Is the year's most-anticipated title also a fitting swan song for the Microsoft franchise?

Photo: Bungie/Microsoft

Nine years. That's how long ago the first Halo hit Xbox and since then, the sci-fi series has proven to be Microsoft's (MSFT) most enduring game franchise and a paragon for the first-person shooter genre. All told, the company has sold 34 million Halo games worldwide and posted $1.9 billion in Halo games and Halo-related merchandise sales.

The latest, Halo: Reach, is a bittersweet send-off for Bungie, the software development team behind the series. It's the last Halo title from the team before it starts work on a new game property as part of its new 10-year deal with Activision. Presumably, an internal team at Microsoft will take the reins and develop future Halo games, but Reach takes the franchise full circle and answers all the questions fans have wanted answered. More