It’s very interesting to see where Microsoft and the Xbox brand have come from to where they are now. When they debuted their system in the early 2000s, many people weren’t sure what they would do in the industry and whether they would make an impact. However, as slow as it has been at times, the Xbox brand is one of the “big three” and continues to make a mark even when it annoys other competitors. Plus, they’ve been on a mission to buy up studios to help them expand their range of 1st-party titles, which Phil Spencer has been talking about recently.
The recent Xbox Games Showcase they did was received very well, as they highlighted new and familiar games/franchises so that gamers could get excited about what’s coming next. However, one game that was absent in every way from the showcase was Halo. At one time, the franchise was the “killer app” on Xbox and continued to be that for some time.
However, in a chat with The Guardian, Phil Spencer said that times have changed, and Master Chief doesn’t need to be everywhere for the brand to rise up:
“I wouldn’t say Halo is of lesser importance, but we have over 20 studios now,” he said. “I’ll go back to the years where I had basically four games – Fable, Forza, Halo, Gears, the four horseman of the apocalypse. We have a lot more games now.”
He did admit that the issues with 343 Industries played a part in things:
“We’ve been pretty public about the leadership change at 343,” he said. “You can kind of see that in some of the social things [the team have] been doing around seasons, but I don’t want to force them to talk about their longer-term vision until they’re ready. I think you’ll see some pretty cool things coming.”
Another Xbox head further stated that 343 would continue being the team behind the mainline Halo games but that others could pop in and help.
One thing that should be noted is that unlike “once upon a time,” the Master Chief games aren’t as beloved today as they once were. The issues with Halo Infinite have been well documented, and key parts of the game that were standard issue in previous titles were completely ditched despite lots of time and effort being put into them.
So perhaps the real reason for Master Chief not being in the showcase was that there wasn’t anything worth showing, which might continue for some time.
