3. Halo 3
The third entry in the Halo series did a lot for the FPS console community in terms of mechanics, theres no denying. Those contributions were many, and substantial, but theyre not nearly as interesting as the impact Halo 3 made on the business of videogames, how we interact with them and their place in the mainstream. Thanks to its marketability, the Halo series has always done well for itself and its easy to see why. Halo is the story of the human race, our independence and our refusal to be annihilated at the hands of an overwhelmingly powerful, unjust force. Its a relatable us-versus-them drama that sees humankind unite and fight back against all odds, conquering the unimaginable secrets of space in our final hour. Halo 3 had the good fortune of delivering the conclusion of that epic space-opera, years in the making, for an established legion of faithful fans. It was a guaranteed financial success given its lineage, but Microsoft capitalized on the fact that the last story in the Halo trilogy would be the first Halo title on their new hardware. Ironically, the months leading up to the release of Halo 3 were analogous to the story itself: the unparalleled power of an overwhelming force bombarding the human race into submission. That force was Microsoft and their approximate $40 million dollars spent marketing the title, an investment they hoped would move more hardware units and strengthen the brand with the general public. Suddenly, Halo 3 had crossed into ubiquity. There were trailers: live-action, gameplay, CG cinematic, in-game cinematic and every other possible flavor. There were product tie-ins that saw Master Chief secure his own soft drink, which he could imbibe from his own commemorative cup while enjoying a meal from packaging that bore his likeness. He could field an army of his own action figures. Halo 3 was no longer just a videogame, it had become a cultural event. The circus that surrounded it's launch, and profitability, wasn't solely responsible for the commodification of the medium, but it certainly pushed things along. The videogame was officially bankable, now more than ever, and in just a few short years it would claim the largest entertainment launch in history. And spawn millions of Angry Birds backpacks. In more specific areas, Halo 3 exacted change with surgical precision. It helped to flesh out professional competitive multiplayer on consoles thanks to immense balance and customizable settings. It added the Forge, a sandbox map editor that allowed players the chance to manifest designs of their own imagining. Lastly, the ability to watch saved footage of each match you play, a feature weve seen adopted in other successful FPS franchises. Then theres the community that surrounded the title with Bungie.net and the Bungie Pro service that tracked your profile data with immeasurable detail. Everything from numerical stats to heat maps to leaderboards and file sharing. It was an amazing companion piece and an idea thats again been adopted and iterated upon by other successful first-person-shooters on every platform. The massive conclusion of the series may have had its flaws, but Halo 3 didn't just change the first-person-shooter genre forever it changed the business of the industry and the medium itself.