MS: Halo is our Star Wars

Wants the franchise to extend far beyond the FPS.

Halo Studio lead producer Jason Pace has told VideoGamer.com that Microsoft sees the Halo franchise as its Star Wars, and hopes it will become just as prevalent in pop culture as the George Lucas conceived phenomenon.

"We as a studio view Halo as our Star Wars," Pace told VideoGamer.com at a recent London press event. "We want it to become that culturally pervasive."

He added: "Our vision for what the franchise can be extends far beyond just first-person shooters that are appealing to a certain kind of audience. This is a vast universe, it extends back thousands and thousands of years, it's huge, many different worlds, races that we haven't even met yet. And so we view the future of the franchise in the same way that we would view any cross-cultural entertainment franchise property, which is we hope to tell many different stories in many different ways, capture the hearts and minds of new generations as we go forward. So absolutely we are committed to this franchise."

Asked if he believes the Halo franchise can ever be as popular as Star Wars, Pace noted: "Depending on how you measure it we have a very good shot. If you look at how the franchise has grown, and just the number of people who are aware of it, we're certainly comparable to the major cultural touchstones, or at least well on our way.

He continued: "The games have generated over $1 billion of revenue. That puts them in the same class as a triple-A movie franchise. They've been around now for almost an entire generation of players, and we're moving into new generations of players. If you just look at how the franchise is growing, it's actually diversifying. Our recent books that have released in the last several years, several of which have been on the New York Times best-seller list, for example. Assuming we continue to carry the torch and do what's right by the franchise it's only going to continue to expand."

Check back tomorrow for the interview in full.