Halo gets esports reality show from ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ creators

One of Microsoft’s biggest gaming properties is getting its own reality show.

Halo studio 343 Industries is partnering with Pilgrim Media on a reality-competition esports series for Halo 5: Guardians. This is the first production to come out of Pilgrim’s previously announced collaboration with Hollywood studio Lionsgate and esports organization ESL to create content related to professional gaming — although the industry has seen reality-competition shows before with PlayStation’s The Tester. Pilgrim is responsible for the Ulitimate Fighting Championships reality-competition show The Ultimate Fighter, and it’s likely that the Halo program will have a similar vibe to that mixed-martial-arts show. With the Halo production, Microsft, Pilgrim, and Lionsgate are taking a major step into a growing esports business that some analysts predict could generate as much as $1 billion in revenue by 2018.