Microsoft Bigfoot’s Master Chief

Halo fans have heard whispers in the wind regarding a new release from Bungie for some time now. So when a countdown appeared on the Bungie webpage fans grew eager – since the countdown would have run out during E3 it was perceived that they would be revealing the newest installment of the Halo franchise. Fans frothed. Microsoft Xbox head Don Mattrick had even confirmed a new Halo game was currently in development.

But then the countdown stopped. E3 came and went, leaving fans frustrated and wondering what happened. However, their curiosity was piqued when Bungie Studio head Harold Ryan announced that the countdown was indeed cancelled because Microsoft, their exclusive publisher, had shut down their announcement. A memo was released by Ryan explaining the situation:

From: Harold Ryan

Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 7:00 PM

Subject: E3 Announce

For the last several months, we’ve been building toward a reveal of something exciting that Bungie is working on. We were looking forward to sharing that with our fan community during the week of E3. However, those plans were just changed by our publisher.

We realize that many of our fans are disappointed by this turn of events; members of the Bungie team share that disappointment.
When the right time comes, we look forward to sharing this exciting announcement with you. Until then, we appreciate your continued support and patience.

Harold Ryan
President

Bungie LLC

The LA Times later asked Mattrick why Microsoft would deny Bungie their big moment at E3, to which he responded that it was so that they could properly showcase such games as “You’re in the Movies”.

Is this a joke? Stiff the Xbox’s biggest money maker for casual gamer fodder?

That rings false to me. Consider the big news for Microsoft during E3, how the Xbox 360 was going to be getting Final Fantasy XIII. This revelation in itself was worth its weight in gold, that Sony had lost such a valuable exclusive title was a body blow. It seems to me that quashing the Bungie release announcement was done in preservation of the Final Fantasy XIII story for the news cycle and nothing more.

While I can appreciate the strategy of playing up a vaunted foes newly exploited weakness, the decision to shove Bungie in a box after it began its countdown was poor form indeed.