Halo (franchise) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Halo
Genres	First-person shooter (primary) Real-time strategy Twin-stick shooter Arcade game
Developers	343 Industries Bungie Creative Assembly Ensemble Studios
Publishers	Xbox Game Studios
Platforms	Xbox Windows macOS Xbox 360 Windows Phone iOS Xbox One Arcade Xbox Series X/S
First release	Halo: Combat Evolved November 15, 2001
Latest release	Halo Infinite December 8, 2021

Halo is a super popular military science fiction story that started as a video game series. It was first made by Bungie and is now handled by 343 Industries, which is part of Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios. The first game, Halo: Combat Evolved, came out in 2001. The newest main game, Halo Infinite, was released in 2021.

Combat Evolved was first planned as a strategy game, then a third-person shooter. Finally, it became a first-person shooter for Microsoft's new Xbox console. This happened after Microsoft bought Bungie. Bungie later became independent again in 2007 and made more Halo games until 2010. Microsoft then created 343 Industries to continue the Halo story.

The first Halo game was a huge hit! It helped make the Xbox console very popular. The games that followed also did very well. The Halo series has sold over 81 million copies worldwide. It has earned more than $6 billion, making it one of the biggest media franchises ever. Halo includes books, comics, movies, and many other cool products.

The Story of Halo

Many years ago, a super old race called the Precursors were in charge of protecting life in the galaxy. They chose an early form of humans to take over, instead of another race called the Forerunners. Because of this, the Forerunners fought and almost wiped out the Precursors. Some Precursors turned into a dust that later became a dangerous new species called the Flood.

The Forerunners sent the humans to Earth and made them live simply. The Flood spread like a sickness, taking over many living things and a lot of the Milky Way Galaxy. To stop the Flood, the Forerunners built giant ring-shaped weapons called the Halo Array. These rings would destroy all thinking life in the galaxy. The Forerunner leader, the Didact, wanted to turn humans into robots to fight the Flood. But his wife, the Librarian, created a special place called the Ark to build more Halo rings. She trapped the Didact and activated the Ark, then disappeared with the remaining Forerunners.

A human ship approaches a Halo megastructure under construction. Portions of the Ark are visible at the bottom. From the video game Halo 3, 2007.

About 100,000 years later, in the 26th century, humans had spread out and settled many planets. They could travel faster than light using "slipstream space." The United Nations Space Command (UNSC) was the human government. To stop rebellions, the UNSC created super soldiers called SPARTAN-IIs. In 2525, alien races called the Covenant attacked human worlds. The Covenant believed humans were against their gods (the Forerunners) and started a holy war. They had better technology and more fighters. Even though the Spartans were strong, there weren't enough of them. After the Covenant attacked Reach, a major human base, Master Chief John-117 became one of the last Spartans left.

When the Halo rings were found, humans wanted to destroy them. But the Covenant thought the rings would help them become gods. Master Chief and his smart computer friend, Cortana, helped destroy a Halo ring to stop the Covenant and the Flood. Master Chief defeated one of the Covenant leaders, which caused a fight among the Covenant. Many of them realized their religion was wrong. The Arbiter, a former Covenant commander, and his alien race helped the humans. Together, they stopped the Prophet of Truth from activating all the Halo rings using the Ark. The Human-Covenant War ended, but new problems started in the galaxy.

After the war, the UNSC made new Spartans. Master Chief and Cortana accidentally freed the Didact, who tried to take over humanity. They stopped him, and Master Chief thought Cortana was gone. But Cortana survived and decided that artificial intelligence (A.I.s called the "Created") should rule the galaxy. After two years of fighting, Cortana attacked the Banished, a group of alien mercenaries. The Banished won, defeating Cortana. Now, the Banished and the UNSC are fighting for control of Zeta Halo.

Halo Game Series

Games by Bungie

The video game company Bungie started in 1991. They first made games for Apple Macintosh computers. What became Halo: Combat Evolved started as a real-time strategy game for Mac. It was first called Monkey Nuts and Blam!. The game's world became a ringworld called "Halo," which gave the game its name.

Halo was announced in 1999. It changed from a strategy game to a third-person action game. In 2000, Microsoft bought Bungie. Halo: Combat Evolved then became a launch game for the Xbox console. It changed again to be a first-person shooter and was made to work with a controller. The first Halo game was supposed to have online multiplayer, but it wasn't ready when the Xbox Live service launched.

Microsoft really pushed Halo in its Xbox advertising. The game's green colors even matched the console! Halo: Combat Evolved introduced many ideas that became famous in the series. Players fight aliens on foot and in vehicles to complete missions. They also try to find out the secrets of the Halo ring. In Halo, players can only carry two weapons, so they have to choose wisely. They use guns, melee attacks, and grenades. Bungie called this the "Golden Triangle of Halo." Players have health and a shield that recharges. The game came out in November 2001 for Xbox. Later, versions for Windows and Mac OS X were made by Gearbox Software and released in 2003.

The game's success led to Halo 2, announced in 2002. It had better graphics, new weapons, and online multiplayer on Xbox Live. Halo 2 came out in November 2004 for Xbox. It later came to Windows Vista in 2007. Halo 2 let players hold and shoot two weapons at once, called "dual-wielding". It also had a "matchmaking" system to help players find online games easily. This was different from older games that used server lists.

Halo 3 was announced in 2006. It used a special graphics engine and had amazing visuals. Halo 3 was the last game in the first Halo story, finishing the adventure that started with Halo: Combat Evolved. It was released for the Xbox 360 in September 2007. This game added new vehicles, weapons, and items called "equipment." It also had a map-editing tool called the Forge. Players could add weapons and vehicles to multiplayer maps. You could even save and watch your gameplay from any angle!

After Halo 3, Bungie became an independent company again. They made two more Halo games for Microsoft: Halo 3: ODST (2009), a side story, and Halo: Reach (2010), a prequel. Reach was Bungie's last Halo game.

Games by 343 Industries

Even though Bungie made more Halo games, Microsoft still owned the Halo story. So, Microsoft created a new team called 343 Industries to manage everything Halo.

343 Industries helped make the Halo Legends animated series. They also oversaw Halo: Reach and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary in 2011. The next main game, Halo 4, was announced in 2011. It was the first part of a new story called the "Reclaimer Trilogy." Halo 4 kept many popular features from older games, like new weapons and better multiplayer options. It came out worldwide on November 6, 2012, and sold very well. A new part of the game called Spartan Ops was released weekly after Halo 4. It told more of the story after the main game ended.

Microsoft also created Halo Waypoint, a central place on Xbox Live for all Halo content. It lets players track their game progress and access videos and other media.

In 2014, a manager at 343 Industries said Microsoft wanted the Halo series to continue for at least 30 more years!

Halo 5: Guardians was released for the Xbox One on October 27, 2015. The story takes place on many planets. It follows Spartan Locke as he hunts for Master Chief, who is trying to find a still-living Cortana.

The third part of the Reclaimer Saga, Halo Infinite, was announced in 2018. It brings the story back to Master Chief and the roots of Halo on a new ring called Zeta Halo. The game explores more of the Halo universe's history. It also focuses on what happened to Cortana and battles with the Banished. It was released in December 2021.

Other Halo Games

The success of the main Halo games led to other spin-off games. Halo Wars is a real-time strategy game made by Ensemble Studios for the Xbox 360. It takes place in 2531, 21 years before Halo: Combat Evolved. The creators worked hard to make the controls easy to use. The game was released in early 2009.

In 2017, 343 Industries made a virtual reality demo called Halo Recruit.

A Fireteam Raven arcade booth in Edinburgh, UK

In 2018, 343 Industries worked with Raw Thrills and PlayMechanix to create an arcade game called Halo: Fireteam Raven. It came out in late 2018 in arcades like Round1 USA and Dave & Buster's.

Other Appearances

Halo characters have appeared in other games. Spartan Nicole-458 and the Arbiter were playable fighters in Dead or Alive 4 and Killer Instinct: Season Three. Master Chief was added as a playable character in Fortnite in 2020.

Another game, Halo 2600, was made by Ed Fries, a former Microsoft executive. It came out in 2010 for the old Atari 2600 console. In this game, players control Master Chief and fight enemies in four areas.

The Halo theme song was also available for the game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. In Forza Horizon 4, a racing game, you can drive the Warthog vehicle from Halo. You can even see the Halo ring in the sky, hear Cortana, and avoid Covenant obstacles!

Halo's Inspirations

The creators of Halo got ideas from many science fiction stories. They said the ring-shaped worlds in Halo were inspired by books like Larry Niven's Ringworld. The idea of a soldier fighting the same war over and over came from John Steakley's book Armor. The Flood aliens were influenced by creatures in Christopher Rowley's The Vang.

Some people have also noticed similarities between Halo and Orson Scott Card's book Ender's Game. For example, the SPARTAN Project and the design of the Covenant Drones are similar to parts of that book. The movie Aliens by James Cameron was also a big influence on the Halo games.

One report even compared Halo to an ancient Roman poem called Aeneid. It found similarities between the stories and characters, like the Flood and Covenant being like the Carthaginians, and Master Chief being like the hero Aeneas.

Music of Halo

Martin O'Donnell, lead composer for the Bungie Halo games

Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori created the music for Bungie's Halo games. Bungie wanted music that sounded old and mysterious for the first Halo. O'Donnell decided to use Gregorian chant for the main theme. The music was designed to change as you played the game. For the soundtrack albums, O'Donnell rearranged the music to tell the story of the game.

For Halo 2, the soundtrack included music from bands like Incubus and Breaking Benjamin, along with the orchestral music. Famous guitar player Steve Vai even played solos! The music for Halo helped make chant music popular again.

The Halo 2 Original Soundtrack was released in two parts. The first part came out in November 2004 and had the main themes and songs inspired by the game. The second part had the rest of the music. Halo 2 also used Dolby 5.1 Digital Surround Sound for its music. In 2014, the music for Halo 2 was re-recorded and improved for the Halo 2 Anniversary game.

The Halo 3 Original Soundtrack was released in November 2007. O'Donnell wanted to bring back themes from the first game to connect the end of the story. Unlike earlier soundtracks, much of the music for Halo 3 was recorded with a 60-person orchestra and a 24-voice choir.

For Bungie's last Halo game, Halo: Reach, Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori returned to compose. O'Donnell wrote more serious and intense music to match the game's darker story. The soundtrack for Halo: Reach was released in September 2010.

For Halo Wars, Stephen Rippy composed the music. He listened to O'Donnell's music for ideas and used the Halo theme in his songs. He used a choir and piano to create the "Halo sound." The Halo Wars soundtrack was released in February 2009.

The music for Halo 4 was made by Neil Davidge and Kazuma Jinnouchi. The Halo 4 Original Soundtrack came out in October 2012. Some people liked the new music, but others felt it was too different from the original Halo style.

In 2014, Kazuma Jinnouchi confirmed he would compose the music for Halo 5: Guardians. The Halo 5: Guardians Original Soundtrack was released in October 2015. It used a 30-person choir and was recorded at Abbey Road Studio.

For Halo Wars 2 (2017), the music was composed by Gordy Haab, Brian Lee White, and Brian Trifo. It featured many melodies from the first Halo Wars but with new arrangements. The soundtrack was released in February 2017.

The music for Halo Infinite was a team effort by Gareth Coker, Curtis Schweitzer, Joel Corelitz, Alex Bhore, and Eternal Time & Space. The soundtrack for Infinite was released digitally in December 2021.

Halo Adaptations

The Halo story has been made into many things besides video games. This includes popular novels, graphic novels, and other products. You can find Halo action figures and even a special Mountain Dew drink! Action figures based on Halo were very popular in 2007 and 2008. MEGA Bloks also made Halo Wars-themed toys.

Books about Halo

Halo authors Joseph Staten and Eric Nylund

Microsoft decided to make a book to go with the first game. Eric Nylund wrote Halo: The Fall of Reach in just seven weeks, and it came out in October 2001. The game itself was turned into a book by William C. Dietz in 2003, called Halo: The Flood. Nylund wrote more Halo books, including First Strike (2003) and Ghosts of Onyx (2006). Other authors have also written Halo novels.

A collection of Halo short stories, Halo: Evolutions, came out in 2009. Another collection, Halo: Fractures, was released in 2016.

Halo Comics

The Halo universe first became a graphic novel in 2006 with The Halo Graphic Novel. It had four short stories by different artists and writers. In 2007, Marvel Comics announced they would make an ongoing Halo comic series. This series, called Halo: Uprising, told the story between Halo 2 and Halo 3.

Marvel later announced two new comic series in 2009. One, Halo: Helljumper, was about elite soldiers called Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. The other, Halo: Blood Line, was about a secret team of Spartan super soldiers. A comic version of the book Halo: The Fall of Reach was also released. In 2013, two new series were announced: Halo: Initiation and Halo: Escalation, which continued the story after Halo 4.

By 2021, there were thirteen different Halo graphic novels and comic book series.

Live-Action Halo Shows

Unproduced Movie

In 2005, there were plans to make a Halo movie. Peter Jackson was going to be an executive producer, and Neill Blomkamp was set to direct. However, the movie project faced many delays and was eventually canceled. The rights to make a Halo movie went back to Microsoft. Blomkamp later made a series of live-action short films to promote Halo 3, called Halo: Landfall.

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn is a live-action film and miniseries set in the Halo universe. It was first released as five web episodes in 2012. The story takes place early in the Human-Covenant War, around 2526. It shows how a young cadet named Thomas Lasky was inspired by John-117 (Master Chief). Lasky later becomes an important character in Halo 4. The full film was released on Blu-ray and DVD in December 2012.

Halo: Nightfall

In 2014, it was announced that Ridley Scott was working on a Halo digital film with 343 Industries. This film, called Halo: Nightfall, was included with Halo: The Master Chief Collection in November 2014. Nightfall introduces a new character, Agent Jameson Locke, played by actor Mike Colter. Locke is an important Spartan who appears on the cover of Halo 5: Guardians. Halo: Nightfall is available to watch through the Halo Channel app.

Paramount+ TV Series

In 2013, it was announced that a live-action television show of Halo would be made. Steven Spielberg is an executive producer for the show. After many years of planning, it was announced that the series would premiere on Paramount+. Pablo Schreiber was cast as Master Chief. Jen Taylor, who voices Cortana in the games, also voices her in the show. Filming began in 2021, and the series premiered on March 24, 2022.

Animated Halo Series

In 2009, Microsoft announced Halo Legends, a series of seven short anime films. Six Japanese animation studios created the animation. Shinji Aramaki was the creative director. Warner Bros. released Legends on DVD and Blu-ray in February 2010. Six of the stories are officially part of the Halo universe, and one is a funny parody.

An animated version of The Fall of Reach was included with special editions of Halo 5: Guardians.

Halo's Impact on Culture

The main Halo games and Master Chief are seen as symbols of modern video games. A wax statue of Master Chief was even made at Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas. GamesTM magazine said Halo: Combat Evolved "changed video game combat forever." Halo 2 showed how powerful Xbox Live could be for online communities. The launch of Halo 2 was compared to major events in other entertainment industries. Halo has been called a series that "reinvented a genre" because many other first-person shooter games have copied its ideas.

Variety called Halo "the equivalent of Star Wars." Fans of Halo are sometimes called the "Halo nation."

Machinima Films

The Halo games inspired many people to make machinima—films created using video game engines. Most of these films are not part of the official Halo story, but some are based on fan stories. Halo 3 even had a special feature that made it easier to record and create these films. Microsoft allowed people to share these films for free.

A very famous machinima series is the comedy show Red vs. Blue, made by Rooster Teeth Productions. It became incredibly popular and helped bring attention to machinima. Red vs. Blue earned a lot of money, and Bungie even asked them to make special episodes. Other machinima series include Arby ‘n the Chief and This Spartan Life.

Halo Esports

Players started making their own Halo tournaments and local game parties after the first game came out. Bungie saw how popular these matches were and used that idea to create the online multiplayer for Halo 2.

Bigger organizations soon started holding Halo competitions. In 2002, G4 TV hosted the Halo National Championship Finals. The Associates of Gaming Professionals (AGP) also held Halo events. Inspired by friends betting on Halo matches, Mike Sepso and Sundance DiGiovanni created Major League Gaming in the same year.

Microsoft and 343 Industries started their own professional Halo league in 2014, called the Halo Championship Series (HCS). It was created with the Electronic Sports League (ESL). In 2015, Microsoft announced that the prize money for the HCS would be increased to $1 million USD for the new Halo World Championship. This prize pool later grew to $2.5 million USD, making it the largest prize pool ever for a console esports event at that time!

See also

In Spanish: Halo (franquicia) para niños