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Xbox Live is ten years old today, but things could have been very different. According to Bungie studio manager Harold Ryan, the premium service wouldn’t have worked without Halo and the leadership of the renowned studio.

“I think Xbox Live wouldn’t have made it. I don’t think the Xbox would be where it is today without Bungie and without Halo,” Ryan told GamesIndustry.biz.

“As a group, we provided both technical and creative guidance and thought leadership that really pushed the limits. We weren’t just a game developer using the service. We were integrated in the design of the service and how it worked. Systems for groups and matchmaking and skill ranking were all things that were pushed the furthest and the hardest by us.”

Halo has remained one of Xbox Live’s most played games across the last decade. The recent launch of Halo 4 is the first iteration to be released without Bungie overseeing development, and managed to pull in $220 million during its first 24 hours.

Pretty much this. Halo used to be the only reason to own the original Xbox. It's amazing how much gold they struck with that IP.

This in particular seems quite odd (nonsensical even) as with the subscription system the online single user account is ensured. Unless Bungie implies that Xbox Live was initially planned to be free (makes even less sense) :

“They'd been picking our brains as to how it should work and we gave them advice that was counter to how they were thinking originally, things that seem so obvious today,” Hoberman said. “You need a user account system where users cannot create free accounts that are fully privileged at will. People need to have personal responsibility and accountability. That wasn't what they were initially planning. We kind of helped turn it into this really safe walled garden, and over the years they've preserved that aspect, added to it, and made it feature-rich.”

in all cases - wrong attitude - and particularly bad timing