Gearbox Was Almost Chosen To Develop Halo 4

The future of the Halo franchise was left in question for what direction the title could have been taken after Bungie announced their departure from the series onto what is now the Destiny series under Activision. Microsoft unsure of who will take the responsibility of their billboard title, there were some options for which team or studio will take on the role to make the next installment in the series.

In the latest IGN sitdown, 343 Industries Boss Bonnie Ross met with the videogame outlet and discussed the decisions that Microsoft ended up not making. Before the decision to create the internal studio which is 343, Microsoft had the idea to look for external parties who could take on the task.

Ross stating that Gearbox was one of the choices, or actually the only choice in mind externally for who will take Halo after Bungie officially breaks off from the series. This does seem pretty feasible to happen since the Texas studio previously brought Bungie’s Halo: Combat Evolved to the PC platform back in 2003.

Ultimately, this ended up not being the case since we already know that 343 Industries was later founded and produced Halo 4, Halo 5, and Halo Wars 2. But before pitching her idea to “get the keys” on where Halo will be heading next, Ross told IGN’s Ryan McCaffery that executives within Microsoft that she shouldn’t take on the task with franchise.

At the time Microsoft Corporate Vice President Shane Kim told Ross not to pursue Halo and that it was not worth the effort to take on the mascot franchise. But despite what Kim told Ross, she eventually was given the title to creating 343 Industries leading us to where we are currently.

Initially, what was instore for Halo didn’t seem to have a bright future as “there wasn’t a lot of thought” for what’s to come for the series. Though Gearbox was a possibility, an internal studio was out of the picture when originally deciding.

Source: IGN