TechRadar 

The franchise development director of Halo believes that the iconic game series can continue to be defining game for Xbox beyond the current console.

The Halo series is intrinsically linked with the rise and rise of the Xbox, with the first of the games becoming an iconic title for the original Xbox, the second becoming a massive illustration of why online gaming was central to the console and the glittering launch of the third illustrating just how huge it's successor - the Xbox 360 - had become.

Speaking to TechRadar at a preview event for the game, Frank O'Connor explained that he believed Halo 4 built on that legacy, and that the franchise would continue beyond the current generation.

Quality bar

"Any franchise can continue to be successful and important or central as long as you keep up the quality," said O'Connor.

"Any time I hear the term 'franchise fatigue' they are really talking about a dip in quality and not about being too many of a thing.

"Mario has something like 178 games SKUs and there is no franchise fatigue because developers continue to put out quality products.

"The rabbit you have to chase is quality and as long as you are making quality experiences I don't think there's any danger of it going away any time soon.

"We're a big franchise now so there's always going to be a demand for Halothings it's just that some of those experiences are going to be books or games or action figures or so on."

Beyond 360

The latest game – which sticks close to the look and feel of past offerings and will thrill Halo fan – is making an appearance on what is now a mature console, with expectations of a successor high for 2013.

However, O'Connor insists that the developers are enjoying coding for the Xbox 360, with the flexibility of its hardware continuing to offer 'technical headroom' to exploit.

"We are getting closer and closer to the metal, as it were, in terms of the end of a life cycle but actually the end of the life cycle has become kind of a scratchy term nowadays," added O'Connor.

"This has been one of the longest most successful console cycles and in part that was because the hardware was fairly flexible to begin with.

"One of the things I love about console games – and I play both – is that PC games tend to get better and better in a Moore's-law-following-technology way, whereas with console games it was exciting to get into the end days, because programmers and artists were able to do things that you would have considered it impossible to do at the beginning of that console's life."

http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/halo-will-be-pivotal-for-xbox-beyond-the-360-says-exec-1100460

That much wqs obvious, Halo isn't going anywhere soon.

It is THE IP which arguably saved the first Xbox.

it's like with many fanchises, people who don't like a franchise say there come too many games in too short time, people who love those franchises won't have a problem to see one game every year or every second year of that franchise as long as the quality stays good.

No one doubts the importance of Halo to the Xbox and to MS. Halo changed a lot of things in gaming and there is a lot of expectation over this series. However there is a danger in putting all your focus on this game (making this game the face of the Xbox. People expect each new Halo entry to be better and raise the bar higher than the previous one and if it doesnt then there could be a backlash (similar to how people said that UC3 didnt raise the bar as much as UC2). This is especially important for Halo as it really changed the whole shooter genre for gaming - people will be expecting similar levels of innovation.

This is not to say, however, that the Halo will fall in popularity and loose sales - it will probably still keep growing with each game. But it will get harder for this game to differentiate itself from the pack, what with other shooters also innovating considerably i.e. COD, Battlefield, even Crysis.

i cant wait for halo 4 , its my most wanted game of the year by far. i know i will be ready for halo 5 and so on when they come out, its always a great experience i love taking.

Of course it is, it's fucking Halo! It's like saying pissing will go beyond just me and that my off springs would be doing a lot of pissing in their life time as well until my lineage dies out, no shit?