I have taken note that 343 seems to have a disturbing number of company liaisons. As we know, any business needs to expand and outreach to make profit, but I think they’ve gone over the top.
A few companies I’ve noticed:
Mountain Dew (Double XP)
T-Mobile (Spartan Emblem)
Ford (Car)
various others I’m pretty sure
The point being, however, that I see Halo as almost sacred. It’s a classic, philosophical game, accompanied by an advanced storyline, and is something dear to me from childhood. This isn’t to mention the low-quality of the products being liaisoned. I think if they were to support some “better products”, I would feel better, but I’d still be upset. How would people feel if the Bible was used to support some low-end products? Given the Bible is much more important, and that most Halo players probably aren’t religious. Anyone else feel the same sort of way?
Halo has been linked with Mountain Dew since 2007 with Halo 3.
Jorge Lorenzo, a Spanish motorcycle racer, wore an ODST-inspired helmet in one of his races.
And how do you know Microsoft, you know the real people who own the Halo franchise and do licensing stuff, didn’t do this? Those things above I mentioned happened when Bungie owned Halo. Halo isn’t a sacred cow and those product placement ventures don’t ruin the story.
Well, isn’t this what the community wanted? Last I recall, people were complaining that Reach didn’t have enough marketing, saying that Halo 4 should have a lot.
Honestly I view it as a sign that gaming is no longer as niche as it used to be. There’s no actual endoresement of these things in the game, so i dont see this as a problem.