Reach Out

So Halo Reach is, reportedly, the last Halo game from Bungie? I sure hope so. I think it's fair to say that everyone is pretty sick of Halo, it's devoted-to-the-point-of-downright-weird fans and the over-saturation of it all. I personally don't mind Halo but I find it interesting that Bungie decided to move on.

You hear so many people complaining about how gaming franchises are run into the ground and no one seems keen to try something new. I personally find it interesting that anyone who has the balls to genuinely try something new is swallowed by gamers and shat out as yet another franchise. Case in point: God of War. It came when action games were running out of puff and presented a compelling anti-hero along with a deconstruction of Greek mythology. Also, it presented a proper story with a well-realised resolution. As such, I have no idea why the God of War sequels exist or there is any need: Sure the action is still there but the plot just gets silly plays off of Kratos being a total jerk - thus ruining a lot of what originally made him so interesting.

So I give Bungie credit: They are obviously closing the book on successful franchise and moving onto something different. You don't see that much in the gaming these days becuase such a move requires a large amount of balls to do so. I can only think of only one other case where a franchise was deliberately put to rest and that was Phantasy Star 4 on the Sega Genesis/Megadrive.
Indeed, I'm interested to see what Bungie does next, and whether they will stick to their guns in the face of greedy business types and fans who will eat up anything with Halo written on it. It takes balls to do unconventional things with an established franchise (Leisure Suit Larry 4 comes to mind) so yay to Bungie.

Of course there is talk of doing ANOTHER Halo game only this time by fans but to me, in this franchise-driven, fan-pandering era, there's nothing sadder.