Halo Wars developer explains why Master Chief isn't in the game

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Summary

  • Halo Wars, a real-time strategy game, did not feature Master Chief to focus on new stories and characters.

  • The decision to exclude Master Chief was meant to prevent players from only caring about the iconic character.

  • Ensemble Studios made the right call by prioritizing new stories over Master Chief's popularity.

Over 15 years after its initial release, Halo WarsLead designer Dave Pottinger explained why Master Chief never appeared in the game. Master Chief is the iconic mascot of Halo series, but it doesn't appear anywhere near Ensemble Studios' RTS, Halo Wars.

Originally released in 2009 as an Xbox 360 exclusive, Halo Wars puts a twist on the typical Halo formula. Instead of being an FPS like others Halo games, Halo Wars was a real-time strategy game that allowed players to fight the Human-Covenant War on a larger scale. The game was set 21 years before Halo: Combat Evolvedso he was able to tell a new story without the existing favorite series. Due to its exclusiveness to the Xbox 360, it had to run entirely on a controller, which has usually been a struggle for RTS games in the past. However, Halo Wars did a solid job of bringing the complexity of the RTS genre to consoles and has stood the test of time to this day.

Halo Master Chief Collection cover without text

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Those who remember Halo Wars the story you know Master Chief doesn't appear. Players can control the Spartans as a powerful unit on the battlefield, but not the most famous of them all. In an interview with VideoGamer, Halo Wars Lead designer Dave Pottinger explained that the studio “didn't want to use Master Chief”. The reason for this is simple. “I was telling the game that needed you to care about everyone else. We thought that as soon as Master Chief came along, that's all anyone would do. [care about].”

Halo Wars Developer 'Didn't Want to Use Master Chief'

That's certainly a fair guess. Throughout most of the games in the Halo In the series, players control Master Chief, and at that point they had been playing the character for eight years. Even now, Master Chief is being used as a crutch for the franchise to fall back on in order to get players on board for a story that doesn't involve the character likely needed to cut ties completely. Halo Wars it's a great story in its own right, so in hindsight Ensemble Studios probably made the right decision about it.

As soon as Master Chief shows up, that's all anyone will do [care about].

Almost eight years have passed since its release Halo Wars 2. In February 2025, the wait for a new game in the subseries will stretch as long as the gap between the original and its sequel. Given its popularity Halo Warsit's kind of surprising to see that a new game hasn't been released in that time. When 343 Industries changed its name to Halo Studios earlier this year, it was revealed that the developer had several Halo projects in the works right now. While nothing is confirmed, fans are just hoping that one is new Halo Wars title.

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