I personally would prefer to have him in the majority of the game. Now, I have no problem having other Spartans playable, but I feel he should be the main protagonist still. I have not read the book, and I know that he was the only Spartan to escape Reach from what I have read. The question I am asking is, will it negatively hurt sales of Halo: Reach if the Master Chief is not a playable/main character in the game?

How were the sales of Call of Duty 5 effected because the setting wasn't modern and it wasn't made by Infinity Ward?

Well deal with it, nothing wrong with regular characters.

I honestly think...and feel that others will agree....That like me, many people were waiting for Reach because of the other Spartans...I have not read the books but became very excited to hear "You Have Spartans on the Ground Sir. We're not going anywhere."
It's because Master Chief is a Spartan that people like him...and the mystery behind them. Reach will be fantastic for Master Chief fans to see what Spartans are like.

not initially, but afterwards, quite a bit.

I hope he's NOT in it. At least not as a playable. Its time for this supposedly vast and layered Halo universe to start showing those layers and now.

MS should adopt the Nintendo approach- put their title character in a majority of their games. I hope MC makes an appearance in reach. 3 games is hardly enough.:p

I think the Halo name is more important than the Master Chief character. If he's not a main part of the game I don't think it makes much of a difference.

It won't affect much at all. Besides, ODST's look similar enough to him.

That's right.