Halo is a military science fiction video game series and media franchise. It was first created by Bungie and is now managed and developed by Halo Studios, which was previously called 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 a related novel called The Fall of Reach. The most recent major game in the series, Halo Infinite, was released in 2021. Other games in the series include real-time strategy and twin-stick shooter games.
Bungie started as a company that made computer games for the Macintosh platform. One of its early games was Marathon 2: Durandal (1995). In 2000, Microsoft acquired Bungie. At that time, Bungie was working on a game that originally began as a real-time strategy game. This game later became Halo: Combat Evolved, a first-person shooter that 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 continue developing Halo games, either alone or with other studios. In 2024, 343 Industries was restructured and renamed Halo Studios. This change allowed the series to move away from using special technology and to be available on multiple platforms, including Xbox and Windows.
Halo: Combat Evolved was the Xbox's most important game, helping Microsoft become a major competitor in the video game console industry. Later games in the series introduced online matchmaking, social features, and new ways to market video games. The Halo games have sold more than 81 million copies worldwide. With over $6 billion in total sales, Halo is one of the top 100 highest-grossing media franchises in history. The franchise 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 space-based species called the Precursors spread life across the galaxy. One of their created races, the Forerunners, fought against their former creators and nearly caused the Precursors to disappear. Some Precursors turned into dust, hoping to rebuild themselves later. This dust became faulty, causing organisms to change into a new parasitic species connected by a shared mind: the Flood. Ancient humans who traveled through space fought the Flood and also clashed with the Forerunners. After defeating humans, the Forerunners reduced human technology and society to a basic level, focusing instead on stopping the Flood. The Forerunners built the Halo Array—massive ring-shaped weapons designed to destroy all intelligent life in the galaxy to end the Flood. The Array could be controlled from the Ark, a place outside the reach of the Halos that stored life. With no other choices, the Array was activated, stopping the Flood. The remaining Forerunners planted life again and left the Milky Way galaxy.
Nearly 100,000 years later, in the 26th century, humans, led by the Unified Earth Government and the United Nations Space Command, explored many worlds using faster-than-light "slipstream space" (i.e., hyperspace) travel. Conflicts arose between the government and colonies seeking independence. The UNSC's Office of Naval Intelligence created the SPARTAN-II Project to train elite soldiers to suppress rebellions. In 2525, human worlds were attacked by the Covenant, a theocratic group of alien races that believed humans were disrespectful to their gods, the Forerunners. The Covenant began a war to destroy humans. Their advanced technology and large numbers gave them an advantage, though Spartans fought bravely. After the Covenant invaded Reach, the UNSC's last major base besides Earth, Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 became one of the few remaining Spartans.
The discovery of the Halo rings led to a battle with the Covenant, who believed the rings were tools for spiritual growth, not destruction. Master Chief and his AI, Cortana, helped destroy a Halo ring to stop the Covenant and the Flood. Disagreements within the Covenant and the truth about the Halo Array's purpose caused the Covenant to split into a civil war. A former Covenant leader, the Arbiter, joined humans to prevent the Covenant from activating the Halo Array through the Ark. The Human-Covenant War ended.
After the war, the UNSC trained new Spartans, and tensions with rebels resumed. Master Chief and Cortana accidentally released the Forerunner commander Didact, who briefly tried to control humans. Master Chief and Cortana stopped him, though Cortana was thought to have died. Cortana survived and later broke away from the UNSC, claiming control over the galaxy for artificial intelligence. After two years of conflict between Cortana and the UNSC, Cortana attacked the Banished, a group of former Covenant mercenaries. The Banished won, defeating Cortana and fighting the UNSC for control of Zeta Halo.
Game series
Video game studio Bungie was founded in 1991 by Alex Seropian in Chicago, Illinois. The following year, Seropian partnered with programmer Jason Jones to market and release Jones’ game Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete. Focusing on the Mac game market because it was smaller and easier to compete, Bungie became a leading game developer on the platform, releasing the successful games Myth and Marathon. In 1997, Bungie began developing a new game, temporarily named “Monkey Nuts” and later “Blam!” after Jones found it difficult to say the first codename to his mother. “Blam!” was originally conceived as a science fiction real-time strategy game set on a hollowed-out world called Solipsis. The planet eventually became a ringworld called “Halo,” giving the game its title.
As the development team experimented with vehicles that used realistic physics simulations, they moved the distant third-person camera closer to the action. Bungie decided it would be more fun to directly control units rather than direct them, shifting the game to a third-person shooter. Halo was announced on July 21, 1999, during the Macworld Conference & Expo. The game’s title was finalized only days before the announcement.
Bungie faced financial difficulties, and Microsoft was searching for games for its upcoming Xbox console. In June 2000, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Bungie, and Halo—now reimagined as a first-person shooter—became a launch title for the Xbox. Relocating from Chicago to Redmond, Washington, Bungie had about 14 months to finish the game before the Xbox launched. The story began to take shape, with an internal debate over how much personality to give the main character. Writer Joe Staten wanted the player character to have a sense of humor, unlike Half-Life’s Gordon Freeman, who was an “empty vessel.” The team decided to refer to the character by his naval rank, naming him “Master Chief.” Despite a challenging schedule, Halo: Combat Evolved was released as a launch title for the Xbox on November 15, 2001. The Xbox’s marketing heavily featured Halo, whose green color palette matched the console’s design. Halo was a critical and commercial success, selling alongside 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 many elements common to the franchise. Players battle enemies on foot and in vehicles to complete objectives across a mysterious alien landscape. The game limited the number of weapons players could carry to two, requiring careful selection of preferred armament. Players fight with ranged and melee attacks, as well as grenades. Bungie referred to the “weapons-grenades-melee” format as the “Golden Triangle of Halo.” The player’s health is measured in hit points that must be replenished with health packs, but also has a perpetually recharging energy shield.
Although Halo was not originally intended as a franchise, the Bungie team wanted to create an ambitious sequel, drawing from story and gameplay ideas cut from Combat Evolved and inspired by fan reception. In particular, Bungie was surprised by how many fans used the System Link feature to network consoles for multiplayer LAN parties. With the launch of Xbox Live, Bungie aimed to bring Halo multiplayer to the internet.
Halo 2 was announced on August 8, 2002, at Microsoft’s X02 press event, with an impressive demo shown at the Electronic Entertainment Expo the following year. The demo highlighted new features like dual-wielding weapons and hijacking enemy vehicles. However, development was troubled: Bungie had to abandon an ambitious graphics engine that did not work well on Xbox hardware, leadership changes caused infighting, and artists wasted time creating assets that were not used. A planned massive multiplayer mode was cut entirely, leaving a smaller local multiplayer mode as the only offering. As the release date slipped, the studio entered a period of intense work, canceling other Bungie games and absorbing their staff into the Halo team. The final act of the game was cut entirely to meet the deadline. Halo 2 was released on the Xbox in November 2004 and later for Windows Vista in 2007. Part of the marketing included an alternate reality game called I Love Bees, centered around a website seemingly hacked by a mysterious intelligence. Audio clips released during the game formed a narrative set on Earth between Halo and Halo 2. Halo 2 was a critical and commercial success, grossing $125 million on its first day and becoming the highest-grossing release in entertainment history at the time. It ultimately sold 8 million copies, becoming the best-selling Xbox game. Halo 2 also significantly increased subscriptions to Xbox Live.
Frustrated by the development of Halo 2 and wanting to move on to new projects, Bungie aimed to conclude the Halo series with Halo 3. Jason Jones, burned out by Halo 2, took an extended leave, leaving the Halo 3 project without clear leadership. Designer Paul Bertone noted that the large development team (70–80 people) led to more meetings and less efficiency. Several staff members left the team, including Max Hoberman, who later founded Certain Affinity after developing Halo 3’s online systems. Despite these challenges, Halo 3’s development was smoother than Halo 2’s. Halo 3 was announced at the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo and released on the Xbox 360 on September 25, 2007. It introduced new gameplay elements, such as deployable equipment and heavy weapons, and added a limited map-editing tool called Forge, allowing players to insert game objects into existing maps. A “saved films” feature let players record and review gameplay from any angle. Backed by a strong marketing campaign, Halo 3 was a critical and commercial success, grossing $170 million in the U.S. in its first 24 hours. It was the best-selling title of the year in the U.S. and the fourteenth best-selling game of the 2000s.
Dissatisfaction with Bungie’s acquisition by Microsoft in 2000 and a desire for better profit-sharing on Halo 3 led to an agreement allowing Bungie to become an independent studio after releasing a set number of new Halo games. Bungie announced its independence in October 2007. They were contractually obligated to produce two more Halo games. One project became Halo: Reach, while another was initially planned with Peter Jackson’s Wingnut Interactive. When that project was canceled, Bungie incorporated elements from it into a smaller Halo 3 expansion, originally titled Halo 3: Recon.
Produced using the Halo 3 engine and assets, with a smaller team of about 20 full-time employees, Recon—later renamed Halo 3: ODST—was designed as a noir detective story. The player character uncovers clues in a hub world that triggers playable flashbacks. Halo 3: ODST takes place between the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3. Players could explore and complete missions in any order. Bungie staff noted that securing resources for the game was difficult, as most of the studio’s focus was on other projects.
Cultural influences and themes
Bungie said that the Halo series used ring-shaped megastructures inspired by ideas from Larry Niven's Ringworld and Iain M. Banks's Culture series, including the books Consider Phlebas and Excession. Jaime Griesemer explained that the influence of Ringworld was not about how the Halo rings looked, but about the feeling of being in a vast, distant place with a large, epic story happening. Griesemer also said that Armor by John Steakley inspired the idea of a soldier reliving the same war repeatedly, which created a sense of hopelessness and endless battle. The Flood were inspired by the alien species in Christopher Rowley's The Vang. Some people think the name "John 117" for Master Chief might be linked to a character named Jon 6725416 in Rowley's Starhammer or to the character John Spartan from Demolition Man. An article from IGN noted that parts of the Halo series, 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 said that the movie Aliens by James Cameron had a strong influence on Halo.
A report by Roger Travis in The Escapist compared Halo to the Latin epic Aeneid by Virgil. Travis said the stories in both works share similarities, with the Flood and Covenant playing roles similar to the Carthaginians, and Master Chief resembling Aeneas.
The Halo series uses many religious symbols and names. The Flood and the Gravemind are like demonic or satanic figures, and Master Chief's first meeting with the Flood is similar to a journey to hell. An academic named P.C. Paulissen noted that the name "Flood" might refer to the biblical flood story, and the Forerunner Ark is like a shelter from the Flood's destructive power, similar to how the Bible describes protection from a flood.
Esports
After the first Halo game was released, players started organizing spontaneous tournaments and local events. Bungie used the success of these games as inspiration to design the online multiplayer features of Halo 2. Soon, larger groups began hosting competitive Halo matches. In August 2002, G4 held the Halo National Championship Finals, an open tournament with sixteen players from across the country (hosted by Wil Wheaton, known for his role in Star Trek). The Associates of Gaming Professionals (AGP), an organization that focused only on Halo, held its first event in November 2002. Mike Sepso and Sundance DiGiovanni created Major League Gaming in the same year after seeing friends place bets on their Halo matches.
In 2014, Microsoft and 343 Industries launched 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 used The Master Chief Collection. In August 2015, Microsoft announced it would increase the total prize money for the HCS to US$1 million for the debut of Halo 5, the Halo World Championship. Money raised from the public helped create a US$2.5 million prize pool, the largest ever for console esports.
Music
Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori worked together to create the soundtracks for Bungie's Halo games. When 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 add vocal parts. The music changed based on events in the game, and O'Donnell rearranged it into separate pieces for the soundtrack releases. For Halo 2, the soundtrack included songs by Incubus and Breaking Benjamin, along with orchestral music, and Steve Vai added guitar solos. Halo 3's music reused themes from the original game to connect the trilogy's ending. Unlike earlier soundtracks, which used computer-generated sounds, Halo 3's music was recorded with a 60-member orchestra and a group of 24 singers. In Halo: ODST, the music included jazz and noir styles, such as saxophone sounds, while O'Donnell composed more serious music to match the darker story in Halo: Reach.
For Halo 4, audio director Sotaro Tojima searched for a composer and chose Neil Davidge after one year. Neil Davidge and Kazuma Jinnouchi created the music for Halo 4. Davidge thought scoring a video game would be like making film music, but he learned that video games require a different method because the music must change with the game's actions. Much of Halo 4's music was written on guitar or piano, and 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 his work on Halo 4.
The music for Halo Infinite was created by Gareth Coker, Curtis Schweitzer, Joel Corelitz, Alex Bhore, and Eternal Time & Space, with guidance from 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 soundtracks for inspiration and included the Halo theme in his music for Halo Wars; Gordy Haab, Brian Lee White, and Brian Trifon, who composed music for Halo Wars 2; and Tom Salta, who worked on Halo 2 Anniversary and Spartan Assault.
The music from Halo helped increase interest in chant music again. The Halo theme became a well-known song in gaming culture, and in the late 2010s, videos showed teenagers gathering to sing the melody together.
Other media
The Halo franchise includes many types of merchandise and adaptations beyond the video games. This includes bestselling novels, graphic novels, and other officially licensed products. Many action figures and vehicles based on Halo have been created. Joyride Studios made action figures for Halo and Halo 2, while McFarlane Toys produced poseable and collectible action figures for Halo 3. These figures became some of the top-selling action figures in 2007 and 2008. MEGA Bloks partnered with Microsoft to create Halo-themed toys.
As part of Microsoft’s multimedia efforts, Microsoft Studios decided to create a book that connects with 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 novels, including First Strike (2003) and Ghosts of Onyx (2006). A novelization of the game Halo: Combat Evolved was written by William C. Dietz in 2003, titled Halo: The Flood. Other novels 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 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’s 2007 release, delays caused the final issue to be published in 2009. Two additional comic series were announced in 2009: Halo: Helljumper by Peter David, set before Halo: Combat Evolved, and Halo: Blood Line by Fred Van Lente, focusing on a black ops team of Spartan supersoldiers. 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 directly after Halo 4 and ran for 24 issues from 2013 to 2015.
In 2005, Columbia Pictures president Peter Schlessel began working outside the studio system to produce a Halo film. Alex Garland wrote a script, which was pitched to studios by couriers dressed as Master Chief. Microsoft required $10 million upfront and 15 percent of gross profits, but most studios declined. 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures partnered to produce the film, paying Microsoft $5 million and 10 percent of gross profits. Peter Jackson was to be the executive producer, and Neill Blomkamp was to direct. 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 halted and restarted multiple times. Later that year, 20th Century Fox threatened to leave the project, leading Universal to demand Jackson and Schlessel reduce their revenue deals. Both refused, and the project stalled. Blomkamp later created live-action shorts titled Halo: Landfall to promote Halo 3. The film rights reverted 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 follows Thomas Lasky, a cadet at Corbulo Academy of Military Science, and his connection to the Master Chief. Lasky is a major character in Halo 4.
On April 3, 2014, it was announced that Ridley Scott and his production company, Scott Free Productions, were working on a Halo digital feature with 343 Industries and Xbox Entertainment Studios. Scott would be the executive producer, with David W. Zucker and Sergio Mimica-Gezzan as directors. The feature, titled Halo: Nightfall, was included with Halo: The Master Chief Collection in November 2014. It introduces a new character, Agent Jameson Locke, played by Mike Colter. Nightfall is Locke’s origin story. The feature was released on the Halo Channel app for Xbox One, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone, and became available for streaming, downloading, and purchase on March 16, 2015.
On May 21, 2013, Xbox Entertainment Studios and 343 Industries announced a live-action television show of Halo, with Steven Spielberg as executive producer through Amblin Television. The series 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.
Microsoft announced at Comic-Con 2009 that it was overseeing the production of seven short anime films called Halo Legends. Financed by 343 Industries, the animation was created by six Japanese production houses: Bee Train Production, Bones, Casio Entertainment, Production I.G., Studio 4°C, and Toei Animation. Shinji Aramaki, the creator of Appleseed and Appleseed Ex Machina, served as the project’s creative director. Warner Bros. distributed 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 games in the Halo series had been sold. The total sales for the entire Halo franchise reached $6 billion in the same year. Of this amount, $1.8 billion came from the sale of non-game items, such as books and music. Many Halo novels have appeared on bestseller lists from Publishers Weekly, USA Today, and The New York Times. Several Halo soundtracks have also been listed on the Billboard 200 music chart.
Variety magazine compared Halo to Star Wars, calling it a major cultural influence. The musical theme and the character Master Chief are widely recognized as important symbols in gaming. These elements are also closely linked to the Xbox brand. Characters and ideas from the Halo series have been used in other games, including Dead or Alive, Guitar Hero, Killer Instinct, Forza, and Fortnite.
Halo changed how first-person shooter games work on consoles and played a key role in the early success of the Xbox. It became the main attraction for the console, often called the "killer app." A review of Halo 2 described its impact as similar to an event that changed the world, completely transforming the gaming industry and helping to create the idea of games as shared social activities. GamesTM said Halo: Combat Evolved changed how video games are played, while Halo 2 showed how Xbox Live could help people connect online. Game Daily noted that the launch of Halo 2 was as significant as major events in other areas of entertainment.
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 top 100 games ever. IGN ranked Halo 2 as the second-best Xbox game of all time. Halo 3 won several awards, including Time magazine's "Game of the Year" and recognition from IGN for best Xbox 360 multiplayer game and innovative design. Most reviewers praised the multiplayer mode, with IGN calling it the strongest part of the series. Some critics, however, said the story in Halo 3 was weak, with The New York Times calling it unimportant and Total Video Games finding the single-player experience disappointing. Game reviewers generally praised the music and sound in the Halo series.
The Halo franchise inspired many creative projects in the machinima genre, which uses video games to make movies. Most of these films are not part of the official Halo story, while others are based on fan-created stories. Microsoft allowed people to share these films for free. A well-known example is the comedy series Red vs. Blue, made by Rooster Teeth Productions. It became one of the most successful machinima series ever made. Other examples include Arby ‘n the Chief, The Codex, and This Spartan Life, an in-game interview show.