WI: Halo Remains a Computer Game

[Delta Force]

On July 21, 1999, Steve Jobs announced at the Macworld Conference that Halo would release on Mac OS and Windows. On June 19, 2000 Bungie Studios was purchased by Microsoft and Halo went on to become the premier game on Xbox. Microsoft made major changes to the game between then and the game's release on November 11, 2001. I'm not sure if Wikipedia covers the full extent of the changes, but it looks like the game was changed from third person (I've seen some early images, so that's true) to first person, and Microsoft put less emphasis on the multiplayer features.

To put things in perspective, when Halo launched consoles weren't really considered to be for serious gamers, and the lack of a cute child-friendly cartoon mascot like Sonic or Mario was considered a major weakness for the Xbox. Apple was also a very niche company, and the iPod wouldn't launch until October 2001. Halo and 2001 thus marked a major turning point for the electronic industry. With Halo Microsoft had two famous "mascots," Master Chief and Sergeant Avery Johnson (he's become less prominent over the series, but he was a fan favorite early on). Microsoft also started moving into home entertainment, which is now a major part of the company.

What happens if Microsoft is deprived of Halo, leaving the Xbox with no mascot (or perhaps another mascot) and taking away the first "serious" console game? Does the Xbox fail? Do consoles remain something for children, with adults and serious players continuing to use PCs? If Apple were to buy Bungie instead of Microsoft, might Halo be strong enough to make the Mac a serious gaming platform?

This is a rather interesting point of divergence, and a fairly recent one, but we can already see how the decisions that played out in early 2000 started a major shift in electronic entertainment. How big do you think the impact would be?

 

[Kalvan]

Let's see. Before Halo, we had the likes of Alien vs. Predator (Atari Jaguar), Goldeneye, Gran Turismo, Grand Theft Auto, King's Field 1, 2, and 3, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and even Doom.

There were plenty of hardcore and mature games before Halo for consoles. Microsoft would probably have released a MechWarrior game instead.

 

[Tanner151]

I almost don't want to think about that. I love Halo on the Xbox. I won't say the xbox will fail but I don't see it doing as well. PS will dominate for years.

 

[JVM]

In my area, the original Xbox never took off, and when Halo 3 came out, I'd say half of the people I talked to said they bought the Xbox 360 solely for Halo 3. Obviously this is one small Chicago suburb, but...

 

[Delta Force]

Any other thoughts on how this impacts the console wars and the course of Apple, Sony, and Microsoft? Wasn't the Xbox generally considered to be a late and risky entry into the console market, with analysts predicting Sony having a monopoly within a generation or two?

 

[Paulo the Limey]

I really really wish this was true. Before Halo, Bungie released the Marathon trilogy on the Mac. It was a ground breaking FPS for its time, with one of the richest back stories to any video game. I'm not talking expanded universe here either- there was so much story hidden away in the games that people are still discussing elements of it nearly twenty years on.
I'd love to have seen what they would have made of the in game Halo universe on a Mac. Sadly I don't see this driving Mac sales in this timeline. Instead, without the Master Chief to rally behind Xbox sales would have been hit hard.

 

[oshron]

Call of Duty and maybe Battlefield might be butterflied away; while there were FPS games before it, Halo is what caused it to really take off, iirc

 

[BBadolato]

I wouldn't it would butterfly away Call of Duty or Battlefield, Call of Duty 2 on the Xbox was a decent FPS in it's own right at the time. Battlefield is a whole another beast as FPS's go. I could see it hurting the Xbox to point Sony pretty much could dominate the sixth generation of consoles. Also no Xbox means no Kights of the Old Repuplic series. Another more important note is a butterflied prevalence of DLC, I remember that DLC was pretty heavy on the Xbox.

 

[Delta Force]

There were several games like Battlefield 1942, so something like it will come along on computers.

A failed Xbox might have some implications for porting, as its use of DirectX and Microsoft PC architecture simplified the process. If Microsoft doesn't enter the market it could delay or even butterfly away the use of standard computer components and systems architecture and make the computer and console delineation more solid. That would have a major impact on some games such as Call of Duty and The Elder Scrolls, which have tried to push console practices on PC players or even been put on PC as an afterthought.