I hate to see a perfectly good killer app be turned into a cash mongering, greedy, spin off producing whore fest, which is why I was so upset by many of Microsoft's recent decisions about the Halo franchise. It seems that Microsoft will put the Halo name on just about anything and everything if it will bring in a few bucks. There have been plenty of Halo spin off products, some awesome and appropriate, others disappointing and disgusting, and now to continue that long line is...Halo 3 Laser Tag. Actually, it's not laser tag, it's Laser Command by Jasman Toys.
Now I don't mean any offense to Jasman Toys (since I've never played Laser Command), but how many Halo related products are going to be made before people realize how much it's starting to resemble a genetically enhanced, high class Bordello?
The books? Awesome, always good to get some more story from a good game.
The movie? Cool, as long as they don't ruin it like most in Hollywood do.
The action figures? Nice, I guess, for collectors and those who like to play with them (I'm guessing there are more of the earlier than the latter)
The spin off RTS not even made by Bungie? Sigh...
And now Laser Command.
I'm sure there are people who enjoy these products and are happy to buy them for either collectible reasons or for the purpose they were made, but Microsoft (and every other company out there, I know it's not just MS) needs to stop milking every last penny out of their franchises. It completely drains the integrity of the game and the series, for me at least, and makes it harder and harder to keep saying "Bungie is different from other developers."
I love Bungie. They're awesome. They've made so many great games they should win a Nobel Prize. But it's getting hard to defend them from those who accuse them of being sellouts. It is my honest belief that the guys at Bungie are good and honest men and women who care about their customers, and that Microsoft is solely responsible for the whorish activity that abounds, but when they announce Halo Flakes or blow up Cortana dolls, it's going to be near impossible for me to be proud of being a Halo fan.
Let me know what you think about this one. Is Microsoft whoring Halo to an extreme? Does Bungie have any responsibility? Has this whole world gone mad? Ok, not so much the last one.
11 comments:
The sad thing is, I'd totally buy a blow-up Cortana doll.
dude, that's kinda sick. But yeah, the entire franchise at the moment is feeling quite used and abused. I only have the books and the games so I can't offer my input on the quality of any other products on the market but I'm sure some of them are less-than-Halo worthy.
You're not proud to be a halo/bungie fan because they made some business decisions which gave you the option of purchasing additional halo branded merchandise? Why should that matter to your pride in the least?
I'd only consider Bungie a bunch of sell-outs if they ruined the integrity of their game, within the game itself, to bow to the almighty dollar. Such as having Masterchief eating "a healthy mom-approved cereal".
Bungie is a business, doing the stuff they love to do and making money off of it without compromising it. If you don't like the halo flakes, don't buy 'em.
Personally, I'd probably end-up with a box of 'em rotting on a shelf somewhere because I think it'd pretty funny. They'd probably be like cheerios with plasma grenade marshmellows on 'em, so they'd be crap, but still cool that something like a game could get that kind of blanket merchandising.
Bungie did great, and are allowed to profit from it. Microsoft made a wise move to use them, and should ALSO be allowed to profit from it. What's wrong with seeing the Masterchief stuff everywhere? I think it'd be pretty cool to raise awareness of a great game, and therefore entice folks to go ahead and sink money into making the movie.
As to the RTS game, Bungie's bible was consulted in the making of the game, and also approved of the storyline, etc, thereby making it an official extension of the Haloverse.
I don't get how having more halo stuff would be a bad thing? So what if the items themselves suck, don't buy 'em.
The laser command set will feature things like replicas of some of the weapons used in Halo. Yeah, that would suck, especially the light-up plasma sword. Who could ever want such a monstrosity? I imagine the chest plates might even look like a representation of the masterchief's chest plate. What an eyesore, and I'm sure I'll be forced to purchase them and contact the news media to let them know that I'm lame enough to be a halo fan. How people will mock me... I'm already feeling ashamed.
We should boycot all of them, and let the world know that they can't just take our beloved heroes and give them to us in many various ways, because it wounds our fanboy pride.
Elitism is a waste of anything you put into it.
First things first. You don't HAVE to buy their products. Okay, now that that's out of the way, lets get to business.
Going from what you said, the books are an excellent way of getting more plot in the story. The anime book also attracted more customers to the Halo universe, without damaging the game itself.
The movie, if it is ever made *crosses fingers* will be awesome. Bungie will not allow something that is not "fit" to be made. They want to extend their brand (such as the Halo faceplate, which I bought), not destroy it.
Action figures are a collector's item. For every major franchise (even McDonalds...), there are people who will want everything they can about it. Action figures allow them to do that, once again, not damaging the franchise.
I don't know why you would not want a Halo RTS. I for one, love RTS games, and am stoked about it. The fact that it does not take away any manpower from Halo 3 from Bungie to make it, only further proves my point. Many people do not like FPS's, and an RTS will extend the Halo community to more people. Enabling them to enjoy the same fun you do, and to have the same pride you do.
Lazer Command I agree with you on, but you have to understand that there are parents who will not let their kids play Halo, and they want to be part of the Halo community somehow. It's also a fun, easy kickback way to enjoy something that is related to Halo. It does NOT hurt the franchise.
Although Bungie is releasing many Halo related items, each one is specific in it's relevence to the company. They do NOT want to hurt what they made, just extend the franchise. Given, it can be easy to interpret it that way.
And one more note, there will never be Halo Flakes or blow up Cortana dolls (at least not advertised by Bungie).
I agee with PezCorner. There are too many products with the name 'Halo' slapped on them for me.
It's a huge franchise. One of the single largest franchises in the entire entertainment industry, I'd bet. Which leads me to my first question:
Did you expect anything different? Did you think Microsoft would decide it's best to play it low key and hope to rely on word of mouth? God, no, this isn't Little Miss Sunshine. It's in a league with Harry Potter, Star Wars, things of that nature. Of course it's going to be marketed this way.
My second question is this: Did something change to instigate this post? I seem to remember it being a hugely marketed franchise since the series launched. Books, t-shirts, toys, soundtracks...none of this stuff is new.
I just really don't understand why someone could get upset about the Halo franchise being "commercialized." Hell I don't think something that is now and always has been a commercial franchise can even be "commercialized." It's not like Halo started out as some little indie project in someones garage.
To Mr. Mike, actually it did start out as an indie project in a small building in Chicago.
Regardless of what it started as, by the time the gaming population at large got interested the Microsoft hype machine had already begun commercializing the heck out of Halo. I'd say the commercialization started with MS' purchase of Bungie.
Halo has always been the key exclusive MS uses to try to sell more console hardware (aka "killer app"), and you don't do that with some quiet little sleeper indie title.
Yeah, uhh.. Huge halo fan here just so you know. And if today is the first time youve had a feeling that the halo boat got turned into a huge media whore. then my friend you are a fool. When halo 2 had 7-11 cups i knew it was going the wrong way. When halo came out with 5 sets of "doll" or action figures i knew it was going the wrong way. When i saw a halo matchbox car. I knew, When MS wanted mtv to show off the 360 you should've known...
I love my xbox, my 360, and halo... but this is the nature of the beast cant beat sony if they dont do this. ITs the only way halo can take 360 over the top of the psx ( i hate psx ps2 and ps3) we cant have one with out the other. There can only be one (lol)
hey.... did you forget what country this is?
and honestly this entire planet has lost touch with what is truly important. Just like this lame azz story on a company selling it's product to death. As if they are the first company to do such a thing. You must think you're this brilliant rebel pointing out the absolute obvious.
you are one retarded chump
I hope you realize that you're having problems with a franchise marketing itself. Don't you guys like the Halo products being delivered?
I would agree with you guys if the Halo products sucked balls, but they are actually good. For example, the slurpee cups at the 7 11 were really cool looking, the matchbox cars are great to any collection, and the action figures are just that, action figures
I agree that many products are releasing with the "Halo" name, but these products are good. They EXPAND the franchise and the Halo universe.
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