Trivia / Halo: The Fall of Reach

• Troubled Production: Not only did Eric Nylund get just seven weeks to write the whole book, but halfway through its writing, it was nearly canceled by Bungie, who wanted the Master Chief to be a Featureless Protagonist with little backstory, similar to the protagonist of their previous series, Marathon. Bungie came up from a rebellious independence developing for the Mac, and while they did work on the novel's production, they were not so readily willing to buddy up with anyone else on their story; especially anyone from Microsoft, whom they considered "The Man." Eric Trautmann, editor of the book and lead content developer for Microsoft's Franchise Development Group, ensured the book's release by making Bungie, as Nylund called it, "an offer they couldn't refuse": Allow the book to release in exchange for Trautmann and fellow Microsoft FDG writer Brannon Boren, alongside Bungie's Matt Soell's help in "punching up" the in-game mission dialogue scripts for Halo: Combat Evolved, which at the time was still considered only 20% complete (not actually writing story or touching the cutscenes, which were written separately). Then, according to Trautmannn, when it came time to turn in the finished dialogue scripts in exchange for the book's approval, Bungie again began to waffle. Trautmann, by this point thoroughly tired of Bungie's attitude, stated flatly that he would delete his dialogue script file if Bungie didn't sign the publishing contract. This would be the tipping point in getting Bungie to ultimately approve. Trautmann later described the experience in very scathing terms.
  I dealt with more assholes at Bungie than in any other professional experience of my life. There was not a day where I wouldn't just get pinwheeled into blind rage. They're just horrible to work with.
• What Could Have Been: As explained above, the book, and with it our reality of the Halo expanded universe, was very close to being cancelled out the gate.