Now, the overdone reaction was provoked when we saw another book club selection announced by 343: Halo: The Rubicon Protocol. Officially, the Halo Twitter account announced the existence of a new audiobook from Simon & Schuster, commenting, “The Banished reign, but hope endures. Join our Discord to uncover the secrets of Zeta Halo.” Pretty cool, right? But then, scrolling through the replies, the option of existing without a protective shield feels like shaking hands with war.
Now, let’s punch out what actually went down. Halo: The Rubicon Protocol has entered the next book to be featured in 343’s Halo (Audio) Book Club; this is the expansion of the Halo universe beyond just being a handful of games. The story happens right in the middle of the events going on in Halo Infinite, telling more about the Banished takeover of Zeta Halo. There’s some DMs for Discord communities, links to wherever one can buy the audiobook, all the usual promo material. Yet man, the community backlash is anything but usual.
Its initial major reception from many in the Halo community can best be described as-the word to use here is lockdown. One user, WillVirus86, even said, “Crazy that Halo has more books than games. When it’s a video game franchise lmao.” That basically sums up about half of the opinions out there. It’s not necessarily that they’re hating on the books themselves-they recognize that Halo books are pretty amazing-but there seems to be a frustration that the games haven’t been telling the stories as well as the expanded universe has.
And it isn’t just one complaint; a couple more comments repeatedly hit that same note. ANGUIANOABRAM jumped in with “Nobody cares about books anymore just make the stories in the games!!” while PorgNoises added “Remember when stories actually happened in the games” and, oh, that one stings if you were there back then when things were going well during the original trilogy.
But the discourse heated up even more when another set of players brought out the fracture specifically between Halo 5 and Halo Infinite. sparhawk1221 went on to say: “So um… New game/s when? Been 4 years since Halo: Infinite. Why are we waiting this long for games with 6-8 hour story campaigns and a few multiplayer maps.” One could almost hear the tilt: players want gameplay; they want less books.
The whole thing gets pretty interesting when those communities start fighting with each other. Embedded in this debate, some will argue for the expanded universe: User Arcamico entered the fray with somebody complaining about needing to read between games, stating, “Being afraid of reading is okay, truly, but jabs aside you didn’t need a book between Halo 5 and Halo Infinite. Imagination, filling in the blanks. That concept exists.” That’s a pretty good argument too-not everything has to be spelled out for us in the games themselves.
Then some of that crowdsourcing lends itself to comparisons with other franchises. Rushingthunder came in with an in-depth comparative explanation: “Most mega sci-fi game franchises are the exact same. Star Wars has more books/comics/plays/etc than there are movies. By a factor of 10+. This is STANDARD.” Then they continue to break it down as follows: For Mass Effect, there are 46 books and comics while there are 4 main games; Gears of War has 23 books and comics while there are 6 games; and StarCraft has an overwhelming 113 books and comics and yet only 2 main games. Their conclusion is “The only community that is this level of ridiculous about it is the Halo community.”
And maybe there is some truth to that. Expanded universes are relatively common Big Sci-Fi franchise stuff. Now what makes this one special is timing – Halo Infinite came out years ago, there is controversy around the live service aspects, and players are starving for new game content. When they see those resources go to book clubs instead of game devs, it rubs some people nick way.
There is another curious discussion about whether the book content is really needed to understand the games. User formulatoast37 answered somebody complaining about having to read a book: “The majority of the important stuff in this story can be followed through Infinite’s audio logs. So no.” Which is to say: Maybe 343 is doing better than critics give them credit for-worrying a lot about making the games standalone experiences.
LethalChicken_ gave a different response: “Bruv I absolutely loved halo infinite’s campaign including the audio logs. But it woulda been cool to take down a guardian or two in a game.” And that is the thing-it’s not that people hate the expanded universe, it’s that they want those epic moments IN the games they’re playing.
This whole thing reminds me of the way the other franchises have handled their expanded universes. Kind of like when Mass Effect released all those comics and novels that filled in for gaps between games? Or how Halo has been going with books since The Fall of Reach? It’s nothing new for Halo-what’s different is the current climate surrounding the franchise and player expectations.
Pure gold are some comments. BananoAl went with “Kelly Gay when Kelly Lesbian aproaches” with a meme attached, which just… what even is that? And urmomentango dropped “Jaja, Kelly el gay” which translates to “Haha, Kelly the gay” – Sometimes Twitter just gonna Twitter.
Both of these have witnessed positive responses too, by the way. Sonnie_Slim called it a “Fantastic book,” whilst YTKnightGaming commented, “Love the lore of Halo it is honestly amazing how much lore there is.” So not everybody’s hating on the expanded universe approach; there is definitely an audience for this content-the vocal critics are just loud.
And this alone says a lot about how this reflects on some larger trends present within gaming communities. We’re seeing a split between games as standalone products versus games as hubs for larger multimedia franchises. The players who want to boot up a game, have a full story experience, and get out want to be really colliding with the developers who want to build these huge worlds really across multiple media. Well, to be honest? Both are legitimate.
The Halo community has always been passionate-whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing depends on whom you ask-with rushingthunder even calling the fanbase “so actively negative for their franchise.” You could also argue that this passion stems from the fact that people want to see it. When they’re this invested in criticizing how the story is being told, it’s really because they just want to see the Halo universe really thrive.
So in the end, I thought Halo: The Rubicon Protocol is probably a decent book from the expanded universe for those interested in it. The whole discussion is more about the current state of the Halo community than the book itself. The players are definitely hungry for new game content and better storytelling in games, while 343 keeps trying to expand the universe through different outlets. Whether this was the best long-term strategy for 343, or a strategy that has just antagonized a portion of the fanbase, remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure, Halo fans never shy away from stating their opinions. Halo Infinite and other PlayStation and Xbox franchises often face similar debates.
