Yep, they need a smaller spinoff, with a really cool campaign that doesn’t ask too much of the team, get some points from fans and critics. If they start this next thing as the next big Halo, social media will shred them.
Also agree about the store thing. It just started to get a great cadence and now they stopped the seasons. Looks to me like they try to get as much money as possible. They probably have to report to higher ups some return on investment before they are allowed to staff up 343 again. Otherwise I can’t explain how you cam be this predetory after what you put your fanbase through with this game.
Yeah, now (within 2025 I mean) would be the perfect time for a spin-off like ODST, not a full-fledged main installment, but not even like Wars (ie, another niche genre like rts, too risky), a fps following whatever story (Halo universe is huge), preferably related to the next game and/or filling plot lines from Infinite (just like ODST, based within 2 and 3) and being a minor game you can also experiment some gameplay loop (survival elements, horror elements, etc) and “get away” without delivering a full mp suite, forge, etc…
Another main installment just after Infinite will have a humoungous pressure, better to dilute it with clear messagging and obvious delivering (no promised then cut features).
We’ll see, the thing is Infinite has beginning the winding down phase, probably the feature I will miss most is the cut campaign content, we know for sure there was some lore heavy surprise in store like Offensive Bias from leaks/direct hints in the main game, also the Rubicon Protocol book was clearly written with the idea of a continuing story within Zeta Halo.
It’s a fun map, but not enough to sustain a featured playlist for a week. It’ll be a good addition to quick play.
Hopefully the BTB and firefight maps get added sooner than later. The BTB maps all got updated around the time of the announcement, so I’m assuming they’re all ready.
What is predatory about the store? It simply offers lots of micro transactions for cosmetics. There’s no sneakiness. It’s upfront in it’s design, but unclear why that’s worse than the same thing, but basically smaller - the difference to before is ‘here is more stuff to buy’, sure, but there’s no change in approach otherwise.
I’m more annoyed by the BP splash screen that appears too much. But otherwise, you can totally ignore the shop if you so wish
I believe some of the leaked linked in page already has other Halo projects in UE5. The way I see it the next Halo game will probably be a single player campaign like Doom with infinite continuing as the MP. They will probably keep working on infinite until they have a good handle on the engine but in the meantime other Halo campaigns will be UE5. Don’t like the UE5 move but I just don’t think they’ve ironed out the Slipspace engine issues best bet would be they witch to IDTECH.
I would use idtech honestly, its efficiency is unmatched, but I’m sure they will make the correct choiche (I hope at least) tech wise. I don’t think the scenario you represent is really possible: Infinite multiplayer is already winding down (343i own words, not mine), I don’t think it’s realistic to ship a single player game, let’s say in 2025 at the earliest and keep supporting the mp side of an old game not really heavily updated since over a year (from now to 2025), it makes no sense.
Imo they could make some interesting choiches to keep fans, MS and media all pleased: announcing this year a single player spinoff, maybe using ue5, so they can experiment with the engine, releasing 2025-26. In the meantime, keep supporting HI at best and releasing a final sendoff to MCC in november for the 10th anniversay with the last fanbase requests (mostly modding tools and audio fix for Halo 2, maaaybe some other Halo Online maps) and finally, also announcing the next installment of master chief saga, a proper main game with everything you expect, no date attached.
There’s no way a single-player Halo game will be released in 2025 or even 2026. The studio has been working hard since the release of Infinite to get missing features and content out the door, not to mention the recent major changes in studio management. We won’t see anything until 2027 at the earliest, especially as 2025 and 2026 will already be overflowing with Xbox first-party games.
This isn’t the first time that I’m saying this and it’s odd that I’m saying this because I haven’t really played Halo Spartan Assault for more than 5 minutes, but if there’s any Halo game I want to see in UE5, it’s that.
Considering that it was developed as a mobile game I think it really held it back from its true potential. Make it a console first isometric shooter. There’s so many ways they can go about it, from a roguelike to a Metroidvania to a survival bullet hell game vs the Flood. And it could look incredible. And not at all have to worry about the “Halo feel”.
That and a sequel to Fireteam Alpha. An arcade light gun shooter with the visuals of Blur Studio’s cutscenes? That would be incredible.
Pretty much any non-FPS Halo title. I’m sure lots of other tech looks just as good, but the whole thing about contractors and such, this makes that less of an issue. The rumour about the Fable team considering UE5 may not be legit, but if there’s any reason why it would be it’s because of the contractor and new hire training issue (and not because Forzatech is not capable).
I’m sure all of MS’s internal studios are looking at what The Coalition and Ninja theory are coming up with and are pretty impressed. If there’s any legitimacies to these rumours it could be somewhat related to that.
Another reason why I would not consider something like UE5 for a Halo FPS title is that I don’t think UE5 has proven that it can run at 120 FPS at the sort of fidelity that we want. Hellblade 2 looks stunning but it’s running at 30. I wonder what sort of sacrifices would be needed to have it run at 60.
I mean, the whole purpose of my post was speaking about a smaller spin-off, not the usual big main installment. Also 343 is reportedly at work for something new since 2022, they have several support studios, so it would make sense, I didn’t say it’s sure. I’d say it’s more likely than shipping a new single player game in 2027 and supporting Infinite since then and beyond (a game already winding down support) like others think.
My point is that pressure after Infinite for a main game will be more unfair than usual, so it would be smart to diversify, like we said many times, now Xbox has many more studios and IPs, Halo is not needed anymore like it was, so it can (and should) be released as best as it can, not as soon as it can.
We’ll see, with HI support slowly winding down, I see the game being healthy population wise until end 2025 at most (outside unpredictable huge updates, very unlikely), MCC has been already been discontinued end last year (I still hope for a final 10th anniversary update, but who knows), maybe they will go dark for a couple years like The Coalition did for Gears after dropping Gears 5 seasons, but it will be the first time in history without an actively support Halo between releases (in the past there were multiple releases almost every year since 2009 to 2017, before then, gaming was radically different, but map packs already existed in Halo).
Without the recent news about HI support I was in 2027-2028 camp for a new main game ans supporting HI since then, but “mission changed, they always do”.
Support for Infinite will be continued until the next Halo releases. The game has a much healthier population than Gears 5 did just a few months after its release. Infinite is heavily monetized, the new operation brought it to #15 on Steam (currently at #37), if they achieve that with each operation every 4-6 weeks then they have very strong incentive to keep the support going.
They’re making Forge more robust, adding new pallettes which should greatly increase the visual variety of the community maps. Pumping out the cosmetics + frequently adding community maps into matchmaking + small internal team making smart, targetted additions to the game == long-term player retention without needing a team as big as eg. Apex Legends. It won’t make the game hit top 10 on XBL, but it’ll keep the core fanbase satisfied.
I am in the late 2027 for the next Halo camp, they gutted the campaign team in early 2023, probably spent most of 2023 nailing the design and direction of the game and only entered full production recently.
Maybe it should be less heavily monetised, I don’t know you, but locking full weapons (not skins) behind paywalls is irritating for me (the new sniper rifle in this operation). I get it’s f2p, but man, it’s really egregious.
Forge is great, I played some very cool things, if it was there day one, the game would be much bigger now.
I miss the glory days with multiple Halo games, now we have to wait 5-6 years for a new story campaign and also 343 still has the bad habit to close storylines, even major ones (Didact someone?) in books, so if you are not lore heavy, you’ll miss significant details (like the Offensive Bias ending of HI).
There are no new weapons with this update, Stanchion is just a skin for the existing sniper rifle. I’m not a fan of how they’ve jacked up the prices starting with season 5 and continuing the trend now.
I know it’s technically a skin, but Stanchion is a separate rifle lore-wise, I’d like to earn it through gameplay, locking it behind paywall only is a no-no for me.
Imagine how good it would have been a season of fire with actual story content, man, Infinite could have been so great if not for mismanagement.
Feel the same way. It doesn’t help when each Halo campaign release under 343 feels like an apology for the last release, the story and characters just ends up all feeling disjointed and what not. It’s hard to feel invested when you know the creators don’t really feel confident in themselves in their story telling.
For Halo fans, I think the ideal situation would be to have an on going multiplayer platform for the gen and have stand alone campaign games within that gen.
The issue is, does that even financially make sense ? Can a stand along SP halo game break even ? Is it moving the needle in terms of gamepass subscribers ? Is it worth the inevitable backlash ? Lots of tough questions with this.
This time campaign was universally lauded, I don’t see the issue, on the contrary, people wanted more. The only disjointed 343 campaign was H5, their major issues were always with mp support.
A smaller scope game (ODST size) would make financial sense imo, obviously not a huge 30h game obviously, it makes no sense for any fps, maybe only Doom. People would buy/subscribe for a 10h Halo game, I’m pretty sure of it.
Anyway, most halo influencers keep saying this year something will be announced (almost every video commenting about this operation), I don’t understand if they heard things or if those are desires and then they can complain if nothing is announced.
