What would Bungie do? (Destiny)

by narcogen , Andover, Massachusetts, Sunday, October 30, 2016, 19:04 (3038 days ago) @ Cody Miller

If you can provide a source for wanting Halo 2 to be on the 360, I would like that. I spoke directly with Ed Fries who said that Jason only ever asked for another year, and that was in 2003. I of course want to do my due diligence here :-)

I don't need one.

If they had another year, they'd be launching in November 2005, the same month the Xbox 360 launched.

It would have been ridiculous to launch such a high profile system-selling game on the old platform the same month you launch the new version, so granting them another year to finish the game pretty much automatically also requiring them to port to 360.

That would be news to me. Short version:

What was planned to happen was Halo 2 in 2003, then Halo 3 near the 360 launch.

2003 comes. Jason goes to Ed and asks for another year. Ed trusts Bungie and goes to MS. MS says no way, Halo 2 is coming out in 2003. Ed threatens to quit if they don't let Bungie make Halo 2 great. MS caves. Halo 2 is a huge success and from then on Bungie is essentially untouchable.

At no time was Halo 2 ever to be for 360.

Let me amend my statement slightly.

Bungie wanted to release in 2004.

Releasing in 2004, to any reasonable person inside or outside of the industry, necessarily would mean retooling for 360 because of how moronic it would look to release such a high profile game, one highly identified with your platform, with a massive attach rate, that sells your system, on the old version of that same console the same month the new one launches. It would be tantamount to telling people NOT to buy a 360 at launch. The only possible way out would be to do what Destiny did-- launch on both consoles with incentives for picking the new one.

MS knew the choice was either 2003 on Xbox, or 2004 on Xbox 360. They chose the former. Whether Bungie was ever offered that they could have their delay IF they launched on 360 instead, I have no idea. MS might have had their own reasons (aside from wanting Halo 2 to launch in 2003) for putting in on Xbox and not on 360, I don't know. They may never have entertained the thought for one second.

My amended assertion should have been that if MS had seriously considered acceding to Bungie's request to delay one year, it would be logical to assume this would include making a version for 360 either instead of, or in addition to, the Xbox version, because of the very real potential for having a depressing effect on Xbox 360 launch sales.