, and the project lacked clear leadership. Designer Paul Bertone noted that a large team (70–80 people) led to more meetings and less efficiency. Some staff left, including Max Hoberman, who started his own studio. Despite challenges, Halo 3 developed more smoothly than Halo 2. It was announced at the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo and released on the Xbox 360 on September 25, 2007. The game added new features like deployable equipment, heavy weapons, and a map-editing tool called Forge. It also allowed players to record and review gameplay. Halo 3 was a critical and commercial success, earning $170 million in the U.S. in its first 24 hours. It was the best-selling title of the year and the 14th best-selling game of the 2000s.
Bungie’s dissatisfaction with Microsoft’s acquisition and a desire for better profit-sharing led to an agreement for Bungie to become independent after releasing a set number of Halo games. Bungie announced independence in October 2007 and was contractually required to make two more Halo games. One became Halo: Reach, while another was planned with Peter Jackson’s Wingnut Interactive but scrapped. Elements from that project were added to a smaller Halo 3 expansion, later renamed Halo 3: ODST.
Produced using the Halo 3 engine and with a smaller team of about 20 full-time employees, ODST was a noir detective story. Players explored a hub world and triggered flashbacks. The game took place between Halo 2 and Halo 3, allowing players to complete missions in any order. Bungie staff noted that resources were hard to obtain, as most attention focused on other projects.
Cultural influences and themes
Bungie recognized that the Halo series' use of large ring-shaped structures was inspired by ideas from Larry Niven's Ringworld and Iain M. Banks' Culture series, including the books Consider Phlebas and Excession. Jaime Griesemer explained that while the appearance of the Halo rings was not directly influenced by Ringworld, the feeling of being in a vast, different place and the sense of a large, important story were inspired by it. Griesemer also said that a major influence came from the book Armor by John Steakley, which describes a soldier reliving the same war repeatedly. This idea of endless, hopeless fighting affected the Halo series. The Flood, a dangerous enemy in Halo, was inspired by the assimilating alien species in Christopher Rowley's The Vang. Some people believe the Master Chief's name, "John 117," might reference a character named Jon 6725416 from Rowley's Starhammer or the character John Spartan from the movie Demolition Man. An article by IGN noted that parts of Halo, such as the SPARTAN Project and the Covenant Drones, resemble elements from Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, including the super soldier program and the Buggers. Bungie also admitted that the movie Aliens by James Cameron had a strong influence on Halo.
A report by Roger Travis, published in The Escapist, compared Halo to the Latin epic Aeneid, written by the Roman poet Virgil. Travis pointed out similarities between the stories, saying the Flood and Covenant in Halo act like the Carthaginians in the Aeneid, while the Master Chief takes on the role of Aeneas.
The Halo series uses many symbols and names from religious traditions. The Flood, especially the Gravemind, are often seen as demonic or satanic figures. The Master Chief's first meeting with the Flood is similar to a journey to hell. Academic P.C. Paulissen noted that the name "Flood" may refer to the biblical flood, and the Forerunner Ark is like a safe place from the Flood's destructive power, similar to how the Bible describes shelter during a flood.
Esports
After the first Halo game was released, players started organizing spontaneous Halo tournaments and local events. Bungie used the popularity of these games as a model for designing the online multiplayer features of Halo 2. Soon, larger groups began running competitive Halo events. In August 2002, G4 Television hosted the Halo National Championship Finals, a tournament where sixteen players from across the United States competed (organized by Wil Wheaton, known for his role in Star Trek). The Associates of Gaming Professionals (AGP), an organization dedicated only to Halo, held its first event in November 2002. Inspired by friends betting on Halo matches, Mike Sepso and Sundance DiGiovanni started Major League Gaming in the same year.
In 2014, Microsoft and 343 Industries created their own professional Halo league, called the Halo Championship Series (HCS), in partnership with the Electronic Sports League (ESL). Seasons 1 and 2 of the HCS were played using The Master Chief Collection. In August 2015, Microsoft announced it would increase the total prize money for the HCS to $1 million for the first Halo World Championship event for Halo 5. Money raised from many people helped create a prize pool of $2.5 million, the largest console esports prize pool ever recorded.
Music
Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori worked together to create the soundtracks for Bungie's Halo games. Bungie asked them to make music that felt ancient and mysterious for Halo's first game. O'Donnell chose to use Gregorian chant, singing with others to provide the vocal parts. The music changed based on what happened in the game. To make the soundtrack easier to listen to, O'Donnell arranged the music into separate pieces. For Halo 2, the soundtrack included songs from Incubus and Breaking Benjamin, along with an orchestral score. Steve Vai played guitar solos on the soundtrack. Halo 3 reused music from the original game to connect the trilogy's ending. Unlike earlier soundtracks, which used computer-generated music, Halo 3's soundtrack was recorded with a 60-person orchestra and a 24-voice choir. In Halo: ODST, more jazz and noir styles, like saxophones, were used. For Halo: Reach, O'Donnell created more serious music to match the game's darker story.
For Halo 4, audio director Sotaro Tojima searched for a composer in 2010 and chose Neil Davidge after a year. Neil Davidge and Kazuma Jinnouchi composed Halo 4's music. Davidge thought scoring a video game would be like making a movie soundtrack, but he learned that video games required a different method. Much of Halo 4's music was written on guitar or piano. At home, Davidge sometimes sang melodies into a recording device for later use. He used unfinished game spaces and concept art for inspiration. Kazuma Jinnouchi composed additional music for Halo 4 and was the sole composer for Halo 5. Working at 343 Industries gave Jinnouchi early access to the project, making his work on Halo 5 less difficult than Halo 4.
The music for Halo Infinite was created by Gareth Coker, Curtis Schweitzer, Joel Corelitz, Alex Bhore, and Eternal Time & Space. The project was managed by 343 Industries Music Supervisor Joel Yarger. The soundtrack was released digitally on December 8, 2021.
Other composers who worked on Halo games include Stephen Rippy, who used O'Donnell's music for inspiration and included the Halo theme in parts of his work for Halo Wars. Gordy Haab, Brian Lee White, and Brian Trifon composed music for Halo Wars 2. Tom Salta contributed to projects like Halo 2 Anniversary and Spartan Assault.
The music of Halo helped increase interest in chant music. The Halo theme became a popular song among gamers. In the late 2010s, videos showed teenagers gathering to sing the theme together.
Other media
The Halo franchise includes many types of products and stories beyond the video games. These include popular books, graphic novels, and licensed items. Many action figures and vehicles based on Halo have been made. Joyride Studios created action figures for Halo and Halo 2, while Halo 3 action figures, designed for collectors, were made by McFarlane Toys. These figures were among the best-selling toys in 2007 and 2008. MEGA Bloks partnered with Microsoft to create Halo-themed toys.
As part of Microsoft's multimedia projects, Microsoft Studios created a book connected to the game Combat Evolved. Eric Nylund wrote Halo: The Fall of Reach in seven weeks, and it was published in October 2001. Nylund later wrote other Halo books, including First Strike (2003) and Ghosts of Onyx (2006). A novelization of the game, Halo: The Flood, was written by William C. Dietz in 2003. Other Halo books were written by Joseph Staten (Contact Harvest), Tobias S. Buckell, Karen Traviss, Greg Bear (The Forerunner Saga), Matt Forbeck, John Shirley, Troy Denning, Cassandra Rose Clarke, and Kelly Gay. Two short story collections, Halo: Evolutions (2009) and Halo: Fractures (2015), were also released.
The Halo universe was adapted into comics in 2006 with the release of The Halo Graphic Novel, a collection of four short stories published by Marvel Comics. Marvel created several other Halo comic series. Halo: Uprising, written by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev, connects the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3. Originally planned to end before Halo 3 was released in 2007, delays caused the final issue to be published in 2009. Two additional comic series were announced in 2009: Halo: Helljumper by Peter David, which takes place before Halo: Combat Evolved, and Halo: Blood Line by Fred Van Lente, which follows a black ops team of Spartan soldiers. Marvel also released a three-part comic adaptation of Halo: The Fall of Reach in 2011.
Dark Horse Comics produced several Halo series, starting with Halo: Initiation, a three-part series released in August 2013. Another series, Halo: Escalation, was announced in 2009. It covered events after Halo 4 and ran for 24 issues from 2013 to 2015.
In 2005, Columbia Pictures president Peter Schlessel worked outside the studio system to make a Halo movie. Alex Garland wrote a script, which was shared with studios by couriers dressed as Master Chief. Microsoft required $10 million upfront and 15% of the film's profits, but most studios declined. 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures agreed to produce the film, paying $5 million and 10% of profits. Peter Jackson was set to be the executive producer, with Neill Blomkamp as director. Before Blomkamp joined, Guillermo del Toro was in talks to direct.
D. B. Weiss and Josh Olson rewrote Garland's script in 2006. Pre-production was delayed multiple times. In 2007, 20th Century Fox threatened to leave the project, leading Universal to demand that Jackson and Schlessel reduce their revenue deals or the project would end. Both refused, and the film project stalled. Blomkamp later created a series of live-action shorts called Halo: Landfall to promote Halo 3. The film rights were later returned to Microsoft.
Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn is a live-action film and miniseries set in the Halo universe. Originally released as a webseries with five episodes between October 2012 and November 2012, it was later released on Blu-ray and DVD in December 2012. The story takes place during the early stages of the Human-Covenant War and follows Thomas Lasky, a cadet at Corbulo Academy of Military Science, and his connection to Master Chief. Lasky is a major character in Halo 4.
On April 3, 2014, Ridley Scott and his company, Scott Free Productions, began working on a Halo digital feature with 343 Industries and Xbox Entertainment Studios. Scott was the executive producer, with David W. Zucker and Sergio Mimica-Gezzan as directors. The feature, titled Halo: Nightfall, was released with Halo: The Master Chief Collection in November 2014. It introduces a new character, Agent Jameson Locke, played by Mike Colter. Locke's origin story is featured in Nightfall, and he appears on the cover of the Halo series. The feature was available on Xbox One, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone, and later became available for streaming and purchase.
On May 21, 2013, Xbox Entertainment Studios and 343 Industries announced a live-action Halo television show, with Steven Spielberg as executive producer through Amblin Television. The show was set to premiere on Showtime but faced delays. Casting began in 2019, and filming started in 2021. The series premiered on Paramount+ on March 24, 2022.
At Comic-Con 2009, Microsoft announced a series of seven short anime films called Halo Legends. Financed by 343 Industries, the animation was created by six Japanese studios: Bee Train Production, Bones, Casio Entertainment, Production I.G., Studio 4°C, and Toei Animation. Shinji Aramaki, known for Appleseed, was the project's creative director. Warner Bros. released Halo Legends on DVD and Blu-ray in February 2010. Six of the stories are part of the Halo canon, while the seventh, made by Toei, is a parody of the universe.
An animated version of The Fall of Reach is included in the Halo 5: Guardians Limited Edition and Collector's Edition.
Legacy
By 2021, more than 81 million copies of Halo games had been sold. The entire Halo franchise earned $6 billion in sales that year, with $1.8 billion coming from non-game items such as books and music. Several Halo novels appeared on bestseller lists from Publishers Weekly, USA Today, and The New York Times. Multiple Halo soundtracks reached the Billboard 200 music chart.
Variety magazine compared Halo to Star Wars, calling it a cultural milestone. The game’s musical theme and the character Master Chief are seen as important symbols in gaming. These elements also represent key parts of the Xbox brand. Characters and ideas from Halo have appeared in other games, including Dead or Alive, Guitar Hero, Killer Instinct, Forza, and Fortnite.
Halo changed how first-person shooter games are played on consoles and helped make the Xbox successful. It was called the "killer app" for the Xbox, meaning it was a major reason people bought the console. A review of Halo 2 described its impact as similar to an event that changed the world, transforming how people play and share games. GamesTM said Halo: Combat Evolved changed how combat is handled in video games, and Halo 2 introduced Xbox Live as a way for players to connect. Game Daily noted that the release of Halo 2 was as significant as major events in other entertainment areas, marking the first time a video game launch became a major cultural moment in the United States.
In 2007, IGN ranked Halo: Combat Evolved as the best Xbox game of all time. Readers also placed it 14th on a list of the best games ever. IGN listed Halo 2 as the second-best Xbox game. Halo 3 won awards, including Time magazine’s "Game of the Year" and recognition from IGN for best multiplayer and design. Most reviews praised the multiplayer experience, but some critics found the story in Halo 3 to be weak. The game’s music and sound effects were widely praised.
The Halo series inspired many machinima productions, which are films made using video game footage. Most of these films are not part of the official Halo story, though some are based on fan-created stories. Microsoft allowed noncommercial sharing of these films. A popular machinima series called Red vs. Blue, made by Rooster Teeth Productions, became very successful. Other machinima series include Arby ‘n the Chief, The Codex, and This Spartan Life.