Last Sunday’s Xbox Games Showcase was full of first-party titles from Microsoft and its studios. One franchise that was conspicuous by its absence, however, was Halo. The largest of all of Mircosoft’s original IPs, Halo not being at the Xbox Games Showcase was a main talking point among fans on social media after, especially with Season 4 of Halo Infinite launching on June 20.
In an interview with The Guardian, Xbox Game Studios CEO Phil Spencer gave reasoning behind the 22-year-old franchise not making an appearance. That reason, he says, isn’t because the company doesn’t believe in the series anymore. Instead, it’s because of just how much Xbox has from a first-party standpoint now.
“I wouldn’t say Halo is of lesser importance, but we have over 20 studios now,” Spencer said. “I’ll go back to the years where I had basically four games – Fable, Forza, Halo, Gears, the four horsemen of the apocalypse. We have a lot more games now.”
Spencer also touched on the leadership changes at 343 Industries, which he says is part of the reason why they didn’t feel like they needed to show Halo Infinite or touch on the game. Xbox would rather have the studio focus on the game and turning things around than prepping for a conference.
“We’ve been pretty public about the leadership change at 343,” he said. “You can kind of see that in some of the social things [the team have] been doing around seasons, but I don’t wanna force them to talk about their longer-term vision until they’re ready.
“I think you’ll see some pretty cool things coming.”
What do you think of Spencer’s comments on why Halo wasn’t seen at the Xbox Games Showcase? For more Insider Gaming, check out what game has jumped to the top of the Steam sales charts.
