Jinnouchi confirmed he would be composing the soundtrack for Halo 5: Guardians. On October 30, 2015, Halo 5: Guardians Original Soundtrack was released on CD and Vinyl. The soundtrack used a 30-person choir located in Prague, Czech Republic. The orchestral soundtrack was recorded at the Abbey Road Studio over the duration of 5 separate trips. In 2017, 343 Industries and Creative Studios released a sequel to Halo Wars titled Halo Wars 2. The soundtrack was composed by Gordy Haab, Brian Lee White and Brian Trifo under the direction of Paul Lipson who had helped in the audio and music of nearly every previous Halo title. The Halo Wars 2 soundtrack featured many melodies from the music that Stephen Rippy had composed for the first Halo Wars but with new arrangements and more melodies to represent the individual characters. The original game soundtrack was released on February 17, 2017, and released digitally on February 21, 2017. Adaptations The Halo franchise includes various types of merchandise and adaptations outside of the video games. This includes bestselling novels, graphic novels, and other licensed products, from action figures to a packaging tie-in with Mountain Dew. Numerous action figures and vehicles based on Halo have been produced. Joyride Studios created Halo and Halo 2 action figures, while Halo 3 poseable and collectible action figures, aimed at collectors, were produced by McFarlane Toys and became some of the top-selling action figures of 2007 and 2008. MEGA Bloks partnered with Microsoft to produce Halo Wars-themed toys. Books As part of Microsoft's multimedia efforts, Microsoft Studios decided to create a tie-in novel for Combat Evolved. Eric Nylund wrote Halo: The Fall of Reach in seven weeks, and published in October 2001. The game itself was turned into a novelization by William C. Dietz in 2003, called Halo: The Flood. Nylund would write additional Halo works including the novels First Strike (2003) and Ghosts of Onyx (2006). Other novels have been written by Joseph Staten, Tobias S. Buckell, Karen Traviss, Greg Bear, Matt Forbeck, John Shirley, Troy Denning, Cassandra Rose Clarke, and Kelly Gay. A collection of Halo short stories, Halo: Evolutions, was simultaneously released in print and audiobook formats in November 2009. Evolutions includes original material by Nylund, Buckell, Karen Traviss and contributions from Bungie. Tor re-released the first three Halo novels with new content and cover art. Another collection, Halo: Fractures, compiled new and previously released short