Halo's popularity is "almost a curse" to Xbox - ex-MGS boss

Xbox's reliance on Halo was "almost a curse" during the platform's later years, Microsoft's former Games Studios boss Ed Fries reveals in OXM's Halo Special, on shelves now.

Nobody foresaw Halo: Combat Evolved's meteoric success, Fries explained in an interview, though Microsoft was sufficiently impressed by the project to acquire developer Bungie in 2000. "You know, honestly we didn't know. I think anyone who tells you that they knew that was going to happen isn't telling the truth.

"There was a small set of games we had decided to spend all of our TV money. And Halo was one of those, so that's proof it was one of the games that we decided to make a bet on, but honestly if you'd asked me ahead of time I'd have said we're going to sell more from Lorne Lanning, an established console developer with a continuation of an existing console franchise that had previously been successful."

Microsoft originally positioned Lanning's Munch's Odyssee as Xbox's killer app, Studios vice-president Phil Spencer admitted to OXM last month. But where the new Oddworld outing failed to dazzle, Combat Evolved captivated the videogame press at Microsoft's Gamestock event in 2001, and sold over a million copies during the console's first Christmas season.

So where would Xbox be without Halo? "I don't know. That's a really hard question. Did the machine make Halo or did Halo make the machine?

"In the later years it was almost a curse from my point of view, because it had becomes so important to Xbox that it started to affect Halo. When people think that the most important part of the Xbox is Halo, then Halo has to be there for the launch of Xbox 360 or it can't miss its date [even though] that's gonna make a worse Halo... It's like Halo becomes more important than the Xbox, and I never wanted it to be that way.

"For me it was always about trying to make sure every game could be the best it could be and that the platform was a place where we could have lots of successful games like Halo, not just Halo.

"If it's all about Halo then you spend all your time working on Halo, you never discover Gears of War or anything else.

While some would argue that the Xbox 360 is far less dependent on the escapades of Master Chief than its older brother, Spencer underlined Halo's continued importance at E3 this year, commenting that "if we lose our way with Halo, we lose our way with Xbox."

The forthcoming Halo 4 will "get back to what Halo is about", Spencer also told us, focusing squarely on Master Chief and Cortana. The latter, indeed, may be the fulcrum on which the new three-part Reclaimer story turns.

A Combat Evolved reboot, subtitled Anniversary, is due out next month on Xbox 360, featuring both the original game code and a new high definition engine.

There's loads more in the Halo Special, with several features for every game in the series. Among other things, Halo 2's map designers talk Hang 'Em High's gestation, and the makers of Halo Wars explain what they'd do in a sequel. Order a copy online here, or download the mag to your tablet.