Cancelled and related projects[]Further information: and
were used to promote the release of the games in the main trilogy. The , a series of cryptic email messages, were circulated by Bungie prior to Halo: Combat Evolved 's release.I Love Bees was used to promote the release of Halo 2. The game revolved around a website created by , commissioned by Microsoft and endorsed by Bungie. Over the course of the game, audio clips were released that eventually formed a complete five-hour story set on Earth between Halo and Halo 2. Similarly, Iris was used as a campaign for the release of Halo 3. It featured five web servers containing various media files related to the Halo universe.
Spin-off titles were planned for release on handheld systems, but did not progress far in development. Rumors of a handheld Halo title for the surfaced in 2004. Bungie denied the rumors and commented that such a project between Microsoft and would be "very unlikely". At a Las Vegas consumer technology convention in January 2005, rumors spread about a version of Halo for the handheld system. Bungie denied the rumors stating they were not making a game for the system. A former Gizmondo employee later revealed development only extended to basic story and game structure concepts to obtain funding from investors. In 2006, a concept video for Microsoft's portable featured footage of Halo and caused speculation for a handheld title. Microsoft later stated the footage was for demonstration purposes only; Halo was included because it was a Microsoft-owned property. In January 2007, editor-in-chief claimed he played a version of Halo for the . He later demonstrated on-camera, in-game footage of an early-development style version of Halo DS. The demonstrated work featured dual-wielding and a version of the Halo 2 map Zanzibar. On October 5, 2007, Bungie employee Brian Jarrard explained the Halo DS demo was in fact an unsolicited pitch that was never taken on.
In 2006, Microsoft announced an episodic video game to be developed by film director 's Wingnut Interactive. The game, dubbed Halo: Chronicles, was confirmed to be in development in 2007, and by 2008 was still hiring for positions on the development team. Jackson told game blog in July 2009 that the project was no longer in development. Jackson's manager Ken Kamins explained that the project was cancelled as part of budget cuts tied to job layoffs in January 2009.
Before the company was shuttered after producing Halo Wars, Ensemble Studios had been working on a Halo-themed , often referred to asTitan Project, or just Titan. The project was cancelled internally in 2007–2008, without a formal announcement from Microsoft.
Elements from the Halo universe have also appeared in other games. A Halo-based character, , appeared in , a product of the collaboration between 's and Microsoft's Bungie Studios. The Halo theme tune was also available as for .
Future[]
Halo 5: Guardians, the sequel to Halo 4, will be released on the Xbox One on October 27, 2015. In December 2014, 343 Industries general manager Bonnie Ross expressed Microsoft's aim for the Halo series to last at least 30 more years. On March 25, 2015, 343 Industries announced Halo Online, a Halo multiplayer game for Windows. A closed limited to Russia is scheduled to launch in the second quarter of 2015. The title is being developed with and published by Innova Systems; it is powered by a modified version of the Halo 3 engine. Furthermore, at Gamescom 2015 Microsoft announced a sequel to Ensemble's Halo Wars, Halo Wars 2, slated to launch sometime in 2016. The game is being developed by .
Development[]Bungie[]Main article:
Bungie (formerly Bungie Software Products Corporation) is a game development company started in 1991 by . Seropian partnered with programmer to market and release Jones' game . Focusing on the Macintosh game market because it was smaller and easier to compete, Bungie became the biggest Mac developer with games including the shooters and . What became Halo was originally code-named Monkey Nuts and Blam!, and took place on a hollowed-out world called Solipsis. The planet eventually became a , and an artist suggested the name "Halo", which became the game's title.
The first Halo game was announced on July 21, 1999, during the . It was originally planned to be a real-time strategy game for the Mac and Windows operating systems, but later changed into a third-person action game. On June 19, 2000, Microsoft acquired Bungie Studios and Halo: Combat Evolvedbecame a launch title for the Xbox . After receiving Xbox development kits, Bungie Studios rewrote the game's engine, heavily altered its presentation, and turned it into a first-person shooter. Though the first Halo was meant to include an online multiplayer mode, it was excluded because Xbox Live was not yet available.
Halo was not intended to be the Xbox's flagship game due to internal concerns and gaming press criticism, but Microsoft VP of game publishing did not act on these concerns. The Xbox's marketing heavily featured Halo, whose green color palette meshed with the console's design scheme.
The success of the game led to a sequel, Halo 2, which was announced on August 8, 2002, at Microsoft's press event. It featured improved graphics, new weapons, and a multiplayer mode on Xbox Live.Halo 3 was announced at the 2006 . The initial conception for the third game was done before Halo 2 was released in 2004. It utilized a proprietary, in-house , and employed advanced graphics technologies.
They created two more Halo games before becoming independent as part of their deal with Microsoft: a side story Halo 3: ODST and a prequel Halo: Reach in 2009 and 2010 respectively.
