Come on, you know that a lot of those games don’t count, because, …reasons.
10 Likes
You mean at the top? Looks like a transparent texture applied to the window. They probably have something like this for every planet when you first land on it like sand, dust, leaves, mud etc.
1 Like
Halo is starting to feel tired and worn. I think it’s time for Microsoft to consider shelving it for a while and letting 343 industries experiment with a new IP. It help Guerilla Games, who to say 343 industries can’t make a new IP?
Obsidian’s Grounded is managing to become quite a head turner as well, I am looking forward to playing the full release this year.
1 Like
Halo is neither tired or worn. And the original launch is a proof of that. But at this point Halo is alive thanks to the last believers that are slowly dying out unless Halo will finally start getting a decent support.
3 Likes
There’s still a good amount of fan of series as seen with the infinite launch which was viewed positive at the time. I think the major issue is polarizing campaigns and failing at live service. However, I think 343 should strongly considering expanding the universe and possibly spin off to another genre. My dream would be a Halo RPG
I thought the more open world elements felt quite fresh, I actually really enjoyed those parts, especially with the introduction of the grappling hook. The indoor corridor segments just made it feel like ‘another Halo’ game.
I think if they fully committed to the open world with more biomes and objective/mission variety it would be quite interesting. Alternatively they could do a Halo spin-off in the vein of Destiny with a live-service/seasonal story which would work well IMO.
1 Like
They cannot keep up with the mainline series support, what spin off?
Nah, Halo is still alive, the recent news are frustrating, but they can turn the ship around. What the studio need is a management shake up, IMO.
2 Likes
They’re not going to do that. First and foremost Infinite is a sucessful game. By far the most successful Halo game released. We heard the same nonsense around Halo 5s that the IP was dire, needed cancelling, ran out of steam and its all bullshit.
Sure its not the biggest Xbox game ever, a consequence of Microsoft buying Minecraft, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Call of Duty, Overwatch, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush.
And thats ok. 87 is a good metascore. 20 million players in 3 weeks is massive. Bigger then Anything Sony and Nintendo have done.
When the meta score is in the mid 60s and selling like shit like Killzone was maybe that will happen, but the truth is in 9 years time when Halo Infinite 2 comes out, odds are it will be even more successful.
1 Like
Halo is alive, it’s still a very strong IP/brand.
It’s just not the top dog anymore, this isn’t early 2000’s where the only competition it had on console was a COD franchise in it’s infancy. There are multiple options in the shooter genre that are better than Halo right now and are also cross platform where you can play with other friends.
It also has no presence or clout on PC so yeah, all that coupled with the fact that they fumbled the live service aspect kinda paints it in a bad light but make no mistake, the IP is still viable and alive.
1 Like
why does 343 need to make Halo in the first place if the IP has started to build a polarizing brand around it? Microsoft doesn’t need Halo anymore as much as they used to now that they’ll own so many popular IP such as Call of duty and basically all of Blizzard.
If there is a chance for 343 industries to potentially find the next celebrated IP under Xbox, now is the time. Even Blizzard is creating a new IP survival game to catch a break from the Warcraft cycle. I think its probably something that should be up to discussion.
Basically, I no longer see Halo as an important of a pillar to Xbox as it used to be now that Xbox will have much larger IP exclusive to their console. Elder Scrolls 6 will be more popular than Halo could ever be for the Xbox brand.
20 million players in 3 weeks is massive but what is the current active player count? I know that Forza Horizon 5 is currently more popular than halo, and Call of Duty Warzone is dwarfing Infinite’s playercount. It’s no longer something Microsoft needs. The Halo iconography and IP is important to Xbox sure, but its not like Microsoft doesn’t own other IP that’s just as big if not larger.
Blizzard is enormous in size though, no? They have like 6k employees.
The active player count isn’t really to do with it being “tired and worn” though, it’s simply lacking a massive amount of content
I don’t expect Halo to ever be as huge of a deal as it was back in the Xbox/360 days but it still has a very large fanbase and not serving that community with Halo games would leave a big hole for no reason
What Halo needs is content, not killing
1 Like
halo doesn’t need to be killed but it needs some time to be shelved. its been a good 20 years of Halo mainline entries coming what, once every 3 years? 343 managed to make Halo Infinite in 6 years and ended up not necessarily doing anything massive to the industry. Halo feels like an IP that’s passed its peak and unless they can create a miracle I feel as though the time has come for it to be held back for a while.
even iD software shelved Doom for a very long time before coming back to it, and managed to make one of the best shooters if not the best of last gen. I think the appropriate thing for Microsoft to do is to let 343 industries experiment with whatever they want now. Clearly the game developers have the talent to make a great first person shoter game. Halo doesn’t invigorate the Xbox brand like it used to though. And right now is the absolute best time for the company to pivot now that Microsoft has all these incredible teams coming into their first party publishing division.
Respawn entertainment was born from Call of Duty developers and now Apex Legends is among one of the most celebrated shooters in the industry. Just having 343 industries make an original IP and the title coming day one to game pass would make an incredible amount of positive publicity to Xbox.
Some of you would have cancelled Sea of Thieves, No Mans Sky or Fallout 76 already. Thank god you are not in charge!
8 Likes
4 Likes
What I’m asking for is honestly more in line with Rare creating Sea of Thieves instead of being forced to work on Banjo Kazooie and other legacy IP from Microsoft.
But isn’t this the opposite of that. People at 343 want to work on Halo.
2 Likes
and also everyone should keep in mind that Xbox Game Studios is currently reviving Perfect Dark with a new studio, The Initiative. Which will still give them a new/rebooted IP for anyone who wants an FPS Fix that will surely have a ton of advertising for Xbox.
do we know this for sure? There are a lot of people coming and going all the time. How many successful studios are there that only stick to one IP for 10+ years? take Respawn Entertainment as an example of where 343 industries could be
Respawn is the home to all things Titanfall and its lore, they have Apex Legends, and they made jedi fallen order and are working on its sequel. Keep some 343 developers around to update Halo Infinite but honestly…its really time for them to move beyond the IP and juggle multiple projects. Almost every modern development studio doesn’t stick to one IP.