The title of the original Halo game is “Halo: Combat Evolved”. That’s not the title that the game’s developer wanted.
Bungie wanted the game to be simply called “Halo”. Microsoft, who published the game, pushed the “Combat Evolved” subtitle onto the game. “Oh, man… the subtitle,” Halo designer Jaime Griesemer told Edge Magazine. “At the time, Microsoft marketing thought Halo was not a good name for a video game brand. It wasn’t descriptive like all the military games we were competing with.”
“The compromise was they could add a subtitle. Everyone at Bungie hated it. But it turned out to be a very sticky label and has now entered the gaming lexicon to the point where articles that have nothing to do with Halo get titles like ‘Skateboarding Evolved’. So I guess in hindsight it was a good compromise.”
It was a compromise evolved. Released in 2001, the first Halo game would go on to sell over 5 million copies.
News: Microsoft forced Bungie to accept ‘Combat Evolved’ name [CVG]
Stinky
Thursday, June 3, 2010 at 6:10 PMI never actually realised it had a subtitle until last year, but then again I never really played it until last year. Still goes to show, when it comes to marketing MS knows a thing or two.
Jay
Thursday, June 3, 2010 at 7:21 PMYet no one addresses it as that. Its almost always ‘The First Halo’, ‘Halo’, ‘Halo 1′ or ‘Halo: CE’.
Either way – it contains the greatest campaign out of the three.
Here’s hoping Reach can top it – with all the “going back to basics” that Bungie have been claiming in helping out Reach together.
Michael Barnes
Thursday, June 3, 2010 at 7:47 PMNobody ever refers to its sub title anyway so who care. I suppose Microsoft were right in making it identifiable, surely they cover would be enough though?
Jack Hillman
Thursday, June 3, 2010 at 11:04 PMI wonder why “Monkey Nuts” didn’t stick…
Arcane Azmadi
Friday, June 4, 2010 at 12:44 PMYou know, I keep thinking that maybe I ought to play that game some day…
Nicholas Corcoran
Friday, June 4, 2010 at 3:01 PM3 words for you
BEST SHOOTER EVAR