IGN Presents: The History of Halo

[Editor's Note: We have corrected a number of inaccuracies since the original publishing of this article. We regret the errors.]

You know you've arrived when the universe paints a target on your back.

"Halo Killer" became part of the gaming lexicon, applied to any title that presumed to take the crown from the most successful first-person shooter of its time. Only one other franchise has arguably made that climb (that'd be Call of Duty). But nothing else can claim billions of online matches played, hundreds of accolades and awards, a highly successful multimedia empire, sales records shattered by more sales records, and a launch that single-handedly turned a two-horse console race into a three-way war. Halo was itself a game-changer, simultaneously putting new and untested hardware on the map while announcing the end of PC-shooter dominance with authority.

On top of that, it wove a tale of pure pulp sci-fi goodness. An interstellar war, Earth on the brink of defeat, the fate of the galaxy hinging on an ancient and mysterious alien artifact, and one hope for survival: a lone soldier of superhuman will and ability, fighting to turn the tide in humanity's final hour. One man, one war. And that was just for openers.

When developer Bungie Studios finally deployed Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 in late 2001, everyone felt the lightning hit. The thunder was still to come.

University of Chicago student Alex Seropian had already published Pong clone Gnop! and tank shooter Operation Desert Storm when he met fellow undergrad Jason Jones. Hungry for another project, they partnered in 1991 to publish Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete, taking it to conventions to sell. Minotaur was notable because it was an early network-playable title via AppleTalk, and it paved the way for the duo to team up again for Pathways Into Darkness.

Within six years, as co-founders of Bungie Studios, they topped the admittedly thin list of Mac game developers with two stellar franchises to their name: first-person shooter Marathon (1995) and real-time tactical game Myth (1997).

Marathon took the relatively young FPS genre -- which was almost non-existent on the game's exclusive Mac platform -- and added physics, dual-weapon wielding, networked multiplayer, and most improbably, a plot. A nameless cyborg security officer in Mjolnir Mark IV armor found himself revived from stasis to defend the UESC Marathon from alien incursion, both assisted and hindered by increasingly unstable AIs. Fans of open-source software, Jones and Seropian capped the popular trilogy by including the Forge and Anvil, level editors that put their design tools into gamers' hands.

Soon after, Bungie partnered with Take Two Interactive, publisher of the controversial top-down actioner Grand Theft Auto. San Jose, California-based Bungie West busily coded Oni, a third-person beat-'em-up with a strong Masamune Shirow flavor and definite franchise potential, led by Brent Pease. Myth II was in the bag. With everything clicking into place on the business front, Jones just needed something new to sink his teeth into. Fortunately, he'd already started working on a little project code-named "Monkey Nuts," which would change to "Blam!" after Jones couldn't bring himself to say the codename in front of his mother.

A longtime fan of old-school science fiction, Jones envisioned "Blam!" as a sci-fi variation on Myth's real-time strategy, chronicling a desperate war on a distant planet called Solipsis. But as a game title, Solipsis just didn’t cut it, and it wasn't alone. "Red Shift" was also considered.

Not long after producing a rough build, Marcus Lehto kept bringing the camera closer and closer to the characters. Thanks to the higher graphical fidelity they were able to push for, it wasn't long before "Blam!" shifted to the first-person perspective. The planet became a ring world inspired by the novels of science fiction greats Larry Niven and Iain M. Banks. Focus centered on a beefed-up 3D build of a sketch by conceptual artist Shi Kai Wang, finally getting the thumbs-up with a drawing of an imposing cyborg soldier encased head-to-toe in pencil-gray armor.

The Master Chief set foot on Halo for the first time in 1998, armed to the teeth.

Machetes, flamethrowers, miniguns, a gravity weapon, SMGs, bazookas, pistols, rifles, and harpoon guns (to deal with sea monsters), plus a host of alien ordinance all found its way to the ring, which featured a missing segment connected by scaffolding. Choppers hovered overhead. Zodiac boats waited on the beach. Local dinosaurs and rubber-chicken-looking "blind wolves" could be subdued and used as transport like a less-than-epic World of Warcraft mount.

Many became preludes. Jones shared the stage with Apple CEO Steve Jobs at MacWorld '99 for Halo's public debut. A three-minute trailer showed a tour of the sandbox game world. The crowd went crazy. Jobs announced Halo would release for Mac (the PC version wouldn't be announced until later).

Reps from Microsoft saw the presentation as well. After collaborating on the sagging Dreamcast console, the software giant secretly began developing its own gaming system. Part of the plan involved headhunting top-notch content providers to help launch it. Midway surfaced as a likely acquisition, but in June 2000, less than three months after confirming "the Xbox project" to the press, Microsoft cut a check a multi-million-dollar check and Bungie cashed it. Take Two disengaged, taking the rights to Myth and Oni with them. MacAddicts everywhere howled in betrayal. Microsoft, the enemy, now completely owned Bungie and their new shooter.

Halo wasn't just another video game anymore. It was an exclusive launch title -- the launch title -- for the Xbox, and the success of Microsoft's big black console depended on it.