History of Halo Timeline

Eric Nylund wrote Halo: The Fall of Reach in seven weeks, and it was published in October 2001 as a tie-in novel launching alongside the first game. Nylund would write additional Halo works including the novels First Strike (2003) and Ghosts of Onyx (2006).

Image source: Halo: The Fall of Reach

William C. Dietz wrote Halo: The Flood, a novelization of the first game's events, which was published in 2003 as part of the growing library of Halo literature.

Image source: Flood (Halo)

In 2005, Columbia Pictures president Peter Schlessel began working outside the studio system to produce a Halo film adaptation. 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures decided to partner to produce the film, paying Microsoft $5 million to option the film and 10 percent of grosses.

The Halo universe was adapted into comics in 2006 with the release of The Halo Graphic Novel, a collection of four short stories published by Marvel Comics.

Image source: The Halo Graphic Novel

Alex Garland wrote an early screenplay for the Halo film; Weiss and Josh Olson rewrote Garland's script during 2006. Later that year, 20th Century Fox threatened to pull out of the project, leading Universal to issue an ultimatum to Jackson and Schlessel: either reduce their large "first-dollar" revenue deals, or the project was ended. The project was canceled internally in 2007–2008, as Microsoft lost interest in a PC-based game.

Halo: Uprising, by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev, bridges the gap between the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3; initially planned to conclude shortly before the release of Halo 3 in 2007, delays led to the final issue being published in 2009.

Image source: Halo: Uprising

Joyride Studios created Halo and Halo 2 action figures, while Halo 3 poseable and collectible action figures, aimed at collectors, were produced by McFarlane Toys and became some of the top-selling action figures of 2007 and 2008.

Two additional comic runs were announced in 2009, continuing Marvel's expansion of the Halo comic universe beyond The Halo Graphic Novel and Halo: Uprising.

A five-part series was published between July and November 2009, and Fred Van Lente's series, Halo: Blood Line, revolving around a black ops team of Spartan supersoldiers assigned to the UNSC Office of Naval Intelligence, debuted in December 2009.

Microsoft announced at Comic-Con 2009 that it was overseeing production of a series of seven short anime films, together called Halo Legends. Warner Bros. distributed Legends on DVD and Blu-ray in February 2010.

Image source: Halo Legends

Although shot as a feature-length film, Forward Unto Dawn was originally released as a webseries consisting of five episodes released between October 5, 2012, and November 2, 2012. The film cut was released on Blu-ray and DVD on December 4, 2012.

Image source: Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn

On May 21, 2013, Xbox Entertainment Studios and 343 announced that a live-action television show of Halo would be produced with Steven Spielberg serving as executive producer through what is now Amblin Television, with the series set to premiere on Showtime.

Dark Horse Comics has produced a number of Halo series, beginning with the three-part series Halo: Initiation, released in August 2013. Also announced was Halo: Escalation, an ongoing comic series covering the period directly after Halo 4; it ran for 24 issues from 2013 to 2015. Marvel also released a three-part comic adaptation of the novel Halo: The Fall of Reach in 2011.

On April 3, 2014, it was announced that Ridley Scott and his production company, Scott Free Productions, were working on a Halo digital movie alongside 343 Industries and Xbox Entertainment Studios. On June 9, 2014, it was announced at E3 2014 that the feature, titled Halo: Nightfall, would be included with Halo: The Master Chief Collection at its November 2014 launch. On July 24, 2014, 343 Industries released the first trailer, and on March 16, 2015, the series became available to stream, download, and buy on physical disc.

After sitting in development hell for many years, with casting beginning in 2019 and filming in 2021, the live-action Halo series premiered on Paramount+ on March 24, 2022.

Despite a difficult and hectic development schedule, Halo: Combat Evolved shipped as a launch title for the Xbox on November 15, 2001, marking the debut of the franchise and its tie-in novel The Fall of Reach.

Halo 2 was announced on August 8, 2002, at Microsoft's X02 press event, and an impressive demo of the game was shown at Electronic Entertainment Expo the following year.

Image source: Halo 2

Halo 3 was announced at the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo, building anticipation for the conclusion of Bungie's original trilogy. That same year, the episodic video game Halo: Chronicles was announced, to be developed by film director Peter Jackson's Wingnut Interactive.

Image source: Halo 3

After releasing on the Xbox in November 2004, Halo 2 came later to Windows Vista in 2007, bringing the landmark sequel to PC players.

Halo 3 was released on the Xbox 360 on September 25, 2007, concluding Bungie's original trilogy and becoming one of the biggest entertainment launches of the year.

Halo 3: ODST released September 22, 2009, and was positively received, though its price as a full game (rather than a cheaper expansion) was sometimes criticized.

Image source: Halo 3: ODST

Halo 4 audio director Sotaro Tojima began looking for a composer for the game in 2010, deciding on Neil Davidge after a year's search, bringing a fresh musical direction to the series.

Image source: Halo 4

Reach released September 14, 2010, and was a success, making $200 million its first day and selling more than 4.7 million units by September 2011.

Image source: Halo: Reach

Halo 4 was announced at E3 2011 and released November 6, 2012, beginning the Reclaimer Saga and marking 343 Industries' first fully original mainline entry in the series.

343 Industries' next installment, Halo 5: Guardians, was announced in 2014, continuing the Reclaimer Saga with a focus on multiplayer and squad-based gameplay.

Image source: Halo 5: Guardians

The third part of the Reclaimer Saga, Halo Infinite, was announced during E3 2018, generating massive anticipation for Master Chief's next adventure. That same year, the spinoffs Halo Recruit, a virtual reality experience, and Halo: Fireteam Raven, a coin-operated arcade game developed by Raw Thrills and PlayMechanix starting with Round1 USA and Dave & Buster's arcades, also arrived.

Image source: Halo Infinite

Halo Infinite released in December 2021 after years of anticipation. Its soundtrack was released digitally on December 8, 2021, and by 2021 total sales of games in the Halo series had surpassed 81 million copies.

The project was revealed to be Halo: Campaign Evolved, a full remake of the original Combat Evolved's campaign set to release in 2026 for Windows, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5, marking the franchise's debut on Sony consoles.

The latest major installment, Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake of the original Combat Evolved game with overhauled gameplay features running on Unreal Engine 5, was released in July 2026, nearly twenty-five years after the original game launched the series.

In August 2002, G4 hosted the Halo National Championship Finals, a free-for-all tournament involving sixteen players from across the country, hosted by Wil Wheaton of Star Trek fame. The Associates of Gaming Professionals (AGP), which focused solely on Halo, held its first event in November 2002.

By July 2006, Halo: Combat Evolved had sold 4.2 million copies and earned $170 million in the United States, cementing its status as one of the most successful games of its generation.

Microsoft and 343 Industries sponsored their own professional Halo league, called the Halo Championship Series (HCS), in 2014, formalizing competitive play for the franchise.

In August 2015 Microsoft announced it would be increasing the total prize pool of the HCS to US$1 million, for the debut event for Halo 5, the Halo World Championship.

Halo returned to its real-time strategy roots with Halo Wars, developed by Ensemble Studios for the Xbox 360 and released in 2009.

Image source: Halo Wars

Another unusual spinoff, Halo 2600, has players control Master Chief and fight through 64 screens with varied enemies. It was written by Ed Fries, former vice president of game publishing at Microsoft, in 2010 for the Atari 2600.

Image source: Halo 2600

Interested in bringing Halo to mobile devices, 343 Industries partnered with Vanguard Games to produce Halo: Spartan Assault, a twin-stick shooter initially released on Windows 8 tablets and phones in 2013; the game later came to the Xbox and iOS platforms, and was the first Halo game released on Steam.

Image source: Halo: Spartan Assault

343 Industries announced a free-to-play Halo multiplayer game for Windows PC, Halo Online, in 2015. The project was canceled in August 2016.

Spartan Assault was followed by a sequel, Halo: Spartan Strike, in 2015, continuing the twin-stick shooter spinoff line on mobile and PC platforms.

Image source: Halo: Spartan Strike

A Mega Bloks-branded spinoff game, similar to the style of Lego video games, was prototyped for the Xbox 360 but not pursued; footage of the game leaked several years later in 2017.

A sequel to Halo Wars, Halo Wars 2 was developed by Creative Assembly and released on Xbox One and PC platforms simultaneously in February 2017.

Image source: Halo Wars 2