Reach for Glory

Love it or hate it, you can’t deny the influence it has had on the video game industry for the past nine years.

I’m talking, of course, about Halo.

Bungie released the first Halo game, Halo: Combat Evolved, in November, 2001.  Since then, there have been four more games in the franchise (including an RTS, which is what the first Halo was originally designed to be), a popular machinima video parody series, several novels and graphic novels, and a slew of tie-in merchandise.  On XBOX Live, there are thousands of people playing Halo multiplayer, any time, day or night.

The Halo series forever changed the way people think about video games.  The original game broke new ground in the FPS (first-person shooter) genre.  It launched and supported the original XBOX console.  It inspired LAN parties in houses and dorms all over the world.  The third entry in the main trilogy, Halo 3, kept the XBOX 360 afloat at a time when the infamous “Red Ring of Death” threatened sales of the console.  In fact, Halo 3 was the biggest entertainment launch in history, making over $170 million in the first 24 hours after launch.

The craziness is about to start again.

The next, and likely final, entry in the Halo video game franchise, Halo: Reach, launches at midnight on September 14th.  Yep, that’s tomorrow night.

When Halo 3 launched, people stood in lines by the hundreds outside their favorite video game stores waiting for midnight to pick up their copy of the game.  Tomorrow night, the spectacle will repeat.  Halo: Reach is, without a doubt, the most anticipated game of the year… at least until the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops on November 9th.

When it comes to Halo, everyone who considers themselves a gamer has an opinion.  They either love it or hate it.  There isn’t much middle ground.  They are fanboys or haters.  People purchase an XBOX 360 just because they love Halo.  Others purchase a Playstation 3 because they hate Halo.  I haven’t met many, if any, people who are ambivalent about the franchise.  That’s a good thing.  Products that stir strong opinions, be they positive or negative, are significant.

Nobody can deny the significance of Halo.

What’s your Halo story?  Are you a fanboy/fangirl?  A hater?  Will you be playing the game?