16 player custom game lobbies every night after school, re-running the Vidmaster Annual achievement over and over to help my friends get Recon, and getting my first 50 in Lone Wolves. Before I knew it, Halo 3 was in my hands, and I was forming some of the most memorable gaming moments alongside my dearest friends. Those months leading up to the launch of Halo 3 have been ingrained in my memory for so long. My 14 year old mind had never been so excited for an entertainment launch before. I’ve sunken into the couch, bottle of Halo 3 Game Fuel in hand, and I’m rewatching the Halo 3 Vidocs and trailers for the 100 th time. Devin was always the life of the party, and we all miss hanging out with him. At the following weekend’s LAN party, Devin came and just started laughing about the last weekend and we made him a shirt with a palm tree with the saying on it “get out of my palm tree” he ended up wearing it to a few local tournaments and LAN parties. Once his car was warmed up, he once again cussed us all out and left. The whole LAN party was quiet and finally someone asked him what he was doing back down, he replied in his most clam voice as possible, “my car is too cold to drive off and I have to let it warm up” we were all trying so hard not to laugh. After a few minutes Devin comes back down the stairs not saying anything and just sits on the chair behind us. So, he packed up his Xbox and TV and headed for his car (it was like only 8pm and we usually played until 2-3 am) and we kept playing. Once Devin came trying to jump into the tree, Everett kills Devin and yells in his most cry baby voice “GET OUT OF MY PALM TREE YOU GUYS” we all lost it at this point and then Devin cussed us out and told us all where to go and how to get there. So, we load up another zombie game and my other friend Everett was the zombie and went straight for the palm tree and waited for Devin to return. He was so mad at Brett for ruining his secret plan to surprise everyone with this hiding spot. Right after Brett yells this out, Devin just starts cussing him out and then cussing all of us out and yelling over and over “GET OUT OF MY PALM TREE!!!!” After this he doesn’t say anything, the tension was thick in the room. Once I died Brett just screams out “He is in the palm tree you guys!!!!” This way Brett could win the game because everyone was so busy swarming the palm tree in the courtyard. At this point there were only 3 of us left alive. He went up into the palm tree hiding when most of the players got converted to zombies. Well, only a couple of us know this spot because he shared it with us. Anyways, Devin found out about the palm tree you can hide in. We were playing on Ivory Tower and keep in mind internet videos were barely happening at this point so finding stuff online for video games was kinda rough and slow. It was shortly after Halo 2 release in the middle of a snowy winter and when the community made game mode Zombies just became popular. One of my funny halo stories growing up is about my late friend Devin Landeen. I can’t wait to see what we all build together over the next 20 years! There is more to come soon I promise but in the meantime, what a joy to be able to celebrate 20 years of Halo with all of you as a fellow fan. While we have shown just a peek today, it’s the start of a new storytelling journey we hope will give you a whole new way to experience Halo and the Master Chief. To now be able to help bring this universe I love onto the small screen is something I never would have imagined I would have the opportunity to do. I cannot express what a gift it has been to work on this franchise for the last 13 years. Today, 343 along with Paramount +, Showtime, and Amblin, released a tiny tease of what is to come with our new television series in 2022. I loved games and now I loved this game more than all others. I crawled into work the next morning bleary-eyed and hungry for more Halo. Was it the magic of this new world that at first felt so familiar but then opened up into something beautifully alien? Or the sense of strength and responsibility and power I felt peering through the Master Chief’s visor? Maybe it was that sense of heroism and wonder that resonated most with me. My REAL introduction to Halo was an all-nighter on November 15th, 2001 as I played through a game campaign that would change my life. I had played the Halo build at E3 earlier in the year (I was working on Project Gotham Racing at the time) but that wasn’t a representative experience… it was frame-y and gave just a hint of what was to come. I genuinely can’t believe it’s been 20 years since that first moment I picked up a Duke controller and truly experienced Halo for the first time.
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