{"id":827,"date":"2026-09-01T00:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T00:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/?p=827"},"modified":"2026-09-01T00:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T00:02:14","slug":"xbox-ceo-says-making-halo-popular-again-is-a-priority-but-franchise-co-creator-questions-if-its-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/?p=827","title":{"rendered":"Xbox CEO Says Making Halo Popular Again Is A Priority, But Franchise Co-Creator Questions If It\u2019s Possible"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Halo franchise remains synonymous with the Xbox brand, but many might agree that it has seen better days. Xbox&#8217;s new CEO, Asha Sharma, has now commented on Halo&#8217;s future, saying in an interview that Halo remains a &#8220;very key franchise&#8221; for Xbox and that Microsoft is taking a long-term view about reviving it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The thing that I am learning about great games is that they have a long history and heritage and we can take a long-term view. I am confident that Halo is a very important part of our portfolio. It is a very key franchise. It represents a very key memory structure and way that people want to play,&#8221; she told the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=txuYKwrbq1M\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=txuYKwrbq1M\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BBC<\/a>. &#8220;I am focused on that. We&#8217;ll have more news to share on Halo going forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The latest entry in the Halo series was this past July&#8217;s Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remaster of the 2001 original game released this year to celebrate the game&#8217;s 25th anniversary. The game, which represented Halo&#8217;s debut on PlayStation, was generally well-received, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/halo-on-ps5-is-off-to-a-slow-start-expert-says\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/halo-on-ps5-is-off-to-a-slow-start-expert-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">apparently had a slow start for sales<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Industry analyst Rhys Elliott<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/halo-on-ps5-is-off-to-a-slow-start-expert-says\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/halo-on-ps5-is-off-to-a-slow-start-expert-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> lamented the slowing sales and diminishing profile of Halo as a franchise in general<\/a> after the series peaked, in his eyes, with Halo 3 and Halo: Reach years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOne can\u2019t help wondering what could have been if\u00a0Halo\u00a0had kept the trajectory it had around\u00a0Halo 3\u00a0and\u00a0Reach. A remake of the game that started it all landing this softly on a new platform makes me pretty sad, as a\u00a0Halo\u00a0fan,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are more Halo games in development, including one that\u2019s been described as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/next-halo-game-may-be-like-fortnite-with-live-service-report\/1100-6535547\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201clike Fortnite\u201d<\/a>\u00a0with regards to its live-service approach. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/halo-2-and-halo-3-remakes-are-coming-report-says\/1100-6539784\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/halo-2-and-halo-3-remakes-are-coming-report-says\/1100-6539784\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Remakes of Halo 2 and Halo 3<\/a> are said to be in the works as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Developer Halo Studios has said\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/halo-games-will-be-on-playstation-going-forward-says-microsoft\/1100-6535712\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">future Halo games will also be on PlayStation<\/a>, but those comments came before Sharma became Xbox CEO and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/xbox-clarifies-its-exclusivity-strategy-moving-forward-wants-you-to-buy-an-xbox\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pledged to release more exclusive games for Xbox<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-halo-co-creator-on-how-to-make-a-great-halo-again\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Halo co-creator on how to &#8220;make a great Halo again&#8221;<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Halo&#8217;s co-creator and the designer of Master Chief, Marcus Lehto, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/game_fabricator\/status\/2094125964209070458\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/x.com\/game_fabricator\/status\/2094125964209070458\">said online <\/a>recently that a &#8220;big concern&#8221; he foresees about reviving Halo is how much it might cost. He said Microsoft making a &#8220;fully featured Halo&#8221; game would likely cost between $600 million-$800 million, and take four or more years to make. Lehto, who hasn&#8217;t worked on Halo in a long time, said he does not anticipate Microsoft spending that much or taking that much time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/game_fabricator\/status\/2094136780564115581\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/x.com\/game_fabricator\/status\/2094136780564115581\">another post<\/a>, Lehto said a large corporation like Microsoft is a &#8220;terribly inefficient machine.&#8221; He <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/game_fabricator\/status\/2094137742099955953\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/x.com\/game_fabricator\/status\/2094137742099955953\">added<\/a> that a &#8220;smaller indie team driven by seasoned devs, filled with a good mix of newer hungry talent as well, and minimal management layers is probably the only viable way to make a great Halo again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally, Lehto <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/game_fabricator\/status\/2094177460149747774\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/x.com\/game_fabricator\/status\/2094177460149747774\">revealed<\/a> that Halo 3&#8217;s budget was about $40 million for development, with as much as $30 million spent on marketing. He said Halo: Reach, meanwhile, cost about $120 million, though he did not clarify if this was inclusive of both development and marketing expenses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Halo franchise remains synonymous with the Xbox brand, but many might agree that it has seen better days. Xbox&#8217;s new CEO, Asha Sharma, has now commented on Halo&#8217;s future, saying in an interview that Halo remains a &#8220;very key franchise&#8221; for Xbox and that Microsoft is taking a long-term view about reviving it. &#8220;The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gaming","category-news"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}