Is it legal to develop your own Halo game and distribute it to the masses?
To a certain extent yes. Nothing that is copyrighting the franchise or game in any way. Like Gmod for instance they have held servers that are set on halo made maps were everyone has a spartan player model. There is also Halo Custom which made by the community and then distributed.
Halo custom edition is like that pretty much and its very creative.
I’d say that to a certain extent, it is definitely possible. There’s Halo Custom and Halo Wars (although Wars is a whole different breed of game), both created by an outside individual or company. Halo 2 Vista was simply a port, and not a creation of a new game.
No, but you have to call it “Falo”.
> No, but you have to call it “Falo”.
O.O
> No, but you have to call it “Falo”.
Two words, not catchy.
> > No, but you have to call it “Falo”.
>
> Two words, not catchy.
Fakelo?
I’m sure you could get away with it. The legal concerns are pretty straightforward about it, someone could get 343’s/Microsoft’s permission, granted this is a deal you’ll only see once out of closed doors…
You can’t make a profit off of it. You can make as much fan-made content as you want, but as soon as you charge something for it, it becomes illegal.
> I’d say that to a certain extent, it is definitely possible. There’s Halo Custom and Halo Wars (although Wars is a whole different breed of game), both created by an outside individual or company. Halo 2 Vista was simply a port, and not a creation of a new game.
Both Halo Custom Edition and Halo Wars were approved by Microsoft, so they don’t necessarily count.
Many great Halo-related mods (such as the Halo mod for Command & Conquer Generals) were given a cease and desist order from Microsoft, and they were only mods rather than full games. I doubt you could create a whole game without getting Microsoft’s greedy paws on you.
> Is it legal to develop your own Halo game and distribute it to the masses?
So long as you aren’t making a profit, yes, you can develop your own Halo game.
As said by a few people above, you can’t actually sell it.
> > Is it legal to develop your own Halo game and distribute it to the masses?
>
> So long as you aren’t making a profit, yes, you can develop your own Halo game.
This. Just remember that Microsoft has the right to stop everything that you’re doing and claim it as their own. It’s unlikely, but they have the power to do so.
If you’re serious about making a game, I’d suggest making it a new IP; something not contained within another universe.
Thanks guys, I was just curious is all. I very much doubt I could pull together the resources to actually make it past the writing stages hehe.
Lol so much misinformation in this thread. Copyright infringement IS copyright infringement regardless of whether you’re making a profit off it or not. If you didn’t get permission to use the Halo trademark, your game is illegal according to US law, no exceptions.
Microsoft owns the Halo trademark. You’ll have to contact Microsoft for permission and I doubt they’ll license it to you. As a matter of fact, I’m sure they will charge you hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to use Master Chief and other trademarked/copyrighted elements in your games. Like the other guy said, Halo Wars and Custom Edition got permission from Microsoft.
By the way, any work featuring Microsoft’s IP without their permission (i.e. fan sites and HaloTracker) is technically illegal in most cases unless Microsoft or 343i explicitly states it can be used. Microsoft won’t bother going after these sites because it’s not worth the legal fees. Games, on the other hand, that’s where they get picky. However, chances are they won’t go after you if your game isn’t very popular, but it will still be illegal. Do it at your own risk.
> Lol so much misinformation in this thread.
Yeah, and ironically it’s all coming from you.
> Here’s the magic words from our lawyers: so long as you respect these rules, Microsoft grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use and display Game Content and to create derivative works based upon Game Content
Bottom line? If the OP wants to make a game, write a book… whatever, he’s allowed to as long as he doesn’t break any of the following conditions.
> You can’t reverse engineer our games to access the assets or otherwise do things that the games don’t normally permit in order to create your Items.
> You can’t use Game Content to create -Yoink!- or obscene Items, or anything that contains vulgar, racist, hateful, or otherwise objectionable content. We can’t help you much here except to say that just like the old saying goes, you know it when you see it.
> Except as described here, you can’t sell or otherwise earn any compensation from your Item, including through advertisements in the Item. We will let you have advertising or optional donation requests on the page hosting the Item, but that’s it. That means you can’t sell your Item, post it on a site that requires subscription or other fees, or post it on a page you use to sell other items or services (even if they have nothing to do with Game Content or Microsoft). You may use the Item to enter a contest or sweepstakes as long as the contest organizers agree to follow these rules. Where someone is trying to promote their commercial venture (even just a commercial website) with your Item, they need our permission to do this. If they’ve got our permission you’ll know.
> You can’t necessarily use the soundtracks or audio effects from the original game. We often license those from third parties and don’t have the rights to pass them on to you. We might mention on the community website for a particular game whether you have these rights, so you’d do well to check. And you might need permission from a third party, especially for games with licensed music. But we’ll confirm right here that the music from Halo 3 is available for your use in non-profit ventures thanks to an arrangement with O’Donnell/Salvatori, Inc., composers of this iconic theme.
> You can’t infringe anyone’s IP rights in your Item, even if the IP rights being infringed don’t belong to Microsoft.
> You can’t use any of Microsoft’s trademarked logos or names except in the ways described in the pages linked from www.microsoft.com/trademarks.
Lawyered.
Nick, what are you up to and why does it scare me?
I was just toying with… well to call it a video game concept would put it lightly… but I was throwing a few ideas around again on paper…
When I say developing, I mean I’ve been developing only as far as things written down on paper, as there’s no coding expertise over here whatsoever hehe.
But I’ve been developing a Halo game… how it would be like if I was the lead writer behind a game hehe… from the video game title, to its characters, enemies, weapons, vehicles, equipment, campaign levels (cutscenes, chapters, transcripts), multiplayer maps, DLC packs, firefight, game modes, options, the soundtrack, the special editions, promotional material and campaigns and viral videos, and even how it could feasably work with 343i’s current investment in the Reclaimer Trilogy.
Yep. So I was just curious (for fun) to be honest to see if these ideas could ever (however vastly incredibly unlikely) amount to anything more than just ideas. Though I don’t intend to try and sell them to anyone in particular, rather keep them to myself or a select few indefinitely hehe. I’ve just seen and read a lot of fan fiction, and from what I’ve been working on, I have to be arrogant for once and sit on my high horse about the story and ideas for the game that I’ve been working on xP (and this is coming from quite a generally very modest guy, honestly). The stuff I’ve been working on is just incredibly dedicated to pre-existing fiction and the formulas of past Halo media and games in every aspect imaginable, and I’m not specifically talking about gameplay in games when I say formulas, but just general rules and conventions in Halo media. It could sit happily beside any currently released Halo game and enhance it, rather than weaken or -Yoink!- it.
And so now I’m done tooting my flute lol. I guess this thread was about curiosity, that’s all. 
Whatever helps you sleep at night Nick, whatever helps you sleep;)