Halo: Combat Evolved Was Almost A PS2 Exclusive

The things that happen behind the scenes. Things we’d probably never hear about if it wasn’t for some true investigation and hard questioning. I’m sure you’d never think in your wildest dreams that the Xbox’s most popular and important franchise almost became a PS2 exclusive. But it’s true, and if Sony’d played its cards tougher, Halo: Combat evolved would be a Sony owned IP today.

It’s in a feature piece on Gamasutra the details concerning the franchise was made known, detailing the early days of Bungie and what we now know as Guerrilla Games. The Xbox was about to launch as Microsoft’s first foray into the gaming industry, and the firm needed a “killer app”.

Bungie started out developing games for Mac, and at that time, there weren’t many, because most studios were dealing with Windows as it had a much larger install base. So couple that with a rough economic situation, Bungie decided to jump ship when sales of Macintosh computers fell to dismal levels.

Halo was first considered for a release on Mac and Dreamcast, but as hype for PS2 began to swell, the Dreamcast version was laid to rest for an exclusive release on Sony’s PS2. Yes, Halo: Combat Evolved on PS2. In fact, Sony itself would act as publisher of the game.

At the same time, Microsoft was coming out with the Xbox and needed a game to associate the new console with. Bungie was available for purchase and Microsoft offered money….The rest was history.

What you should know too, is that because Halo went to the Xbox and realized great success, Sony needed a game to match, and that’s when the company called then independent Guerrilla Games to develop what we now know as Killzone.

Know you games history!