Halo 4 Reawakens the Master Chief and Cortana

The Master Chief and Cortana return in Halo 4 after a five-year hiatus. Halo 4, an Xbox-exclusive game, launched at midnight on Nov. 6, 2012, generating revenue of US$220 million in its first 24 hours of availability. After one week, that number surpassed US$300 million.

Halo numbers rival blockbuster movies: the franchise has generated over US$3.3 billion in revenue since the first installment, Halo: Combat Evolved, arrived as a launch title for the original Xbox console in 2001. The Xbox arguably would not have survived its early years without the help of Halo, which was the primary reason many gamers bought the first console as it struggled against the then dominant Sony PlayStation 2. The Xbox 360 console, released in 2005, is now the top-selling console worldwide. Kinect has also helped boost Xbox sales more recently, although that technology works best with casual games and isn’t supported by Halo 4, a core game that requires input precision that Kinect can’t provide.

Halo 4 starts a new storyline that will likely generate a second trilogy of games. It delivers intense first-person shooter action, as is expected from games in the series, but simultaneously tells a sci-fi story that explores the nature of humans, machines, and artificial intelligence. The game encompasses a campaign that takes players through the main story, a separate player-versus-player mode (a popular mode for Halo games that is responsible for much of the multiplayer activity on Xbox Live), and a new series mode that presents players with free weekly downloadable episodes.