343 Industries: Halo IP is a community effort

343 Industries franchise development director Frank O’Connor revealed in an interview that every product released in the Halo franchise is there because fans asked questions and the produced are used to answer them, designed to satisfy ”specific needs” from the fanbase. In other words, the marketing team doesn’t suggest products, the fans do.

”Our marketing people at Microsoft actually only market our games, “said O’Connor ”Our marketing people don’t work on books, or the novels, or the comics… “Every single one of those products, what you might call ‘ancillary products,’ was designed to answer a specific need. Fans wanted this; fans wanted to know this story.”

To give an example, O’Connor explains, “(Someone says,) ‘I want a Master Chief action figure,’ and we went and made that happen. And, ‘I want to know more about this angle of the universe’ or ‘this back story in the universe,’ and we just went and made it happen. Everything has answered a question.”

”We’re literally looking at making a grunt plushie this year, and not because – well it’ll probably sell a lot and make a lot of money – but because it’s the single most-demanded item that we haven’t fulfilled in the franchise history. ‘I want a grunt plushie!’ But the weird thing is, it’s the hardest core fans that want that.”

O’Connor added, ”It’s just trying to make sure that you reach a state where 100 percent of that demand is met successfully. So yeah, I don’t worry about saturation, or overexposure, because all of these things are what our fans want, one way or another.”

If you had a Halo wish, what would it be? Could the rumored Xbox 360 remake of Halo: Combat Evolved actually be something 343 Industries took from the fans?