Everytime I hear a company say they will stop making a multi million selling franchise I have to laugh. Why would you abandon endless profit? The Halo series is insanely profitable, and It's a cash cow you would never want to give up. Especially if your Microsoft and It's your best selling franchise.
Hideo Kojima wanted MGS4 to be his last, but guess what? He couldn't. MGS4 carried the company (profit wise) some quarters ago. Can you imagine Bungie game sales if they were to make something not named Halo? It would have to be something with a stupid amount of hype (which would cost them a lot in marketing) and also come off successful. If a new IP were to bomb Bungie would lose out on quite a bit of money when they could simply make Halo Kart or something else and sell boat loads.
Yes, eventually someday a name will only get you so far or sales will stagnate (see current Madden sales versus old Madden sales, or Activision's butchering of Guitar Hero) but right now with a expansion selling over 2.2 million in a week It's pretty apparent that the Halo name is going to sell anything. Even a Halo RTS sold pretty damn real considering It's a console RTS that no one seemed to like... till Halo Wars came out.
It's just that simple.
