Microsoft's goal for the Halo franchise is to make the long-running sci-fi FPS series last at least another 30 years, according to 343 Industries general manager Bonnie Ross. In a new interview with Bloomberg, Ross revealed the figure and recalled the difficult process of getting the studio up and running, calling it "the most challenging thing I've ever done."
Ross went on to say that diversity was a focus in the formation of 343 Industries, and part of her goal for the studio was to ensure that Halo had "characters that people can identity [with]: heroic females and heroic males."
"It's really important for us to get young female talent, because they are the future," Ross said, explaining that having women in key roles will help attract others to the field. "It's important to have leadership roles across the industry that people can aspire to."
At the time of 343 Industries' formation in 2007, the Halo series--which debuted in 2001--was already six years old. Ross said, "I wanted to make sure we were able to go another three decades."
Three decades on from 2007 would be 2037. We've since spoken with Microsoft and confirmed that Ross' "three decades" comment relates to 343 as a studio and the Halo franchise itself.
Ross didn't speak about how specifically Microsoft and 343 Industries--which handles Halo games and all other media and brand extensions--plan to support Halo for the duration of those years, though you can expect more games beyond 2015's Halo 5: Guardians for Xbox One.
That game was originally part of the Reclaimer Trilogy, which would have spanned Halo 4-6. However, Microsoft confirmed in 2013 that it's no longer referring to the new series as a trilogy, but rather a "saga."
"While we originally said trilogy, we've actually expanded this to more of a saga, so we don't want to limit the Reclaimer story within a trilogy," Microsoft said at the time.
Ross has also come out to say that she hopes 343 can some day get away from numbered Halo releases, another suggestion that we may see more spinoffs of the Halo series in the future.
Outside of games, Microsoft recently released digital series Halo: Nightfall from producer Ridley Scott, while the company is also teaming up with Steven Spielberg for a new Halo TV series. And while Microsoft has no official plans to resuscitate the failed Halo movie, that film's one-time director--Neill Blomkamp--says he is still interested in working in that universe.
It will be 2037 by the time they have the MCC completely fixed at this rate.
It is great that 343 have the desire to keep the game going for so long, however I believe they will need to start taking a different approach. Something I would love to see is the series going back to the beginning, as in the Forerunner, Human war. The story for this is great (Forerunner saga of books, actually very good) and could be explored in many different ways. The end of this war is what lead to the end of the Forerunners, who were defeated by the flood, which was briefly touched on in Halo 4 (Librarian cut-scene). Just an idea that I thought would be great to explore and offer a new, revived experience.
30 yrs from now, Halo whatever releases, in China only, while the english speaking gamers of the world wait ages for their localized release :).
@hystavito lol xD also it will be only team red vs team red :)))
@Printul_Noptii @hystavito Good one :).
@Printul_Noptii @hystavito Well played!
Milking it M$ style... dear God!
Then release HALO on PC, you dumb fawk. I'm not so sure your XBOX No.571 would still be around in 30 years.
But PC will.
Great, first step would be getting MCC to work online for EVERYONE
Well if Nintendo can milk Mario for as long as it has no reason Microsoft can't do it with Halo. Personally I don't mind at all I love me some Halo so I'll continue playing so long as they keep the quality up. I want to see a Third-person action shooter version of Halo personally I've always felt like Halo was meant to be in the 3rd-person and would be alot better in 3rd-person then it already is in first.
30 years of Halo? I'm not seeing it. 343 is welcome to try. Another star that had been around for years is Mario and even Nintendo has released some spinoff stinkers starring the legendary mascot.
343 failed releasing MCC, so, at least in the moment, they are defined by that fact. It doesn't lend hope for future releases. I like the Halo franchise. I want to see the leadership focus on current plans and execute NOW, instead of your big plans for the future.
Bah, let it end with 5 and come up with a new franchise. Am I the only one not into Halo? They are okay titles but enough is enough. Or atleast end Master chief saga and set up a new story and setting within the same universe.
The same goes for God of war wich is one of my favourite franchises. I'd love to see another game in the same genre and epicness as the GOW titles but not with Kratos or greek mythology. 3-4 games per title then rethink the concept within the same franchise or come up with a new ip imo.
I hope the Halo series goes on for another 60 years. All hail the Glorious Microsoft Console Developing Master Race!
hmm 30 years later...we get to play halo on new google console, aww remember the old days xbox, nintendo pity they closed shop
Good for 343 and MS. I hope the Halo franchise does exist for 30 more years. It's a great franchise and has plenty of room for lots more story telling. And, I'm glad to see a boss thinking this way and wanting to keep a good thing going.
I don't want 30 years of 343's casualized nonsense. Halo stopped being great after Halo 2.
This is awesome!! I know there are people who "think" halo should be put to bed but look how long Star Wars went on.... Halo(IMO) IS the next Star Wars and there are millions of fans to back up this saga... I think getting to watch Halo evolve from OG Xbox to 2037 will be something awesome to see.
@skiggy34 You are joking right
@skiggy34 Halo is the next Star Wars. LOL. Yeah.....sure.
I love Halo, but even I have a hard time believing that 343i can keep the series alive for another 30 years when they couldn't even successfully re-release 4 of the older games without it been a broken mess. I hope i'm wrong though.
I don't see why people are complaining??? If a game's good then let it continue.... There are many franchises (especially by Nintendo) that are now over 20 years old.... Only thing I hope is that we don't get the same Halo game for 30 years... That would suck
I'm sure Activision feels the same way with Call of Duty. Or EA with Battlefield. Or Ubisoft with Assassin's Creed...
@KamuiFei The big difference is that Halo is not kicked out on yearly cycle. That helps to ward off series fatigue.
I'm sorry Halo fans but I'm almost Halo-out as it is and for some reason I'm not getting that Halo hype when I'm playing MCC and the funny thing is, Destiny has me hook up now. Am I crazy? I'm loving Destiny then Halo.
A company wants to extend the lifetime of their product to sell it as much and as long as possible. Impossible!
Then she better make sure that they don't ever have another debacle like TMCC release. If they don't milk it to death (which MS hasn't), it could well last that long. Look at Mario.
@deathstream I still wonder what happened with the Master Chief Collection matchmaking. 343 is not a hack or rushed studio so for a blunder like that to occur is atypical for them. The only thing I can think of (in my complete and ignorant opinion) is that this came about due to a lack of a beta test. Maybe transferring to the Xbox One created a problem with the system and it wasn't detected because they did not run a beta. It's somewhat of a forgivable oversight. Who runs a beta on a already launched product? I don't know, just a theory I have.
Halo could die tomorrow and I would be fine with it. The first couple of games were good but it all went downhill and now look at the mess Halo MCC is.
@Martyr77 What mess?? Halo MCC works just fine...... Yeah it was a little messed up when it released but everything works fine now and it has for about 2 weeks now... I love Halo, bring it on..
I'd be happy with 30 more years of Halo.
LMAO. Best joke of the week so far and it's only Monday. Mic keep them coming.
I don't understand why they don't make a blockbuster movie out of it.
@lrdfancypants There was going to be one made by Peter Jackson. Was..
What happened? Seems like a good franchise to make a movie of.
It would also expand the franchise to new audience and wouldn't hurt the xbox brand as long as they did it right.
@lrdfancypants MS wants too much control and too much $, the studios balked at what they were trying to do, so no deal was ever made.
Fork anyone??? I think Halo is done.
@NetGod It will never really be done because it has too many passionate fans built up already but it is clear that its glory days are in the past.
Were 4s sales bad or something?
@NetGod LOL what article are you reading??? Halo will never be done.. Why should it? Its a sci fi saga, that kind of sh1`t can go on forever... I hope Halo NEVER ends....
Suddenly 343's loss of focus makes sense.
Ha. Haha. Hahaha. Hahahaha. Hahahahaha. Hahahahahaha. Hahahahahahaha. Microsoft is funny.
Of all the franchises to milk, they choose probably the least original one they have. 30 more years of a Doom ripoff, weeeee hoooooo!
@XxAK47xX lol what?
What about Mario. That's not original at all. Its been done to death just like shooters.
@Dissentioncc Dude, there hasnt been 1 Halo game that scored below a 9. Why in the hell would they quit,,
@XxAK47xX Maybe next time let's think a little bit before posting, hahaha
Historically FPS games don't last longer. If you think about the older ones like in the 90s, the games were simple but challenging at the same time, The levels design as well as the guns and the enemies are what differentiate every fps franchise, When Counter Strike appeared, Gamers get curious about the aiming, it became the new standard of quality fps games "Just like the driving in arcade racing games". During the 6th gen era, Military support became the new fashion e.g Rainbow Six, SOCOM, Ghost Recon ,Battlefield and CoD. Cinematic FPS games didn't get fame at the early life of 7th gen as they're now cause they used to be beat 'em up titles which is inconsistent with what's is known from classical fps games . The original Black Ops redefined the FPS games by giving you your own creation from different set of classes, Portal is unique for its own, didn't made an impact on other fps titles.
@onixevil The original Halo came out during the 6th gen along side of the military shooters that you talked about. Halo was there for the 7th gen and now in the 8th gen. Although I find 30 years to be a bit extreme it is worth noting that the other games that you mentioned usually had a new story line for every game or two in the series. While COD has remained popular over the years it has not been because of the story.
Also, the original Black Ops didn't redefine FPS games with character creation. I remember when Rainbow 6 did that back in the day and I'm not even sure if they were the first to do it.
I got bored of Halo back at Halo 2.
As much as I LOVED the older Halo games, I don't see myself even playing Halo 5, let alone Halo 10 or 15. To each their own, I suppose.