Bungie Had Non-Halo Games Put Aside by Microsoft

“We were always in pre-production and concepting future titles while developing current ones. With a small break, the studio was always moving onto one or two new games when shipping another. We had several internal game pitches that went to playable game prototypes that were non-“Halo” games and non-first person shooters. They either weren’t compelling enough or the monster that was “Halo” needed all the resources, so they were set aside.”

Ryan continues on saying that Microsoft saw the Halo series as profit while they only saw it as “the baby of the studio” implying that they can grow into something greater. Microsoft pressued them to make the sequels to the first game as Ryan points out that “it certainly wasn’t our goal to make two more versions [of Halo.]”. That was one of the reasons that they seeked independence, due to the pressure Microsoft has given them.

“[One] reason was the pressure to stick with Halo. We can still make “Halo” games and we still are working on “Halo” games. But there is more latitude for us to put our focus on other IP, other universes, other things. We wanted to get that push back where we could feel we’re going to really lay it on the line and push to come up with the next best thing in entertainment. It feels better to do that as an indie.”

Whatever else comes from Bungie, I’m sure we can expect it to be just as good, or even better, than Halo.

[Bungie had non-Halo games that were ‘set aside’ under Microsoft]