: So I don't know what there specific beef is with Reach, but I assume it has
: something to do with the novels. And by these categories, the game takes
: precedence, which I completely agree with. It seems to me that the games
: are the source material, and so are canon by definition.
It's somewhat complicated by how Bungie reps used to make comments like this, and generally swear up and down that the books were absolutely part of the Halo universe and not some throwaway cash-ins like in those other series. And that's partly right; without FoR's backstory the Chief is just the generic invincible marine who gets armor because he's the hero, and you'd be totally in the dark in H3 when Cortana starts quoting verbatim from the book and babbling on about a coin. The games depend on the books just as much as they contradict them.
Basically it's the same mess that every big multimedia franchise ends up in, just like people probably predicted in 2000 (and got told "come on, it's Bungie" about). Maybe some people could use a sense of proportion, but it's silly to act like they don't have a complaint.