10 Iconic Video Game Mascots That Don't Matter Anymore

Master Chief is not just the mascot for the hugely dominant Halo series, but he is also the main mascot for Xbox and Microsoft.

First introduced to gamers back in 2001 with Halo: Combat Evolved for the original Xbox console, Master Chief continued to be the go to hero that revolutionised the first-person shooter genre. The dominance of Halo and Master Chief continued for well over a decade with the release of Halo 2 (2004), Halo 3 (2007), and a small-reboot in 2012 with Halo 4.

So then why does Master Chief not matter anymore? Because Master Chief took a much criticised back seat in the ill-received Halo 5: Guardians (2015) as the game instead chose to focus on new, uninspiring characters.

On top of that, the upcoming release of Halo: Infinite has come under scrutiny. First scheduled to be an Xbox Series X launch title, early screenshots of the game were ridiculed online leading to the game being delayed by a year.

It's been a long time since we had a truly great Halo game, and Master Chief has slowly faded into irrelevance. The fact that Microsoft still launched a new console without their main mascot also proves that they are hoping to rely less on the Chief's status.