The developer Borderlands has been considered for Halo 4 – unfiltered IGN

By Brian Barnett

The developer of Borderlands, Gearbox Software, was originally thought to create Halo 4. In this month's unfiltered IGN episode, Ryan McCaffrey met with Bonnie Ross, head of 343 Industries, and discussed the story a lot of other topics.

After Bungie, Halo's original development studio, broke away from Microsoft, a discussion took place at the Xbox on the management of the Halo franchise. While the end of Halo 3 was ambiguous enough to serve as a finale to the series, Halo also took place in an incredibly well-done universe, rich enough to serve as a setting for many other games, if Microsoft found the right studio to do them .

Wearing a great love for Halo, Ross, who was managing at the time all internal and external Xbox game publications, felt that it was "blasphemous" to end the Halo franchise or to surrender control at an external studio. She presented her perspective on Halo's future to Shane Kim, then vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, and received the franchise's keys to continue her creative vision of the series.

An internal Microsoft team was quickly formed to support the development of Halo Ross, named 343 Industries in honor of the favorite character of Halo fans, 343 Guilty Spark. 343 Industries then created Halo 4 and 5 and is currently working on Halo Infinite but, at the time, other options were under discussion.

What could have happened otherwise if 343 Industries had not been founded?

One possibility was to end the Halo franchise. The fate of Spartan 117 is relatively uncertain at the end of Halo 3, and this could have served as an end point to the series, according to Ross. While Bungie was working on Halo: Reach and Halo 3: ODST, which were released by Microsoft, the Halo franchise would not have come to an abrupt end, but Halo 3 could have been the end of Master Chief's story.

Another possibility was that Microsoft entrusted the reins of the franchise to an external studio for development, at least for one or two more games. The pioneer Microsoft at the time was Gearbox Software, the studio responsible for the Halo PC port: Combat Evolved and the same team that later created the famous Borderlands franchise.

For other insider interviews with the brightest and most fascinating minds of the video game industry, do not miss the rest of the unfiltered IGN catalog, which includes discussions with the founder and CEO of Insomniac, Ted Price, Cwy Jones, and many more.

Brian Barnett writes news, features, and wiki guides for IGN. You can get your solution of Brian's antics on Twitter (@Ribnax) and Instagram (@Ribnax).