One thing which took gamers by surprise was the revelation that a version of Halo was being developed for the immensely popular Nintendo DS console. Initially it was thought that Microsoft killed the project as it was their IP, however it has emerged by developer N-Space via their VFX artist James J. Inziello that it was actually Nintendo who ultimately canned the game. The Kyoto-based company reportedly didn’t want to fund some of the advertising money, like they had with Gust, which proved to be a damp squib sales-wise.
“The sad part about this game was that it was almost greenlit. But about a month after it got approved on the Microsoft/Bungie side, it was Nintendo that shut it down. There was speculation that they were unwilling to front some advertising money on a first party development side, just as they had originally done with Geist.”
“Inziello theorised that Nintendo was “still a bit annoyed” at helping the studio finish Geist, a GameCube FPS game that failed to be a big hit. Nevertheless, the team believes that the Halo DS project “would have sold in the [millions] as a portable online multiplayer in 2006”.
As for the quality of the game, devs that worked on the project admitted that the DS wasn’t “the ideal system for FPS” games, but it could’ve been a fun time”
