Halo

Halo
System(s): Sega Dreamcast
Developer: Bungie
Number of players: 1
State before cancellation: Early in development

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Halo, known in its final incarnation with the subtitle Halo: Combat Evolved is a first-person shooter released for the Xbox as a launch title in 2001. The game had an extensive and troubled development history dating back to 1997, and was at one point in development for the Sega Dreamcast.

Having originally been planned as a real-time strategy game before emerging as a third-person shooter for the Macintosh in 1999, Halo made the move to consoles in 2000, where both Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 versions (of what was now a first-person shooter) were reported to be in development. Microsoft would later acquire Bungie, with Halo making the jump to the Xbox in 2001.

Bungie only ever officially announced Macintosh and Windows PC versions of Halo prior to the Microsoft acquisition, both of which were originally set to arrive in the autumn of 2000. Take-Two Interactive held the console rights to publish Bungie's "next four titles" (which it planned to do under its Rockstar Games label), although only two of these games had been announced by Bungie at the time; Oni and Halo.

Take-Two would confirm that a PlayStation 2 version of Halo was coming, but would not be drawn into details about a Dreamcast version. Bungie, however, suggested that both PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast versions were being developed when asked in the Spring of 2000. While footage of Halo reportedly running on PlayStation 2 hardware was revealed in early 2001 (the PC and Mac versions having been delayed), the Dreamcast version was never shown or indeed mentioned again, presumably having been cancelled at an early stage.

Prior to 2001, Halo was seemingly not centred around a sole protagonist (the character of "Master Chief" being simply known as "the cyborg" at this point), and was envisoned as having an open-world. The premise was much the same as the final game, but the specifics of gameplay were not known, with trailers and previews showing a group of marines (in a Warthog vehicle) assauting Covenant installations on an alien planet. The game was forced to dramatically downsize its ambitions for its Xbox release.

Rockstar Games would only publish one of Bungie's four planned games for consoles, with Oni arriving on the PlayStation 2 in 2001. Bungie would spend the following nine years producing Xbox and Xbox 360 sequels to Halo: Combat Evolved.

Magazine articles

Main article: Halo/Magazine articles.