The Halo franchise is extremely popular all over the world, thanks to the great games that have been released under the brand. This loyalty of fans has made Microsoft quite eager to further develop the franchise into new directions and, as a by-product, to make even more money off it.

Case in point is the upcoming expansion to the latest title in the series, Halo 3: ODST, which will tell the story of an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper that bridges the gap between the second and third Halo shooter games.

Originally designed to be reasonably priced title, because it didn't offer a complete game experience, Halo 3: ODST was cataloged by Brian Jerrard of Bungie Studios as an under-$60 game, specifying that it wasn't a full title, and didn't need to be priced like one.

However, during the E3 conference, which was held two weeks ago, Halo 3: ODST was presented as being priced at $60 by Microsoft. All of the new features, maps and exclusive content, like a voucher for the multiplayer beta of Halo Reach, have seemingly mandated that a full price be attributed to the game.

Here's what a Microsoft representative had to say about this: “At the time of those statements, the overall scope of Halo 3: ODST was not yet finalized, and since then the project has grown increasingly more ambitious. We believe this standalone experience is much more than just an expansion. Halo 3: ODST provides a new campaign from the point of view of an entirely new character. Combine that with three new multiplayer maps, the entirely new cooperative mode called Firefight, and the complete Halo 3 multiplayer collection on a standalone disc, we feel this is a good value and tremendous addition to the Halo franchise.”

Do you think that Halo 3: ODST really deserved a $60 price tag? Or should it be lower priced in order to attract even more fans of the Halo series that belongs to Microsoft? Leave us a comment below.