Frank O'Connor - The secret to Halo's success is...

Microsoft's franchise development director Frank O'Connor has revealed what he thinks is the key to Halo's success.

[Cajun Chicken]

Can't argue with that.

[captain-obvious]

i think what happened is
when the first xbox came out right from day one
MS was looking for a game that they can own and can sell billions of $$
and move consoles
so halo came out they got alot of positive feed back
alot of 10s
so they advertised the shit out of the game
now thats not wrong because in order to sell something
you need to expose it
and its a fun game so that helped

and thats what i think made halo big

sony on the other hand
got alot of games like that (fun with high scores)
they just dont expose their games as much as MS dose
and that is wrong

[ASSASSYN 36o]

Halo was highly anticipated before the xbox was even mentioned. I remember scouring the internet for pic on it like crazy. The appeal for me is the storyline and multiplayer. I love the halo universe.

[DiRtY]

Halo offers something other games can't. A deep deep story, over the top action and excellent comeptitive multiplayer.

Gears of War for example features the over the top action, but the story is very basic and the multiplayer just a shotgun festival.

Uncharted offers the action and a nice story, but multiplayer is just not working too well.

Killzone has basically no story. You have the action and a fun multiplayer (not excellent though), but the story is as deep as Marios.

Note: This does not mean the games I mentioned are bad. They are not. It is just that Halo is brilliant. and the other games are just great.

[Urrakia34]

"the other games are just great"
You make it sound as if "great" is mediocre lol

[Cenobia]

I think Gears and Killzone's stories are very similar. I haven't played Gears 2, but both games deal with playing a protagonist who is part of an army that is doing something that cannot really be morally justified.

From my faint memory, Gears takes place on another planet where you are basically cleansing the world of its original inhabitants. In Killzone 2 you attack Helghan because they attacked you, because you banned them from your homeworld.

I think the mythology of these games is equally as deep as Halo, but neither game has capitalized on it very much. It is kind of cool to be thrust into a world that you don't completely understand, though. You only see parts of the conflict like a soldier really would.

Also, I happened to find Uncharted 2's multiplayer to be pretty awesome.

[ASSASSYN 36o]

I don't see how you think killzone or gears is anything like Halo. None of the three seem similar to me. Multi-species religous fanatics, Aliens, and space combat encompase the halo universe. All of those are not found in the Gears and Killzone series.

[kaveti6616]

Halo's story isn't any better than Gears's story or Killzone's story.

It's just fun. There is something ineffable about Halo's MP that makes it more fun than other MP games.

But the campaign for Reach, I felt, was very poor. No epic boss battles to speak of.

Killzone 3, dare I say it, will take the SP crown when it comes to epic boss battles.

MP-wise, I think having a broad variety of creative maps is more exciting than a dozen, generic, torn-down warehouses in a gritty setting.

[Kon]

Multiplayer.

[plb]

WTH, Uncharted multiplayer is excellent. ^^

[gillri]

agree for me its the imaginative universe and enemies (childish or not) and the AI

the insanely consistent AI is what gave Halo such engaging firefights

[ChristianGamer]

I do not like fps genre but in 2009 I decided to find out what the hype was all about and I picked up Halo 3 for 50 bucks (roughly $7). Let me tell you this, addictive and fun are too mild to describe how I feel about this series. Needless to sky I'm now a major fan.

[Father Murder X]

Bottomline is that it delivers on every aspect that makes a game great. I am sorry but just because something is advertised that doesn't mean it will sell. It appeals to hardcore and casual. Halo is also a very community driven series. They give the people what they want and they keep coming back for more.

[xino]

ability to use vehicles was important and made it successful too!

Unreal Tournament lacked this until Unreal Tournament 2004 came out.

Music is fantastic! Halo 1 best!

-Ninja Gaiden 3-is sick!:)

[Ashby_JC]

For me what makes Halo awesome is...

The vehicle combat
The air combat
The ground combat....all that together makes for a awesome time online!!

The crispness of the look and feel of the game. The game just OOZES quality. You can tell they took there time in designing the levels, characters etc

Everyhting just run smooth. Dont believe me...go to replay theater and judt look at the light effects...the reflections on the environment.

Very very great looking game (even Halo 3 IMO!!)

The key factor that makes HALO..is...are you ready for it....

ITS FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And that right there is what alot of games MISS. The FUN FACTOR.

Thats the reason games like COD sell so well. FUN FACTOR is VERY VERY high.

Once a game looses that FUN factor. You lose the sales that come with it.

[CherryLu-Chan]

What keeps me addicted to Halo is absolutely the Universe that's being built and explored.

O'Connor manages this superbly. I've loved the novels to pieces and am smitten with the lore that's being built between the prose and the games.

As for the latter, Halo CE is still my favourite, but I adored ODST to pieces. I know a lot of people didn't like the tech, or said it was DLC .. but for me the game seemed so *lonely*, amidst the rainfall, darkness and the incredible noir soundtrack. I loved the way it pieced together the story, of feeling that underpowered compared to the Spartan levels of RAWR previously.

For the sake of debate .. would the fans prefer a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved, a continuation of Master Chief's story - or perhaps something new entirely?