- SmaugJr
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- Exalted Heroic Member
Ending lucrative franchises often only happens when the franchise actually ceases to be lucrative. Upon the 1983 release of Return of the Jedi, Geo. Lucas swore up and down that he'd never get around to finishing the story arc (I think "The Adventures of Luke Skywalker" was envisioned to encompass a dozen movies, way back in 1976.). When there was evident demand for more movies (after the surprise success of the novels of the 1990's, led by Timothy Zahn's award-winning trilogy of 1991, and then the overwhelming popularity of the 1997 Special Edition movies), then the cinematic Star Wars wheels started turning again, for better or for worse. Also, remember that the Friday the 13th series was supposed to end with the fourth entry ("The Final Chapter") back in 1984, some seven or eight movies ago. And again, "The Final Friday" was supposed to be the ninth one, eight years before Jason X.
There's no reason why they couldn't finish this particular fight, and show the Master Chief saving the galaxy (and Earth in particular, one hopes... but judging from the condition of New Mombasa these days, ol' Terra might as well have succumbed to the Vogon treatment, but you never can tell. Release Day will tell us whether Earth survives or not.) and preventing the triggering of the Halos (or not... wouldn't it be a trip if the last part of the game is a Battlestar Galactica-esque dash out of the Milky Way with the last remnants of humanity fleeing the galaxy before the Halos go off?) and generally kicking Covenant fanny. But however the game ends, the engine and the characters and the worlds are just too popular for there NOT to be future games starring a Spartan or two. Maybe there won't be anymore gigantic ring-shaped worlds that double as galactic bug-zappers, but for Chief's sake, isn't this the single most popular console game franchise ever? You think they'll kill it off completely after Halo 3? Cyan's Myst franchise finally died when its popularity waned below the threshold of profitability... a fate which will eventually befall Halo, Star Wars, and maybe even Jason Voorhees.
Eventually. Just not anytime soon.
In the meantime, no doubt our pals at Bungie would like to develop a game or two outside of the Halo universe... and I imagine that most of us are all for it.