An internal team at Microsoft was soon formed to assume development of Halo under Ross, named 343 Industries after fan-favorite Halo character, 343 Guilty Spark. 343 Industries went on to create Halo 4 and 5, and is currently working on Halo Infinite but, at the time, other options were being discussed.What else might have taken place, had 343 Industries not been founded?
One possibility was ending the Halo franchise outright. The fate of Spartan 117 is relatively unclear at the end of Halo 3, and it could have served as an end-point for the series, according to Ross. With Bungie moving on to work on Halo: Reach and Halo 3: ODST, which were published by Microsoft, the Halo franchise wouldn't have come to an abrupt end, but Halo 3 could have been the end of Master Chief's story.Another possibility was that Microsoft would hand the reins of the franchise over to an external studio for development, at least for one or two more games. The frontrunner Microsoft had in mind at the time was Gearbox Software, the studio responsible for the PC port of Halo: Combat Evolved and the same team that went on to create the popular Borderlands franchise.
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