Microsoft didn't buy Halo. They bought Bungie, then used them to make Halo. They spin them off, keeping then Halo franchise.
Okay, technically Bungie was working on a RTS game called Halo when MS bought them, but it was after the purchase it shifted genres and found its groove.
In other words, this "echo" isn't really what you are saying.
First of all; the original acquisition is not what I was referring to, but rather: Microsoft's "maintenance" of the Halo IP after Bungie itself left Microsoft's domain, and the formation of a near-entirely new studio (343) to develop it. Ok, they didn't buy the IP at that juncture; they bought a studio to develop an IP they already owned. Use some creativity and you can see the parallels are similar enough.
Second: Do you recall the keynote where Bungie unveiled Halo for the first time... at MacWorld 1999? For reference, Microsoft acquired Bungie in 2000. I've literally never heard the assertion that Halo was intended to be an RTS; my understanding is that it was originally going to be a third person FPS, as the 1999 MacWorld trailer suggests, but was changed to a first person FPS when Microsoft purchased them.
The earliest versions were basically built on top of Myth's engine, Bungie's RTS. It then eventually became a third person shooter, and it was such at the MacWorld announcement. It did turn into an FPS after the Microsoft acquisition.
Halo was originally designed as a RTS, but playing around with it a bit they found it more fun to get the camera down closer, especially driving vehicles.
Halo was an FPS and a spiritual successor to an earlier series of theirs called "Marathon". The main characters, weapons, and themes of the original game all skew very closely to Marathon.
I miss the Bungie that pumped out Marathon, Myth, and Oni.
(I will look forward to people who were screaming that console makers mustn't be allowed to buy game authors and studios seamlessly turn a 180 if it favours their tribe.)
Myth and Marathon were experiences in storytelling for me however. I even have a copy of the GURPS Myth roleplaying guide sitting on my bookshelf behind me that goes more into the lore of the Myth universe.
Me too! I had so much hope for Oni, but the control system drove me nuts. While it looked great I couldn't play it worth a damn. Maybe that was just me.
There's also tangential evidence that Pathways Into Darkness, Marathon, Halo, and Destiny all exist in the same universe.
And with this recent 30th anniversary event, it also seems like they kind of think of all of their various older IPs to be in a multiverse of some sort.
(And Pathways into Darkness was also an FPS, just like those three Marathon games. Bungie has been doing FPSes for a long time, 100% agree with you.)
Believe me, I don't need to watch that video. I've been there ;)
A lot of development happened right before Combat Evolved got released due to Microsoft injecting a lot of money. It wasn't just an Xbox port of an already finished game. Look at the E3 2000 trailer which is pretty much what has been shown at Macworld the year before. Combat Evolved looked quite different when it came out a year later. Note that Microsoft acquired Bungie in 2000.
HALO was originally based on Myth. That is when Halo was briefly (conceptually) an RTS. It evolved into a Third Person Shooter, and finally First Person Shooter. After Bungie was acquired by Microsoft, they had a year to make their game, so they made the decision to start over from the beginning and create Halo as a first person shooter.
I loved Myth and Myth II. A space-based one would have been great.
I don't understand the timeline, though, as the videos shown at MacWorld in 1999 (before Microsoft), show Halo as a first-person shooter. The video is linked above. I think it was a FPS long before Microsoft was interested. I think Microsoft bought it specifically because of the FPS game.
I watched the video. The game in that trailer could just as easily have been a tactical RTS with a cinematic camera as a FPS (note the complete absence of first-person shots).
Okay, technically Bungie was working on a RTS game called Halo when MS bought them, but it was after the purchase it shifted genres and found its groove.
In other words, this "echo" isn't really what you are saying.