11 Fascinating Gaming Moments That Almost Happened

8. Gearbox Nearly Developed Halo 4

Halo Gearbox
Microsoft/Gearbox

You’d struggle to find an Xbox exclusive as universally adored - or as influential - as Bungie’s Halo series.

The studio had originally intended for the franchise to be an RTS of sorts, and was even originally set to release for the Macintosh before evolving into a third-person shooter, and then into a first-person one over the course of development.

The rest was history. Halo: Combat Evolved released to universal acclaim, and spawned one of the most beloved mythologies in the gaming medium. However, there was always going to come a point in time when Bungie would have to leave the series behind, and someone else would step up to the plate.

That point came after the release of Halo: Reach, and though Bungie were always set to leave, the matter of who was going to replace them actually led Microsoft to an unlikely name, Gearbox, before they eventually settled on 343 Industries.

According to IGN, Microsoft actively pursued the idea of giving Halo to an external studio, and the one in pole position was Gearbox Software. The studio had originally presided over the PC port of the first Halo, but are most famous today for helming Borderlands.

Ewan Paterson

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.

Contributor

Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.