Halo: Reach is considered to be truly one of the best games we’ve ever seen in the gaming world. It’s been more than 14 years since the release of the title, and it still holds up today on all fronts. Gamers simply can’t get enough of the Noble team, intense battles, and beautiful graphics.
A major reason why Reach was so special is because it was Bungie’s final send-off to the franchise. The company wanted to forge its own destiny and pursue new projects. While Microsoft retained the rights to the franchise, its decision to give the mantle to 343 Industries was the death sentence for Halo.
Microsoft completely tore down Bungie’s version Halo
Bungie’s Marcus Lehto, who was Reach‘s creative director, sat down with Engadget and talked about the studio’s final installment in the iconic franchise. He was excited to share more about Reach and how it planned to take things to the next level.
When asked if Bungie was resistant to another studio crafting Halo, Letho stated that it’s now up to Microsoft to decide how the franchise evolves. While he was excited to see how the franchise would develop under a new team, he hoped that the future titles would respect everything that’s been done by Bungie and maintain the same standards.
It’s hard. It’s our baby that we created but it is definitely taking on a life of its own.
It’s fair to say that if Bungie knew what was going to happen to the Halo under the leadership of Microsoft, the company would have never left the franchise alone.
Right after Bungie’s departure, Microsoft gave the keys to the Halo franchise to its own in-house studio, 343 Industries. Since it was supposed to be made up of developers who had experience working with Halo, Microsoft hoped that it would be able to replicate Bungie’s success.
However, that didn’t happen. 343 Industries’ first take with Halo 4 was a disaster, to say the least. The game felt like a step backward due to a terrible narrative and unnecessary mechanics. Things got even worse with Halo 5: Guardians, where 343 Industries outright lied about the narrative in trailers and promotions, only to release a completely different game.
The final blow came with Halo Infinite. 343 Industries stated that it was a spiritual reboot that was supposed to take the franchise back to its roots. However, upon release, it lacked the core features of the series and a terrible live-service model. What’s worse is that developers couldn’t retain players due to a lack of updates.
Microsoft could have kept Bungie under its wing
Many in the community believe that Halo wouldn’t have spiraled down if Bungie was still a part of Microsoft and called the shots. Interestingly, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer suggests that Microsoft could have kept Bungie.
While chatting with Axios, Spencer opened up about Bungie’s work with the Xbox brand and how things played out. When he was asked if Bungie’s split was inevitable, he stated Microsoft could have pulled strings to hold onto the developer.
Spencer explained why Bungie left Microsoft. Halo‘s success didn’t really benefit the studio, as all of it went to the parent company instead of the developers. He stated that Bungie always had big ambitions and wanted to explore new opportunities and projects, which Spencer understood.
However, we can all think about a hypothetical timeline where Halo was still developed by the team that kickstarted it all. All the recent games wouldn’t have been a failure, and the franchise would still be one of the biggest names in the industry.
With that said, do you think Microsoft ruined the Halo franchise? Let us know in the comments below.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
