That figure, revealed in a recent License Global magazine feature, underscores just how massive Master Chief and his world have become globally. The magazine spoke to John Friend, Xbox’s head of consumer products, who suggested that when you have an IP as gargantuan as Halo, you can go to town on licensing deals.
That’s part of the problem. Not blaming fans of the series for buying merch, but Microsoft sees no issue with the way 343 is mismanaging one of their biggest gaming franchises because they’re still racking in money from the merch.
But this should signal to them that change is needed because fans are probably buying merch for the old stuff and they could capitalize on that with newer, better games that return to the old roots.