>>11863686
Most titles back in those days went one or two sequels before dying off. Halo was special because it was a bonding experience between kids as the first real split screen experience that took place on open field with a diversity of different weapons and vehicles. what made the hype massive was the microsoft title and then the expectations for the stock price at the time. it was massive because there was a multi year gap between Halo and halo2 I was 16 years old and people took off work for it in both professional settings and in academic settings it was a huge networking and onramp for Xbox live which was shilled as an updates only platform until halo2 came out I played the demo for the first halo and eventually played halo at my friends houses for months straight and when halo 2 came out the landscape had modernized and people were more networked together, short form videos were becoming a thing back then when MMS started supporting 15 second video clips so the virality of the game and platform was amazing. then the 360 came out, halo 3 capitalized on the hype and technological prowess of the system was better integrated..... essentially peak 00s aesthetic