2. It Puts The Gaming Industry At Possible Risk
This next reason is more of a projected theory rather than a stone cold fact, but it doesn't stand outside the realm of possibility. Within the reach of reason, the video game industry is like an 800lb gorilla who is the sole competitor in a steel cage. When a piece of competition comes along to challenge it, the gorilla fights back and boots it right out and continues to dominate the cage. That said, the video game industry stands on its own two feet as a proud and strong competitor in today's media-filled world, taking on the other competitors and blazing a set of grand achievements and advancements along the way. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo vie for dominance with one another, with the release of their home consoles and platforms, reaching for as many supporters as they could possibly convince and reach out to. All three major competitors have built a healthy lifestyle out of selling millions of each others' consoles, exclusives, and thriving off numerous marketing campaigns that help them reach even higher echelons. And the new generation of consoles, the PS4 and Xbox One, will surely be home-run hitters in the grand setup of it all. Now, with the idea of the video game industry already being a top-dollar money-making industry, let's look at the film industry. Same aspects, right? Instead of three separate companies working on their own trails, they consist of different distributors and studios willing to put in money for a film project that could potentially make them millions, along with the director, crew, and actors who put their effort into developing the project. They have their marketing ways, much like the gaming industry. They have their initial product (films) that they reveal in the form of trailers in local theaters to promote their content and garner a twitch of intrigue from the audience. All in all, both the video game industry and film industry are alike in a lot of ways. Money, money, money. Now, let's consider the Halo film and fit it into the grand scheme of things, starting off with the marketing campaign for Halo back in 2007: The year of 2007 was an instant moneybag delivery for the video game industry and the film industry. Games like Crackdown, Mass Effect, Motorstorm, God of War II, Bioshock, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
, and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune all made 2007 a commercially huge investment year for the gaming industry. Downloadable content for certain big games such as The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and new subscriptions to Xbox Live boosted sales in both the entertainment aspect of the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, with more gamers going towards the latter console for its free online play and huge anticipated release back in November of 2006. One particular release that was hyped up for three long, painful years was Halo 3, Microsoft's inevitable cash cow and Bungie's third game in a projected trilogy that would cap off the journey ever since its beginning back in 2001. The marketing campaign for Halo 3 was unlike anything ever seen before. The total estimated value of the marketing was nearly $40 million, something which was unheard of at that time. And with that amount of money was granted a near unlimited amount of potential and originality. Not only were there traditional TV commercials and toy lines, but a separate campaign known as the "Believe" campaign, which featured a huge hand-made set which focused on a massive battle highlighting the dark tone that Halo 3 would bring, which was created with the efforts of New Deal Studios and Stan Winston Studios in Los Angeles. There were live-action short films directed by none other than Neill Blomkamp, which raised the bar. There were websites that claimed to take place within the world of Halo and its wide open universe. They even made exclusive Xbox 360 consoles, decorated in a Master Chief vinyl with bonus content on the hard drive. In short: a HUGE money maker. With all that effort, Halo 3 became the biggest piece of entertainment ever released, selling millions upon millions and becoming Microsoft's own personal Mount Everest. When Halo 3 was released on September 25th of 2007, it competed with the box office thanks to its generated sales of $170 million in just the first day of release. One film that was released about a week later, The Heartbreak Kid with Ben Stiller, was widely affected by Halo 3's monster success, working with a budget of only $60 million and only generating $14 million thanks to peoples' attention diverted straight to Halo 3. Halo 3 was such a massive success that it managed to rob the box office blind, like Robin Hood stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. It was of course a topic of controversy back then, because for once the video game industry managed to check the film industry with the release of one of its most anticipated titles. Now, with the history of Halo 3 said, let's take a gander at the Halo film project and do some cross-analyzing: Take the Halo film for what it is; it's a hugely anticipated film that all the fans want to see and, more importantly, the video game world as a whole wants to see come to life. With such hype behind it, what could go wrong? Well, let's look at it from a fan perspective if the film were to tank and go down under: let's say the Halo film does what it's supposed to do, and generates millions in ticket sales. That's a major plus for the film industry, and the studios and crew behind the project. It grows a determined and successful marketing campaign and launches the anticipation into the sky...only to come crashing down at negative reviews and backlash from the fans. Hear me out: while we all know that video game adaptations into films have never been a successful concept, there is always the chance for a Halo film to break that spell and become something truly great. But, seeing things for how they have been ever since Uwe Boll and Paul W.S. Anderson entered the scene, let's assume the Halo film, under the guidance of a great director, turns out to be a failure for not connecting to the fans the way it should have. After all the marketing, all the anticipation, all the years of waiting to make an epic adaptation of the Halo series, it goes down in flames and crashlands not on a ringworld, but misses and crashes instead into a nearby planet and is incinerated in a ball of false hope and irony. Negative reception, especially from the fans, would result in a cataclysmic meltdown not for the film industry, because they're already making their millions, but for the gaming industry. With a franchise like Halo, one of gaming's most cherished and celebrated series of games ever, an adapted film that ends up continuing the streak of one bad adaptation after another would tear asunder the video game industry, and ruin their later marketing for any future Halo games. With a sudden disinterest in the Halo series, it would deal a massive blow to the gaming industry, since the fans have been let down by the prospect of a hopefully-good-but-turned-out-to-be-nothing-special Halo film. It's basically the same case with the release of Halo 3 back in 2007, but instead of the film industry suffering loses in money, it's the gaming industry switching them places, with them not making the money needed to get by and fight another day. Again, this is nothing but a theory, I must repeat. Everyone knows that a Halo film would be a dream come true for a lot of people.....but only imagine the damage it could do
if it garnered negative feedback from both close fans and critics. It'd be a hell of a storm if it became a reality. Let's just hope that to prevent this, the studio/director/writers follow the first two reasons on this list to lessen the blow.