Halo: Reach has finally launched through the Master Chief Collection, bringing fans on both PC and Xbox platforms the chance to rejoice and experience the title once more. While the game has played a major part in the franchise, serving as a sort-of prequel to the iconic Halo: Combat Evolved, it wasn’t initially going to have the title that fans have come to know and love.

Originally, Bungie wanted to call the title ‘Reach,’ leaving off the Halo name and separating it from the rest of the franchise. Looking back, such a change would have made sense as Reach was a bit of a spin-off and didn’t even have the Halo rings that prominently featured elsewhere in the series. David Candland, who had previously worked on UI for Bungie, recently posted a tweet about the original title, revealing it was ultimately Microsoft who insisted the title retain the ‘Halo’ name for brand recognition purposes.

We’d been calling the game “Reach” for a while before MS insisted we call it “Halo Reach” for brand recognition. I remember discussing the title screen with @game_fabricator. We concurred, let’s call it what we want. They’ve bought the game at this point. #REACHmemory pic.twitter.com/msCKV5IIR4

— David Candland (@drcandland) December 4, 2019

This wasn’t the first change made by the publisher, as Candland also recalled a similar decision had been made with the original Halo. In a subsequent post, he explained how it was Microsoft’s belief that fans wouldn’t realize Halo was a first-person space shooter if the words “Combat Evolved” weren’t in the title.

You also may have noticed there’s no “combat evolved” on the original Halo title screen. That was tacked onto the box logo because the MS marketing team feared some people wouldn’t know “Halo” would be a combat game otherwise.

— David Candland (@drcandland) December 4, 2019

These last-minute changes are evident by the title screens of both Halo: CE and Halo: Reach, neither of which feature their revised titles–only “Halo” and “Reach” respectively. While these new names have little bearing on the actual games themselves, they do serve as an interesting tidbit of history for the franchise as a whole.

Halo: Reach recently launched as part of Halo: Master Chief Collection for PC and Xbox One, with the remaining PC versions for MCC launching sequentially beginning with Halo: CE Anniversary sometime next year. Let us know your thoughts on the addition of “Halo” to Reach and more in the comments section below. As always don’t forget to follow Don’t Feed the Gamer on Twitter for 24/7 coverage of all things gaming and entertainment.