Any serious gamer who was watching the Discovery Channelâs âDual Survivalâ show earlier this week may have recognized the logo that appeared on a box of bullets that were briefly featured in the episode.
The box had the words âHalo-Pointâ on it, written in the font used for Halo, the phenomenally popular M-rated Xbox and Xbox 360 first-person shooter.
When gamer Christopher Phillips saw the show and the bullets, he was stunned.
âI am writing this whilst experiencing intense anger and frustration that this appears to be an official Halo product, and that one of my favorite video game franchises appears to be promoting ammunition sales!â he said to me in an e-mail. Later, he added, âI hope from the bottom of my heart this is not an officially sanctioned product.â
The bullets are real, but theyâre not officially tied into the game. In fact, Microsoft seems mighty upset about them.
As of this writing, Halo-Point bullets may no longer exist.
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Here is the bulletsâ appearance on the Discovery Channel:
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The company that makesâor, perhaps, madeâHalo-Point bullets is called Liberty Ammunition. Itâs a small Florida-based company. On the Liberty website, the company bills itself as the âworld leader in lead-free high performance ammunition.â
Liberty keeps a low profile. The first question in the Liberty Ammunition online FAQ is âWhy have I never heard of your company?â
The answer: âLiberty has historically only provided ammunition for the US Military. The Companyâs mission is to protect the lives of our troops, allies and law enforcement officerâs around the world by providing them the highest performing ammunition in the world. As such, it has never needed to nor has it generated any awareness in the commercial market. Liberty also does not engage in âMarketing.â The company operates on word of mouth and performance. Without exception, every US Military, Law Enforcement, or Foreign Allied Military professional that has seen Liberty Ammunitionâs performance has validated its efficacy and uniqueness.â
If Libertyâs Halo-logoed bullets hadnât appeared in a Discovery Channel show, you may still not have heard of them. But logos are made to be recognizable, and so here we are. For the past few days, Kotaku has been trying to determine just what the story with these bullets is. Company president George Phillips and other representatives have not replied to multiple requests for comment, but the Internet turns out to be well-stocked with information about the Halo-Point bullet.
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Hereâs a video from 2011 of 9 mm and .45 caliber Halo-Point bullets piercing a body armor with fatal force. The bullets are labeled as being âfor military applicationâ only. Thereâs no sign of a Halo logo in this clip.
Here is an image of Halo Point-Civil Defense bulletsâostensibly the ones deemed ok for non-military useâpublished by Liberty Ammunition. The picture shows the results of the bullets being shot into parts of a pig carcass to demonstrate the potency of the bullets.
I found the image on the website defensivecarry.com. Some DefensiveCarry readers were skeptical that the bullets could do all that. Others said they tried them and that they were impressed.
The Liberty Ammunition website had several pages of information about various types of Halo-Point bullets, demonstrating how the bullets perform when shot through gel as well as promoting the lightness of the ammunition, their stopping power and range.
This online store listing extolled the bulletâs qualities but indicated limited availability.
Overall, these bullets are meant to be effective and to impress. Itâs no wonder that a secretive real-life super-soldier on the Discovery Channel was using them. But it is a wonder how they got the Halo name.
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âHalo-Pointâ is a pun on âhollow pointâ, a type of bullet designed to fragmentcompress and spread its force when it penetrates its target. These types of bullets might limit collateral damage, as theyâre not designed to pass through from one target to the next. Target shooters like them, but theyâre illegal in New Jersey.
If you wanted to make a pun on âhollow pointâ, switching to âHaloâ certainly works. Itâs a more clever pun, of course, if youâve heard of the game and if you can therefore associate the potency of a real Halo Point bullet with the amazing, alien-killing ammunition fired by Master Chief in the Halo video game series.
There is, however, no sign that Halo publisher Microsoft ever worked with Liberty Ammunition on these bullets. A representative for the Xbox maker told me that Microsoft discovered the existence of the Halo-Point bullets late last year and was in touch with Liberty from September through December.
âWe took issue with the clear attempt to invoke the Halo brand without authorization,â the rep said, indicating that the matter involved the Halo logo and the word.
Itâs not beyond the realm of possibility that a video game maker would want to be associated with real guns or bullets. Or at least it wasnât back in the summer, when the game publisher EA (Battlefield, FIFA, The Sims) awkwardly linked the website for its Medal of Honor first-person shooter to the websites of several weapons manufacturers. But, after criticism of the linking of games to guns, EA backed off
Last month, the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary school prompted new scrutiny about the link between games, guns and violence, resulting in a call in the U.S. Senate for more research on the effects of violent video games on their players as well as a front-page Christmas-day story in the New York Times that re-addressed the EA incident.
https://lastchance.cc/alarmed-by-sandy-hook-u-s-senator-wants-government-to-30771842%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
âMicrosoft does not have a licensing agreement with Liberty Ammunition, or any gun or weapons manufacturer, and the company does not have permission to use âHaloâ branding on any of its products,â the Microsoft representative told me. âWhen we discovered the unauthorized use last fall, Microsoft contacted Liberty Ammunition to demand removal of all âHaloâ branding from its products and advertising, to which Liberty Ammunition agreed. Microsoft is following up again to ensure full compliance.â
I received that statement last night, a few hours after I had asked Microsoft to comment. While Liberty Ammo representatives have yet to respond to me, theyâve clearly responded to Microsoft. Theyâve removed imagery from their website and re-branded their signature bullets.
Halo-Point bullets are now referred to throughout Libertyâs website as âLiberty Ammunition Civil Defense.â
Pages that looked like this on ThursdayâŠ
(Online store)
(.45 caliber bullet listing)
âŠlooked like this on Friday:
(Online store)
(.45 caliber bullet listing)
The Halo logo is all but gone from the Liberty site.
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The box of bullets that appeared on the Discovery Channel didnât just have a Halo logo on them. They had a trademark. That too appears to be out of date. While Libertyâs trademark attorney has not responded to multiple requests for comment, government filings indicate that Libertyâs year-long efforts to trademark Halo point ammo were recently winding down.
The trademark for Halo-Point bullets is now listed as âdead.â
The Halo-Point trademark was surrendered, by Liberty themselves, on November 7, 2012. Thatâs one day after Microsoft released its most recent Halo-branded product. Microsoftâs use of Master Chiefâs brand was official. Itâs called Halo 4. You may have seen that on TV, too.
