Halo Franchise Lost Its Way with ODST or Reach, Microsoft Admits

The Halo franchise didn't exactly manage to bring in new players with the last two releases, ODST or Reach, as Microsoft Games Studios Corporate Vice President Phil Spencer acknowledged that the series had always shined its focus on Master Chief, its main character.

Microsoft's Halo franchise saw the release of plenty of games over the years, all from the founding studio of the series, Bungie, and is now getting ready to see the launch of two titles made under the guidance of the new Halo studio, 343 Industries.

According to Microsoft's Phil Spencer, these new games, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition and Halo 4, will once again attract new players to the series, ones who didn't get a chance to get familiar with the franchise, and with which titles like ODST or Reach didn't have the same significance.

“The key question for me in managing the studio and the creatives is ‘what is Halo?’, making sure Halo lives up to what I think gamers fell in love with [playing Combat Evolved],” Spencer told OXM, “What does that mean? Playing Master Chief. We kind of lost our way a little bit, I’ll say. And that’s why I wanted to make sure that at the unveiling of Halo 4, you knew you were playing Master Chief, that John was back. Because Master Chief is the John Wayne character of that universe, and that’s who you want to play.”

In Halo: ODST, players entered the role of an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, whose actions ran in parallel to the ones of Master Chief in Halo 3, while last year's Halo: Reach showcased the birth of the war between the USNC and the Covenant, taking place before Halo 1.

This reliance on the action and stories of Halo 1, 2 or 3 made the two titles harder to relate for players that didn't follow the series up until then.

“If you were a Halo fan for Halo 1, 2 and 3, Reach made sense to you, but fundamentally there are a ton of players on our box right now that didn’t start with Halo 1. What we said was: ‘let’s get back to what Halo is about’. I loved Reach as a game – as a fan of the fiction, I totally love the story in Reach, Reach is one of the best stories in the Halo universe. But it made more sense to you if you were a Halo fan.

“If you were new to Xbox 360, 360′s where you started playing on Xbox, you understood what Halo 3 was. ODST and Reach, maybe you weren’t as centered.”

The Microsoft executive highlights that those who aren't familiar with the series can soon get acquainted with it via the upcoming Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary edition, out on November 24.