Bonnie Ross wants to grow Halo same way George Lucas shepherded Star Wars

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Bonnie Ross, head of 343 Industries, revealed some intriguing new information about Microsoft’s blockbuster shooter franchise. When Ross helped create 343 Industries in 2009, not everyone at Microsoft thought Halo would be around for much longer. Speaking to Bloomberg Business, Ross said, “People felt like…let’s get another Halo or two out, and it’s the end of the franchise.”

Ross told Microsoft that she wanted to be granted Lucas-like control over the franchise. For those who don’t know, George Lucas created the Star Wars franchise and sold it to Disney in 2012 for more than $4 billion. Ross added, The thing I asked for was, if I take it over, I want to be George Lucas. I want to own everything, and I want to do things differently.”

While there might have been some skepticism about the long-term appeal of the brand at first, that’s no longer the case. Microsoft is using Halo codenames for their project like the Spartan browser that turned into Microsoft Edge. Even Cortana is available on Windows 10 devices.

Halo franchise director Frank O’Connor praised Ross for her handling of the series. He said, “Bonnie came in and really surprised everyone because she’d read all the novels, she was deeply immersed in the fiction, and she’d played all the games.” O’Connor later quit Bungie and joined Ross at 343 Industries because he believed in her vision for the franchise.

Many would consider Halo’s story somewhat basic when it was under the control of Bungie. Halo 4’s campaign elevated the franchise because it added a lot of complexity and themes of love, sacrifice, and loss to the mix. Halo 5 takes it even further from what we see in the trailers. Ross is definitely steering the franchise in the right direction.

Source: GameSpot

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