As the kickoff for its HaloFest celebration, Microsoft formally launched its Halo: The Master Chief Collection. It repackaged four games based on the Master Chief character of the sci-fi series, which has sold more than 60 million copies and generated $3 billion in sales to date.
At its core, the Master Chief Collection is merchandising genius, as the company is selling four old games as new in a $60 package, mainly by making them all playable as one game and beefing up the graphics for the Xbox One video game console. More than a million fans watched the livestreams that previewed tall of this content, and hundreds of thousands of people lined up at more than 4,300 midnight retail events around the world, Microsoft said. The HaloFest event will continue for three days, with the highlight including a tournament with a $50,000 prize.
The disc set includes Halo: Combat Evolved (2001), Halo 2 (2004), Halo 3 (2007), and Halo 4 (2013).
“Halo has always been synonymous with Xbox,” said Xbox boss Phil Spencer in a statement. “‘Halo: The Master Chief Collection’ allows us to thank our fans and celebrate with an amazing package that will introduce a new generation to the epic Halo universe.”
In early reviews, the press has rated the game at 90 out of 100 on Metacritic, the review aggregation site.
The collection is part of a Halo extravaganza for diehard fans. It should stoke demand for Halo 5: Guardians, which is launching in 2015. The multiplayer beta test for Halo 5 becomes available to buyers of the collection starting Dec. 29. Microsoft is also launching Halo: Nightfall, a live-action digital video series starring actors such as Michael Colter and Christina Chong.
The HaloFest premiered the first two episodes of Halo: Nightfall and revealed the Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta.
