Microsoft considered releasing an all-new Halo game as a launch title for Xbox One, Microsoft Studios corporate VP Phil Harrison told Kotaku in a new interview. This would have come at the expense of the Xbox 360’s Halo 4, he explained.
“A couple of years ago we had the discussion of: ‘Should we do Halo at launch and not do Halo 4 last year?'” Spencer said. “But I was committed to getting Halo 4 done last year, and there was no way we were going to turn around with 343 a full Halo game in a year. So that was the plan we set on. I feel good about that.”
Had Microsoft shipped a Halo game as a launch title for Xbox One, it would have been the first time since the original Xbox (Halo: Combat Evolved) that a Halo game was available at a new Xbox launch. Bungie’s Halo 3 launched in September 2007, two years after the Xbox 360’s debut.
Spencer further explained that having a “true” Halo game for the Xbox One launch would have meant starting the project two or three years earlier–and this was simply not going to happen.
“We had the discussion, and we thought having Halo 4 come out when it came out from 343 and having them really land their first full version of Halo that they developed internally would be great for the 360 customers, great for 343 in shipping something,” he said.
Microsoft will release a port of Halo: Spartan Assault on Xbox One later this year, but many gamers are potentially more excited about the all-new game Microsoft teased during E3. Microsoft has since described this game as “legitimate,” though no other details are available.
