14 DAY TRIAL // One of the biggest games for the original Xbox was the first Halo title, which brought the futuristic shooter into people's homes and, with a solid single player campaign, placing gamers into the Spartan armor of Master Chief, captured the attention of the whole world. But it wasn't the single player aspect that attracted most of the customers, but the online multiplayer one, which was extremely good. Benefiting from the early beta stages of the Xbox's Live system, it gave gamers the chance to play with anyone on a wide variety of maps and experience a great online game.
But few people know that the excellent multiplayer mode was something that almost didn't make it to the official retail version of the game. Speaking with Gamasutra, Hardy LeBel, one of the key people who worked on the first Halo, explained the situation the development team was confronted with when Microsoft acquired the studio.
"When we got bought by Microsoft, Alex Seropian and Jason Jones, who were the two principals of Bungie, came to me and former Bungie engineer and animator Michael Evans, and said, 'Multiplayer is cut from Halo because we're trying to make it really work on the console and we just don't have the resources.' But we threw a fit and were like, 'No way! You can't cut it! It's just too cool!' They said, 'We were hoping you'd say that – because you two guys have to resurrect it.'"
This is quite an interesting story, proving that if the people on the development team are truly involved in the project, they can create wonderful things. Of course this doesn't really flatter Microsoft as a company, saying that it rushed the process only to create an average game. But in the end it was for the best, as the outcome sparked the Halo phenomenon, which is huge these days.
You can just take a look at the global frenzy Bungie, the studio behind the franchise, created when it announced the expansion to the latest Halo 3 game, entitled Recon. Set to act as a prequel, the marketing campaign got people really excited about it. The game is scheduled to appear in the fall of next year, and all that's left for us to do is play some Halo 3 and be grateful that this great franchise got to where it is today thanks to people who are very passionate about their work.