Easter eggs in games are pretty common these days, and developers have taken them to the next level by creating cross-series easter eggs. Some are nods to another game in the same world, like mentioning Half-Life's Black Mesa in Portal's end credits tune, or they might be more like Mass Effect easter eggs appearing in Dragon Age: Inquisition. In either case, easter eggs are fun for developers and gamers alike.
Unfortunately, one easter egg will soon only live on in memory and in the original copies of the game. The remastered edition of Halo 3: ODST for the Xbox One has removed a popular easter egg that could be found in the original Xbox 360 version of the game.
The remastered version of Halo 3: ODST became available today for gamers who previously purchased the Halo: Master Chief Collection for the Xbox One. These gamers have found that the Halo 3: ODST remastered edition is lacking an easter egg from the original version of the game that alluded to Destiny. Destiny, which was created by Bungie, the same original development team behind the Halo series, premiered 5 years after Halo 3: ODST was originally released. Bungie snuck in an easter egg in the form of a poster hinting at the game, which originally said "Destiny Awaits". Although the poster can still be found in the remastered game, the text has been changed to "For Her".
As it turns out, the poster's text was changed due to the fact that the Halo series is no longer owned by Bungie. Halo 3: ODST was developed by Bungie, but development of the franchise has since been taken over by 343 Industries. Frank O'Connor, the Franchise Development Director for Halo confirmed on NeoGAF that since 343 Industries doesn't own Destiny, removing the easter egg was the only logical thing they could do. However, some fans have speculated that rather than simply turning the poster into generic text, the poster may now actually be an easter egg hinting at something happening in the next Halo game, and the "her" may refer to Cortana.
It's sad to see the Destiny easter egg removed from Halo 3: ODST, but if it has indeed been repurposed to become a new easter egg, that's a very clever thing for 343 Industries to have done. It does, however, highlight the fact that not all remastered games are identical to their original versions. If you want to be able to enjoy the original experience, the only thing you can do is to replay the original version of the game.
Halo 3: ODST is now available on the Xbox One for owners of the Halo: Master Chief Collection.