A first-person shooter franchise launched by Bungie in 2001 about a super soldier fighting the alien Covenant.

Where did Halo come from?

Bungie Inc. released Halo: Combat Evolved as an Xbox launch title on November 15, 2001.

The series name refers to the ring-shaped artificial worlds called Halo that appear across the games.

Play the games on Xbox or, since March 2019, on PC via the Microsoft Store and Steam.

Is Halo still popular?

The franchise is still active under 343 Industries, with mainline releases and the Master Chief Collection expanded to PC in 2019.

Bungie built the first five games before handing the franchise to Microsoft's 343 Industries on March 31, 2012.

Master Chief is a super soldier in green armor introduced in Halo: Combat Evolved and voiced across the mainline series.

What was the pizza incident?

Fans mailed pizzas to 343 Industries after MCC was announced for PC in March 2019, forcing community lead Brian Ske7ch Jarrad to publicly ask them to stop.

What is Red vs. Blue?

A long-running Rooster Teeth machinima made inside Halo's multiplayer, with a plot separate from the mainline games.

What was Halo: Nightfall?

A digital series directed by Ridley Scott to set up Agent Locke before Halo 5: Guardians.

When did Halo 5 come out?

Halo 5: Guardians was announced in May 2014 and released for Xbox One in Fall 2015 with a new engine targeting 60 frames per second.

Halo

2001video game franchiseclassic

Published August 26, 2026

Halo is a first-person shooter franchise about a super soldier and an AI battling an alien alliance called the Covenant, launched by Bungie with Halo: Combat Evolved on November 15, 20013. The series helped establish the original Xbox as a mainstream platform2 and spawned machinimas, novels, and a viral 2019 pizza-flood from fans celebrating the PC re-release3.

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Overview

The Halo games put players in the boots of Master Chief, a super soldier in green armor2 who works alongside an AI named Cortana to defeat the Covenant, an alien alliance bent on wiping out humanity3. Levels mix vehicle sections, ring-shaped alien worlds, and squad combat, and later entries let players swap between Master Chief and an alien Elite known as the Arbiter3. One 2012 retrospective called Combat Evolved Microsoft's Killer App for saving the Xbox platform from an early flop2.

The franchise pushed past games into a wider media catalog with tie-in novels, anime episodes, action figures, and a canceled Peter Jackson film project2. Halo also spawned one of the largest fan-machinima scenes on the web, with creators reusing the multiplayer engine as a filmmaking tool3. Fan channels, dedicated wikis, subreddits, and Tumblr blogs kept feeding new content from 2001 onward3.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Xbox (Bungie) / PC (viral 2019 pizza moment)

Creator

Bungie Inc.

Date

2001

Bungie Inc. released Halo: Combat Evolved on November 15, 2001, alongside the launch of the original Xbox console3. The first game introduced Master Chief and the ring-shaped artificial world called Halo that gives the series its name3. Combat Evolved was later credited with rescuing the fledgling Xbox platform, which had struggled to line up must-have exclusives against Sony's PlayStation 22.

How It Spread

The series moved fast through the 2000s. Halo 2 landed on November 9, 2004, letting players control both Master Chief and the Arbiter3. Halo 3 arrived September 25, 2007, adding new vehicles, weapons, and a map editor3. Bungie kept the pipeline full with the real-time strategy spinoff Halo Wars in February 2009, the squad-based Halo 3: ODST in September 2009, and the prequel Halo: Reach in September 20103.

Bungie officially handed the franchise to Microsoft's internal studio 343 Industries on March 31, 20123. 343's first main entry, Halo 4, was announced at Microsoft's E3 press conference on June 6, 2011 and released worldwide on November 6, 2012 as the eighth Halo game overall1. Halo 5: Guardians was confirmed in a blog post by 343 general manager Bonnie Ross in May 2014, with a Fall 2015 launch window and a rebuilt engine targeting 60 frames per second on Xbox One4.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection bundled the mainline entries in an HD package for Xbox One on November 11, 2014, scoring 85 out of 100 on Metacritic5. On March 12, 2019, 343 announced the collection would come to PC through the Microsoft Store and Steam, a first for several of the games included3. The announcement kicked off the pizza incident: Redditor thewombinthesky had promised on March 5, 2019 to send a pizza to any 343 employee if the port was announced within a month, and after the announcement fans mailed so many pizzas to the office that community director Brian Ske7ch Jarrad publicly asked people to stop ordering3.

Fun Facts

Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings, came close to producing a Halo film before the project stalled over budget disputes2.

Bungie's follow-up project after leaving Halo was Destiny, which press coverage compared directly to the studio's earlier work on Halo3.

A Reddit user, thewombinthesky, promised in a March 5, 2019 r/halo post to send a pizza to any 343 employee if MCC was announced for PC, and the post cleared 1,700 upvotes in nine days3.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection launched with four games upscaled to 1080p and 60fps on Xbox One3.

Derivatives & Variations

Red vs. Blue, a long-running Rooster Teeth machinima that repurposes Halo's multiplayer engine to tell a comedy story about two squads of soldiers[3].

Arby 'n' the Chief, a Jon CJG machinima and live-action series casting Master Chief and the Arbiter as cynical roommates[3].

Halo: Nightfall, a digital series directed by Ridley Scott to introduce Agent Locke ahead of Halo 5: Guardians[3].

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, a Microsoft-commissioned live-action series built to onboard new players into the Halo universe[3].