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Halo series to continue through 2015

343 Industries' Frank O'Connor says Microsoft has multimedia plan for sci-fi franchise that "goes out at least six years"; Halo 3 not the end of Master Chief/Cortana storyline.

Right now, it's unclear if Bungie will continue making Halo games after next year's Halo: Reach. However, Microsoft has no plans to abandon its bread-and-butter Xbox 360 franchise until well into the next decade--at the earliest.

Microsoft didn't mention how Mountain Dew and Doritos will figure into the six-year Halo storyline.

Microsoft didn't mention how Mountain Dew and Doritos will figure into the six-year Halo storyline.

After telling USA Today that Halo 3: ODST had sold 2.5 million units in two weeks, Frank O'Connor, creative director for Microsoft Halo label 343 Industries, laid out his company's vision for the franchise. "We do have a plan that goes out at least six years," O'Connor told the daily.

Specifically, O'Connor pointed to [SPOILER WARNING] Halo 3's legendary-setting ending as a jumping-off point for the main storyline's continuation. "I think that [the Master Chief's] fate, Cortana's fate and the identity of that giant, dark planet at the ending are probably big mysteries that would be irritating if they were just cliffhangers," he said.

With the next Halo game, Halo: Reach, confirmed as being a prequel (as was expected), the future of the Master Chief storyline will continue in a variety of properties, including games, books, comics, and animated efforts like the forthcoming Halo Legends, due out next year. "Eventually, it will become very apparent that there is a plan for the way the canon all ties together and the way the comic books and the novels all tie together," said O'Connor.

SPARTANs aren't Highlanders--there can be more than one.

SPARTANs aren't Highlanders--there can be more than one.

The next Halo book, the short-story compilation Halo: Evolutions, will be published this November by Tor Books. The imprint has also commissioned a trilogy of new Halo novels from Greg Bear, author of such acclaimed books as Blood Music and The Forge of God, to begin next year.

As far as comics go, Marvel is currently halfway through its limited series Halo: Helljumper, which profiles the same sort of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers featured in Halo 3: ODST. The new series Halo: Blood Line (pictured bottom), which chronicles a group of Master Chief's SPARTAN comrades, will begin on December 23.

700 Comments

  • covertgamer78

    Posted Sep 6, 2010 5:28 pm GMT

    I have the feeling that any MS produced Halo games won't be nearly as good as the Bungie games. Please give us Halo 3 PC so I don't have to buy a XBox 360 that isn't even close to being as good as my PC.

  • Gorthin

    Posted Jan 10, 2010 12:57 pm GMT

    i believe they are wrapping up the halo series but, are turning their attention to Marathon an old bungie game set 200 years after halo. They will make another Master Chief/Cortanna game only its 200 years later thus ending Halo but starting something new. This is the future of Bungie's entertainment which is why they r sqeezing out halo products while it is still current and popular

  • Sticker704

    Posted Jan 8, 2010 2:22 pm GMT

    I always keep thinking that reach is gonna be the squeal (But as a fps) of halo wars because at the end of halo wars on legendary (SPOILER) serina says "Captain, wake up. Somthing's happened." If you look at the trailer something strange happens in the halo reach trailer? I'm just sayin'

    After all of this hype about halo 4 people don't even look to read the back of cases. "The stunning CONCULSION to the halo TRILOGY."

  • nate22692

    Posted Dec 13, 2009 4:21 pm GMT

    For me at least, Halo lives and dies depending on Bungie's involvement. I doubt 343 Industries will be able to even match the quality of the Bungie games let alone do better. If Reach really is the end of Bungie's time with Halo, I hope they end with one of the most kick ass and amazing FPS games seen this generation. Let Halo end without shame.

  • John745

    Posted Nov 12, 2009 4:44 pm GMT

    It makes my day that people just don't get that THERE WILL BE NO HALO 4. Halo 3 is the end of the MC storyline. I laughed reading that, even after the article clearly not mentioning any plans for a sequel to Halo 3, there are still little kids going, "Why are they waiting till 2015 to make the next game?" Halo's great and all, but Bungie knows where to stop that storyline. Reach is a prequel, and its possible MC will be in it, as he was on Reach during the fall... But I wouldn't see him as being the sole main character.

  • solidniko

    Posted Nov 9, 2009 5:25 pm GMT

    they have done nearly everything to halo series what else can they do before it becomes boring?

  • robheisel

    Posted Oct 31, 2009 11:45 am GMT

    why r they making the next game 2015 thats along way to go

  • Menelick

    Posted Oct 29, 2009 1:15 am GMT

    while the bungie brain boxes are killing themselves to make halo games good ones,microsoft is just happy to paste its logo(the game rocks though)...but jokes apart the halo games need a "worthy" movie,i wonder what the writers guild of the US are doing?

  • jeffv541 posted Oct 22, 2009 3:08 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    jeffv541

    Posted Oct 22, 2009 3:08 pm GMT (hide)

    Halo is buttcheese

  • itachi100

    Posted Oct 18, 2009 8:32 pm GMT

    Mario needs to know when to give up. That was ever since the Wii was released. But they never do. Final Fantasy is a game that is completely devoid of entertainment after completion. The fans want more. That's why there are so many games in the franchise. Plus it's been going on since the 80s, You can't say it'l only have 3 games after that. Halo should end with this.

  • kingNael96

    Posted Oct 17, 2009 1:37 pm GMT

    halo is is awesome

  • mike2640

    Posted Oct 16, 2009 12:16 am GMT

    It's no surprise; Halo makes money like crazy. However, as long as the quality of the series doesn't drop, I won't complain. There are plenty of Mario and Zelda games out there, but we don't mind because they're still great games. I know it's different because those games aren't story-driven like Halo, but my point is that as long as the Halo games are still well-made, go ahead and keep making them if you want, Bungie. As long as you don't destroy the story by doing it.

  • Darkbeyond

    Posted Oct 14, 2009 6:41 pm GMT

    Dude as long as Halo is around Bungie will always be there GO HALO

  • RomanGuy

    Posted Oct 14, 2009 4:35 pm GMT

    Bungie said they are done with Halo games, but apparently Microsoft isn't. If Bungie doesn't make next Halo game, I'm not buying it.

  • lahdeedah

    Posted Oct 14, 2009 3:36 pm GMT

    Not surprised..

  • Tharkun89

    Posted Oct 13, 2009 11:15 pm GMT

    as far as Halo Reach goes.... as long as they hold true to the stories Eric Nylund told in the Halo books, it should be an amazing experience. the idea of a squad of spartans alone makes me shake in anticipation. if they can acquire the same epic experience as the book, this game will hav no problem being one of the best halo installments of all time.

  • Tharkun89

    Posted Oct 13, 2009 11:11 pm GMT

    the chief did not die in halo 3, watch after the credits after u beat it on legendary.
    -------------------------------------------SPOILER--------------------------------------
    he is on a dead ship with cortana and is put into cryo-sleep, which leads me to believe that Bungie will be making a brand new Marathon game, which takes place 200 years after the events of Halo 3.

  • 9thedevilmaycry

    Posted Oct 13, 2009 3:26 pm GMT

    mybye there will be a 2 d shooter of halo

  • kvan33 posted Oct 13, 2009 1:24 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    kvan33

    Posted Oct 13, 2009 1:24 pm GMT (hide)

    What are they talking about? Master Chief died in Halo 3. They said so at the end, and then the credits ran. Of course I didn't watch all the credits, but I'm sure I didn't miss anything.

  • Tertianfire

    Posted Oct 13, 2009 12:08 pm GMT

    Maybe it won't just be games? Microsoft said Multimedia plans......

  • MSG-Deathscythe posted Oct 13, 2009 2:57 am GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    MSG-Deathscythe

    Posted Oct 13, 2009 2:57 am GMT (hide)

    how much more can one milk a dead cow?

  • Crazy-C527

    Posted Oct 12, 2009 7:46 pm GMT

    Dont get me wrong I love all the halo games its just that I would want to see Bungie do something new and original

  • 9thedevilmaycry

    Posted Oct 12, 2009 5:58 pm GMT

    Halo 4 anyone?

  • Exactlamento posted Oct 12, 2009 11:27 am GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Exactlamento

    Posted Oct 12, 2009 11:27 am GMT (hide)

    I say leave halo in its good memory, before they start making unworthy sequels. I miss the days where a release of a Halo game was the biggest deal in gaming, where people would get shot over copies during the midnight release. They should leave it after Reach.

  • brian_13un

    Posted Oct 12, 2009 7:11 am GMT

    Looking Forward to its evolution ^_^

  • Starbound571

    Posted Oct 12, 2009 6:59 am GMT

    "Halo series to continue through 2015"

    Didn't I read a while back that Bungie was (After Halo 3's release) no longer interested in doing Halo games or the Halo universe? That they planned to keep it a trilogy of only the story of Master Chief? And that they were moving on to other projects? Then Ensemble Studios releases Halo Wars and I get confused after that point. With the recent release of Halo 3: ODST, not to mention they have plans for Halo: Reach, it's clear that nobody's done with the IP... Yet. It seems strange to me.

    While I have nothing against them making more Halo games, it just seems like they went back on their lack of interest and changed their minds rather quickly. For what reason I don't know. They just felt like doing it all over again? Maybe. Someone flashed them a lot of money? Perhaps. But that's a bold accusation and I'm not going to make it.

  • MetalZombieII

    Posted Oct 12, 2009 5:41 am GMT

    @CaptainHerlock

    Your argument is completely flawed, Sony has done little to nothing to truly innovate when it comes to games.

    Last time I checked, Insomniac, Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch were all Second party Developers, if that has changed and Sony now owns any or all of these companies I apologize in advance. However, even if they are now first party developers, that doesn't change the fact that your points are all still moot. Because, Sony has nothing to do with the creative talent or original IP's from these developers, Sony is nothing but the distributor of these titles and paid a lot of money to keep the games created by these very talented companies exclusive.

    Now the same can be said about Microsoft as well, but I give them no credit at all for creating Halo, because the didn't create Halo or it's universe Bungie did.

    Oh and for the record almost all game companies will milk the star franchises to death, no matter who they are, if you want proof just do a little research.

  • RoboSplicer

    Posted Oct 12, 2009 2:49 am GMT

    you dont like the game, don't read articles about it. simple as that

  • Flint247

    Posted Oct 11, 2009 10:48 pm GMT

    I like how people are overreacting over how the Halo series is going to have too many games, when there are like dozens of Mario, Madden, Zelda, Metal Gear Solid, Tony Hawk, Final Fantasy and other games. No one complains about them. Talk about discrimination.

  • pilouuuu2004 posted Oct 11, 2009 7:12 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    pilouuuu2004

    Posted Oct 11, 2009 7:12 pm GMT (hide)

    This is a real torture. Just end this average FPS series!

  • PyroSniper

    Posted Oct 11, 2009 4:32 pm GMT

    @auron11022

    True. Goldeneye and Perfect Dark didn't have the online multiplayer, or LAN capabilities, but they were great games for their time. Now if you want to bring online multiplayer into the equation, I believe that SOCOM was one of the first great online multiplayer shooters with 16 players and such. I'm not saying that the Halo series isnt a good series, just saying that it wasn't revolutionary, there were plenty of games that came before it that were plenty good. Halo didnt really introduce anything that wasnt already on the market at the time. All halo did was take elements from other games that we all knew about and put them together the right way to create the base of fanboys that it has now.

  • FF_fan2004

    Posted Oct 11, 2009 3:36 am GMT

    With any franchise, the last thing you want is for it to end badly, like... Sonic the Hedgehog for example. For something like Halo, if you want to end it, send it out with a bang. Or so to speak. Not falling down to miserable obscurity.

  • thenephariouson

    Posted Oct 11, 2009 2:30 am GMT

    "Milking"?

    Please! Theres currently 5 Halo games available, how many incarnations of Mario are there? or COD, MOH, Fifa, Madden, etc-etc, Point being supply & demand.

  • Great_Ragnarok

    Posted Oct 11, 2009 1:00 am GMT

    Jeez enough with the milking.
    This way they are going to seriously tire out
    a great fictional universe, and make it boring.

  • Intrakitt

    Posted Oct 10, 2009 9:05 pm GMT

    Sony, on the other hand, continues to do what it does best, which is to apparently establish new IP's every generation, milk the holy hell out of them, stretch them out into the new generation a bit and then be done with them. That's right, I said it, but why wouldn't I? If you take a look at their exclusives last round versus the ones this round, there's an obvious trend. While they lost exclusivity for a lot of their major titles from last round, Uncharted and Resistance are already quickly heading the way of their predecessors, which is deep into sequeldom. Is it really far-fetched to believe that these will each have somewhere near 4 or 5 iterations each at the end of this generation? And no, it's not a stretch to say that inFamous will at least make it to round 3 while they continue to crank out Ratchet & Clank titles and Killzone (God knows why).

    Does it really matter if these titles are in-house if they are whored-out so extremely, like more extreme than Halo is which is what I think you are complaining about in the first place?

  • Intrakitt

    Posted Oct 10, 2009 9:04 pm GMT

    Xbox, being developed by an American company, has always more or less catered to that specific demographic. They established some lasting relationships with PC-centric developers like Epic (Unreal Tournament, Unreal), Bungie (Myth, ONI), and Lionhead (Black & White). These companies established some great exclusives for the console while helping to draw support among their demographic. These titles were the immensely popular Unreal Championship (2 titles), Halo (2 titles), Fable (1 title). They also had the surprising support of SEGA last gen, with such great games as Jet Set Radio Future, Otogi, Gunvalkyrie, and Panzer Dragoon Orta, which were all exclusive. On the racing front there was Project Gotham Racing (2 titles), and Forza Motorsport (1 title).

    Now with that information in tow, if you take a look at this generation you might see some trendy uhh...trends. While Microsoft has focused mostly on bringing us sequels of established, popular franchises that everyone wants to see sequels from (like Halo, Fable, PGR, Forza, Ninja Gaiden, etc.) they have also established (and taken chances with) new franchises i.e. Gears of War, Alan Wake, Crackdown, Kameo, Mass Effect, Viva Pinata, and Lost Odyssey.

  • Intrakitt

    Posted Oct 10, 2009 9:03 pm GMT

    CaptainHerlock: This truly is an arena for discussion, however what it is that you are discussing would more than likely be better suited for different forums, like System Wars (for example). You're free to voice your opinion, I never said you weren't, but at the same time I'm free to fully disagree with you and think that you are acting like an ass. Your obvious dissent of Halo and all things of that ilk is noted, though I could really care less, as could most of the people interested in this article. Therefore, I feel like my comments about you preaching to the wrong choir are not ill-conceived but are actually accurate and I will stick by them.

    With that out of the way, let's take a little trip through the time machine and go back to last generation. Maybe we can take a good look at it and try to notice some trends that happen in the video game industry in general:

    With the Playstation 2, Sony established a good deal of exclusive, in-house properties, while dominating the market with out-sourced exclusives like the Final Fantasy series, GTA, Metal Gear (except for 2), Devil May Cry, etc. etc. Some of the in-house titles you might know are Jak and Daxter (1 PSP title, 4 PS2 titles) Sly Cooper (3 PS2 titles), Ratchet and Clank (3 PS3 titles, 2 PSP titles, 5 PS2 titles), Gran Turismo (2 PSX titles, 2 PS2 titles, 1 PSP title) and God of War (2 PS2 titles, 1 PSP title).

  • Mikethechimp

    Posted Oct 10, 2009 7:44 pm GMT

    @ BonelessBone

    I was meant the end of the franchise, not the end of the story arch. I don't care if Halo Wars is a different arch.

  • MuffinMan1014

    Posted Oct 10, 2009 6:30 pm GMT

    playing halo with your friends!

  • ColonelX24

    Posted Oct 10, 2009 6:09 pm GMT

    Cool! So why did they kill Johnson, unless they're going to use other people.

  • AIRWALKTDK666

    Posted Oct 10, 2009 5:05 pm GMT

    Hello, im not trying to critise the Halo games, ive played most of them, but i nevr quite got into them, can someone please tell me what makes them so good?

  • AncientDozer

    Posted Oct 10, 2009 4:33 pm GMT

    And I suspect, Captain Herlock, that people suggest you get a life because all you're doing is effectively "trolling". Yes, you're very eloquent and you put some amount of effort into your comments but you're still just antagonizing people and your overall argument is ludicrous.

    You're effectively saying that Microsoft is a failure because most of the IPs for it are made by other companies. When was this made no longer legitimate? I enjoyed Mass Effect just fine. Left 4 Dead gave many enjoyable hours.

    Listen. Microsoft doesn't need to put out a whole lot of original IPs to be effective, to be successful.

  • AncientDozer

    Posted Oct 10, 2009 4:29 pm GMT

    Captain Herlock, you're missing my point entirely. Yes. there are new IPs now but then they'll be tired and old in the future and then we'll be in the same spot we are now. And. And. Sony has less interest IN being original than it is in finding a successful franchise to milk. Which is why I pointed out that, while they do have some new IPs, we probably won't be seeing many more for a while as they'll likely focus on sequels.

    Your accusations of a "lack of creativity" are absurd because you are basing it on one thing - a lack of original IPs. Microsoft, I hope you realize, does more than one thing. It isn't just a console maker and it isn't just a game maker. More over, it may simply choose to put its creative talents into other things such as Xbox Live and the upcoming Project Natal. As far as I know, you don't work for and haven't interviewed Microsoft so how dare you accuse them based on petty preferences?

    And you act as if this "outsourcing" is bad. It really isn't. Xbox gamers are still getting games and that's really the important part isn't it? That there is a game to be played, a game that people can enjoy. You focus too much on "new" things, whether or not they are/were good. You focus on who makes them rather than the quality of the product. This is folly.

  • Amz1217

    Posted Oct 10, 2009 2:32 pm GMT

    then maybe until then they could really revamp the series and make it a fresh new experience to everyone rather than reusing the same Halo template then maybe they can satisfy everyone rather than Halo fans

  • Joeker96

    Posted Oct 10, 2009 1:23 pm GMT

    It's great that Bungie are obviously putting so much work into the Halo franchise and fleshing it out as much as possible but could they just make a Halo 4 already?

  • joseph234

    Posted Oct 10, 2009 12:40 pm GMT

    I find Halo quite boring, but I don't really care what happens as long as they don't make everyone wear Halo TShirts by law and force people to play it 24/7.

  • ico92

    Posted Oct 10, 2009 12:05 pm GMT

    now i dont hate halo in fact combat evolved is one of my all time favourite games but looking at it now the halo series has acheived a hell of a lot within the space of 7 years its hard to imagine where the franchise is gonna be 6 years from now in 2015 8 years after the story cannon supposedly ended

  • ico92

    Posted Oct 10, 2009 12:01 pm GMT

    if the fight supposedly finished in 2007 with the release of halo 3 why do they continue to release more games...? i'll tell you why becuase halo is now a brand and microsoft knows it the games won't even have to be good or worth the price tag and people will still buy it look at halo odst aka" halo odlc" ,an overpriced expansion pack thats not worth its tag goes on to sell 2.5million, thats says it all , thumb me down i just don't care but the reality the halo name is a now a brand...and the people saying mgs and zelda are milked ok fair enough but i don't think those franchises had their own energy drinks,novels,action figures,anime,ost,graphic novels in the space of 7years i mean come on now it had its own energy drink lol

  • kavadias1981

    Posted Oct 10, 2009 11:42 am GMT

    So Microsoft is going to bleed the franchise dry long after Bungie have called it a day. It has a good name right now, Microsoft, please don't ruin it.

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