New Halo game in works as franchise sales break 50 million

Always bet on Master Chief and his Halo games – always. 343 Industries, the developer of Halo 4 revealed to CVG that the franchise has sold over 50 million copies worldwide since the original game launched for the Xbox in 2001, with about 4 million of those sales from the new game. As if we needed more proof that the Xbox brand and Halo go hand in hand, the developer also said the Halo games have driven gamers to play “more than 5 billion hours” on Xbox LIVE. Eleven years on and Halo is as iconic for Microsoft (MSFT) as Super Mario is for Nintendo (NTDOY). According to 343 Industries’ development director Frank O’Connor told CVG “a lot of people at 343 are already prototyping ideas and software and art for future Halo product” and “work on the game started actually before we launched Halo 4 and continues apace.” It’s unclear if the game will be Halo 5 or a spin-off as was Halo: Reach and Halo 3: ODST.