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Halo 'No Longer Just a Game' For Microsoft
News.com has a piece looking at the way that Halo has transformed from game to franchise for Microsoft and the Xbox. Despite the heavy advertising and branded products that seem to be everywhere in anticipation of next week's launch, the company is still trying to keep the IP as pure as possible. "Microsoft is wary of watering down Halo, meaning it would rather walk away from deals for Master Chief pajamas or Covenant sippy cups. Microsoft had little experience in talking to toymakers and others about how to transfer an onscreen experience to real objects. But such experts exist in the licensing arms of movie studios, so Microsoft partnered with 20th Century Fox to act as the main licensing agent for the Halo brand. Items that did not make the cut were a Halo-themed lottery ticket, lingerie modeled after a female hologram character, and toy guns based on the game's weapons. Instead, fans can expect high-quality action figures from McFarlane Toys, a tabletop game from WizKids, and replica weapons for mature buyers."
http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2007/07/06/halo-3-laser-tag-command-features-plasma-rifle-plasma-pistol-energy-sword-for-your-inner-master-chief.htm
Just having a character named "Masterchief" always seemed like overkill to me.
My humor is probably your flamebait
Why don't game companies capitalize on their characters? With increased game development costs this could offset those greatly. Back in the 80s there was tons of Nintendo gear around - action figures, pillow covers, sheets, cups, t-shirts, etc. Really, I don't understand why they don't have stuff like this. It would sell like mad.
WHY the HELL NOT?!?!?!
Don't forget the lottery ticket. THIS IS MADNESS
Come to think of it, some purple/blue and black striped underwear or swimsuits or something wouldn't be half bad.
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Drink deeply or not at all."
Just having a character named "Masterchief" always seemed like overkill to me.
Well, it was supposed to be Masterchef , but they couldn't get Steven Seagal to sign on, so they had to change it at the last minute.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
My wife would have _loved_ a Cortana teddy.
25% Funny, 25% Insightful, 25% Informative, 25% Troll
So what are those Halo 3-branded Slurpees at 7-11 then? And the copies that will be sold at gas stations?
Hmm, I just assumed it launched yesterday. What? Oh.. no reason.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
I would so buy Cortana (I assume) Lingerie for the GF
I've got to say, when I first started to see all the marketing crud they are doing for Halo 3 I thought it was pathetic. The "game fuel" thing really clenched it for me.
I think Ctrl+Alt+Del captured it.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
since Master Chief is an actual rank. Maybe it's not so much overkill as it is.. not different than any other military reference. My roomate was ROTC and he refered to their Master Chief as simply "Master Chief". It's not that unusual.
then isn't Halo still "just a game", much to the contrary of the highlighted link?
Madness?! This is Sparta!
"replica weapons for mature buyers"
haha. yeah right, it's so mature and grown-up walking round with a plastic copy of a virtual weapon from a computer game
kudos to MS though, for not putting the brand on anything. the lingerie sounds plain tacky
It doesn't matter how good of a FPS HALO is... it just doesn't. Because I know myself and some of my friends aren't that good at HALO, or FPS's in general. We play games for stories, and the massive attention to detail that the creators have put in things. And yes, I know, even when it comes to stories HALO may be a bit shallow, but, even still... that's only in-game. Bungie has done a fantastic job of elaborating on the story outside of the game. If you'd look beyond HALO as a mediocre FPS, and more as a diverse, well articulated universe... you'd get over your obvious fanboy-ism to whoever it is you support.
Sure, Microsoft may be funding them (and thus it means they are suckling the teet of Statan *rolls eyes), but, it doesn't mean that Bungie is a bad company, or that they themselves are getting complacent in all the hype. I mean, HALO 2 was over-hyped from the moment it was announced, yet, I still found a very compelling game, all because of the story.
So, shut up - please - about it being an "OK" Shooter, we know that.
It's a story, and IMHO a very deep story.
GR
"Paranoia is the flaw and gift of man. Heed its advice, but do not live by its will."
Because anyone that would actually buy Halo-themed lingerie would have no chance of ever seeing it in action anyway.
I grew up with Mario Bros underwear, Mario Brothers fruit snacks, and little jumping goombas in my Happy Meals.
Maybe Microsoft had better leave it to the pros though, how many kids are going to have any clue what the Battlefront hint means?
(sorry, only decent article google could find, no homosexual references on that page if you're afraid)
Bungie's been doing that sort of story driven universe for a while. Halo shares a lot in common with the storyline that ran through the Marathon series, years ago when Bungie was a Mac only developer. I played the original marathon way back when, but never got around to the rest of the trilogy (I think it was a trilogy). But a few years ago I came across a website that basically listed all of the text from the game, almost as a screen play, and reading through it all was a reasonably entertaining story.
The Halo universe might not be 100% original, but it's got a lot of background and detail, and as such has a good bit of potential for future projects. A RTS game of some sort could certainly be interesting, or maybe one day an MMO that finds a way to combine individual soldier combat with large scale spaceship combat and all that. There's nothing insurmountable stopping anyone else from making games like that, but having a reasonably well known and already partially described universe to place the game in gives it more legitimacy and hopefully can give players a more immediate connection to a game.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
I don't know how you can spin a game that is platinum before its released as a desperate failure.
You are correct, Halo 2 was outsold by a few PS2 games, and a good number of assorted Nintendo titles. The highest selling PS2 title was GTA: Vice City at 13 million. That's 4 million more than Halo 2 at around 9 million. So that's 1.35 times the total software sales of a console that sold 5 to 6 times the number of consoles. You can't ignore the success that Halo 2 has achieved.
, Wiki's list of bestselling games
Gran Turismo's not quite in the 11-17 million range. The original Gran Turismo was close, but Gran Turismo 4 sold 9 million.
Final Fantasy isn't quite in that range either. Final Fantasy VII sold 10 million. Final Fantasy X sold 8 million. The others have sold less than that. Final Fantasy is a big series, but it's not quite the superstar that internet fanboys make it out to be.
Super Mario Sunshine only sold 6 million, although Mario 64 was a little over 11 million and New Super Mario Bros. is close to 11 million and still selling. Of course all of the older Mario games were much higher than than 11 million.
But I agree Halo is overblown. It has very strong sales, but it's nothing earth shattering.
Agreed. Halo (and Marathon) may not be divinely inspired, and it may not be The Best Sci-Fi ever. In fact, I don't think anyone would seriously argue that it is. But it has a huge leg-up that many stories that extend into series (or franchises) lack -- consistency. Bungie has a "Halo Bible" and it sticks with it. It presents the sci-fi and then does a pretty good job of avoiding the deus-ex-machina that's exceedingly easy in sci-fi works. You fight against bad guys and, using strategy, tactics, and the things at hand, you win.
Most games can't even stay consistent from start to finish. Halo can be accused of copy-paste level design in spots, but at least the story and actions follow an arc and are internally consistent.
Don't forget all the backstory they put into the two Myth games (the third wasn't a Bungie work).
Still, I think Bungie should just change their name to Halo. Microsoft will never let them write another game.
Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
Steve Ballmer: Bill! You team-killing fucktard!
Incidentally, there is already a Halo RTS coming out. Called, originally enough, Halo Wars. It's made by Ensemble, the Age of Empires guys. Long as they use Bungie's writers, it should come all right. I hope they're not dumb enough to release it at the same time as Starcraft 2 though.
Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
Halo is the one Microsoft product that has seriously quality, and, indirectly, they got it from Apple (Bungie used to be a mainly Mac game developer, until Microsoft bought them out in 2000. I bet Steve Jobs is pissed about that one.)
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Since this is the last game in the Halo series, how do they expect to keep the franchise afloat on spin-offs alone?
you replied to a link showing that halo 2 is in fact, in the top 20 with a statement that it isn't? it's number 18. follow his link and check. I don't even play games much, but i'd say the person willing to ignore presented facts for the sake of his argument is likely the fanboy.
I think you mean "Official Halo 3 Covenant Grunt Food Nipple(TM):" For when you've worked up a big grunty thirst.
I'm not really a "fancy underwear" kind of girl, but I would totally buy that.
So that would make Super Mario Bros. the best game of all time, would it?
:(
...well, yes, actually it would, but that isn't the point!
...well crap.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Microsoft had little experience in talking to toymakers and others about how to transfer an onscreen experience to real objects.
I think Microsoft is just in denial about past humiliations, as usual.
Circumcision is child abuse.
You're a moron. There are several successful franchises for the Xbox- two racing, KOTOR/Bioware, and a bunch of well received hits like Crackdown and Pinanta.
On the other hand, you're just some fat slob posting as an AC of all things on the internet. Maybe if you did something with your life you'd be worth listening to.
"The Halo universe might not be 100% original, "
The story doesn't matter, Halo sold on gameplay, period. The awesome vehicles, the cool bad-assness of you being "master chief", ultimate soldier. I mean come on.
The master chief soldier aesthetic is near universally appealing to males.
Ya think?
"..."
http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20070919
This is a joke. I am joking. Joke joke joke.
I'm not really a "fancy underwear" kind of girl, but I would totally buy that.
Me too... ah, wait. The other guys still haven't recovered from my Princess Leia outfit... ;)
Spell cheek you've failed me four the last thyme!
You're right, and me without mod points
In today's political environment (in the US at least), a lunchbox based on a M-Rated game would cause hell. But you can have a lunchbox based on an R-Rated movie that tells you 3rd grader that he's dining in hell.
Spell cheek you've failed me four the last thyme!
"high-quality action figures from McFarlane Toys"
Anything from McFarlane these days seem more like cheap plastic statues than high-quality action figures, but I digress.
Halo 2 isn't anything special when you're looking at lifetime sales, but when you take into account that it had the highest single day sales of any video game ever you see where MS is coming from. $125 million in one day. At the time it was higher than any movie's weekend opening. The launch of Halo 2 put MS in the black for the only quarter in the history of its home entertainment division. The sales of Halo 3 and the carry through on the 360 platform are a crucial milestone that MS needs to meet for itself and investors.
...when Microsoft issued the PC based HALO 2 at full price. After being out for over a year for XBox.
Excuse me? Full price for an old game?
"If god did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him" --Voltaire
That's because *cough* it was the only *cough* reason to even own *cough* and original *cough* XBox (yea I owned one).
Seriously though, Microsoft should spend some of that Halo 3 marketting money on some actual non-Halo game dev. Nintendo, and even Sony, make good first-party game(s!) for their consoles. MS OTOH, as with Windows, relies on third party software a little too much. Halo's a decent game, but it does make Microsoft look rather one-trick-pony. Have you played their other games? And what on earth did they do to Rare? That studio used to be something. Shame.
All this for a game Microsoft bought (stole) from a better company.
replica weapons for mature buyers. Yup, nothing says maturity like a bedroom full of replica weapons from da future. "I use these to shoot any women who might wonder in and tell me to grow up".