Halo Infinite is the long-awaited return of Xbox’s most successful game franchise. Our mission was to bring lapsed players back and a new generation into the franchise.

Like every Halo game before it, Halo Infinite centers around Master Chief, a gaming icon and quintessential hero. In 2007, the highly regarded Halo 3 campaign asked gamers to believe in a hero. But in today’s society, it’s harder than ever to ask people to believe in true heroes. Our real-world heroes are letting us down. And, in entertainment, darker anti-heroes have taken their place.

With the return of Halo, we had a chance to reignite something sorely missing in the world. The feeling of a true hero. A hero that doesn’t reflect us, but one that shows the best of us. And when we step into Chief’s armor, we become the hero we need.

Master Chief has always been Xbox’s superhero. But in 2021, Superhero fatigue was real. Research showed that Xbox needed to make their superhuman more human.

The UNSC Archives is a series that added to the lore behind Chief’s iconic suit, showcasing three untold stories of hope and humanity that went into every tool. These emotional, meticulously crafted shorts took players to small pockets of the Halo universe to show the unsung heroes sacrifice.

Unspoken: the story of an injured soldier’s message to his fallen comrade’s parents, about how their son secured vital enemy technology for the exoskeleton of Chief’s suit.

Project Magnes: the origin of Chief’s newest weapon through the story of a civilian engineer and her attempts to develop a new combat device for Chief.

Lightbringers: unveils the story behind a group of miners who put extraction of a critical ore to power Chiefs suit above their own lives.

We talked to gamers about heroism and they told us that anti-heroes are more relatable than traditional heroes like Master Chief. They said believing in true heroes seems childish. This leads us to our challenge. How do we create desire for a true hero in a world that no longer believes in them?

The answer lies within a psychological truth of gaming. According to a study by the University of Oxford, the further away your real life is from the character you’re playing in game, the more comfortable you are in that character’s skin, and the more fun you have playing the game.

Right now, our gaming audience feels completely disconnected from true heroism in their real lives. Halo Infinite allows us to step into the armor of Master Chief and be the true hero we can’t be in real life.

Our strategy was: invite

The UNSC Archives is a series of shorts created as historical records of the heroism behind Master Chief’s armor. Each film opens on an expertly crafted digital environment featuring 2D and 3D elements. The historical footage is then accessed, and a unique story of heroism brought to life.

Unspoken features a wordless monologue preformed entirely in British Sign Language. And features a layer of beautiful sci-fi visual effects as well as an AI-powered animation that responds authentically to our hero’s signs.

Project Magnes is a story told in montage-style, featuring an original environment design inspired by the science fiction trend of “Solar Punk”.

Lightbringers is an emotional story of sacrifice told entirely through an original song and quiet, thoughtful performances.

These films debuted organically without paid media. Small snippets of the terminal interface and armor pieces were released prior to each to encourage fans to speculate and build hype.

With over 20 million players, Halo Infinite is the most successful Halo launch in franchise history.

With no paid media, the UNSC archive videos garnered 3.9 million views on YouTube alone. And more than just views, the gaming community started talking and sharing. With tens of thousands of comments and hundreds of thousands of likes, the engagement rate, at 6%, more than tripled our benchmark.

These films contributed to a massive spike in Halo mentions in November. With 4.3 million social mentions, Halo saw an increase of 244% compared to Halo mentions in October.

The core can make or break a launch and these films got them engaged and evangelizing for us, leading to one of Xbox most successful game launches ever.