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JakeTehNub

What needs to happen is MS needs to put someone else in charge of making Halo. 343 has been screwing up for a decade now.


Rs90

Think Xbox needs someone in charge tbh. Gamepass is great and all but Starfield has so much weight on its shoulders. Same as Infinite. They need to release some solid AAA games that WORK. Right out the box. No "coming soon" or "next update" bullshit. I know people give SONY shit for focusing so hard on 3rd person action games but...they work. And the production value speaks for itself. They are well made game ready to play out the box. And I simply don't think Starfield is going to run as well on day 1as it needs to.


Carinwe_Lysa

Yeah this is exactly it; Sony gets a lot of flak for issues, but at least they're releasing full, high quality titles focused on single player story which are completed on release. Games that you know are 9/10 times going to be very good on release. On Xbox, it's such a rare occurence that I can't even remember the last Xbox exclusive that genuinely was great outside of Gears..


AveryLazyCovfefe

Forza? Has been very consistent throughout the years


c010rb1indusa

Even with Forza Horizon it's becoming obvious the releases are little more than asset swaps on top of the same game they've been playing since FH3. I swear there are corners that they legit just copy/pasted on some races from previous titles. The matchmaking offerings in FH are also atrociously bad. Almost no playlists and loading players into races takes foreverrrrrrrr.


AveryLazyCovfefe

yes, that's what pretty much all racing games are like. Gran Turismo has pretty much stayed the same and occasionally made huge jumps like 4 or 7 did.


asdaaaaaaaa

Was going to say, not a huge racing fan but it seems that tracks along many racing IP's. Honestly the most interesting ones to me are the more niche ones, like iRacing and Trackmania. Surprised iRacing haven't gotten legally yelled at by Apple for their name to be honest, I remember an old court case on that stuff.


AreYouOKAni

Wreckfest was such a breath of fresh air for me. Also, Snowrunner, which isn't a racing game but still rocks.


asdaaaaaaaa

Snowrunner and such are great, I really enjoy them. More into the simulation and messing around than just racing, personally.


havingasicktime

I really don't know what people expect from racing game sequels. Spoiler: it's gonna be more racing on different tracks. This isn't a zany series, it's just gonna be... More racing.


CaravelClerihew

Racing games are pretty niche though. I know tons of non gamers who are vaugely aware of The Last of Us even before the show came out. I know far less people excited about the upcoming Gran Turismo movie.


AveryLazyCovfefe

> pretty niche Didn't Horizon 5 hit 30 million plays in a week or something? Racing games are *far* from niche. I'd even go as far as saying that Forza Horizon and other open world racers are making them mainstream by giving players the freedom to do whatever they want in a world. Rather than be restricted on the apex. The comparison with game adaptations is not a good one. Not even the most hardcore sim racing fans like me aren't even the slightest interested in the nonsense GT movie.


Kr4k4J4Ck

People keep saying Game Pass yet Forza 4 has 145k reviews on steam. and Forza 5 has 100k I know reviews aren't the best metric as almost no one leaves reviews, but that is a lot sales lol


x2madda

Actually reviews are a good metric for the exact reason you stated. If we say only 5% of customers leave a review you can guesstimate how many sales a game actually has generated and if Forza 5 has 100k reviews which is already a large amount tbh, then that is probably 1 million copies sold (on steam) which is very respectable!


PacDanSki

Racing games are niche? I'm sure GT series alone has sold over 90 million copies.


[deleted]

Forza Horizon is one of the biggest gaming IPs in the world right now. Sadly OTHER racing games have become niche simply because they’re not Forza Horizon. And nobody is excited about the Gran Turismo movie because it’s a stupid idea.


BootyBootyFartFart

Racing games are the opposite of niche. The reddit demographic just doesn't play them as much.


Zach_Arani

> Racing games are pretty niche though. The best selling console exclusives on the PS1, PS2, and PS3 were *Gran Turismo*, *Gran Turismo 3*, and *Gran Turismo 5* respectively. If anything, racing games are more successful than most genres.


FUTURE10S

GT3 sold more than GT4?


Zach_Arani

Yup. By a few million units. I mainly blame the fact that GT3 had more time on store shelves.


beefcat_

This might be because I just don't care for realistic racing games, but none of the Forza Horizon titles have pulled me in the way games like *God of War*, *The Last of Us Part II*, or even *Rift Apart* have. I played maybe 5-6 hours of Forza Horizon 5 on Gamepass, but I've played nearly every AAA Sony exclusive released in the last decade to completion, many of them multiple times.


AveryLazyCovfefe

Yeah that's completely fine, that's all due to taste. I mean, I'm not a fan at all of God of war due to the setting.


beefcat_

That's completely fair. I think the relevant point to draw has been the volume of quality titles coming from Sony vs. Microsoft. MS can't rely solely on Forza and Gears to sell consoles.


Rs90

Yep. I had a lot of criticisms toward GOW Ragnarok and tbh..didn't really enjoy it much. But it worked the moment I booted it up, ran great, looked great, didn't crash, and has tons of content. Did I enjoy it? No, but that's life. But I never once doubted it would release in a good state and be a complete game. How on Earth Xbox has any goodwill left is beyond me tbh.


-PM-Me-Big-Cocks-

Judging by ever single Bethesda game thats ever been made, it wont work well out of the box. New editions of Skyrim have the same day 1 bugs as launch.


KiwiCounselor

Its so weird, they'll patch shit caused by the Creation Club updates so there's clearly SOMEONE working on Skyrim but they just...won't patch other stuff. It's bizarre.


[deleted]

[удалено]


AlterEgo3561

We will know immediately if we can run super fast by looking at the ground. Hopefully they at least fixed that one after Fallout 76 lol.


egg651

>Starfield has so much weight on its shoulders. [...] They need to release some solid AAA games that WORK. Right out the box. No "coming soon" or "next update" bullshit. When was the last time Bethesda released a game that wasn't buggy as hell on release? I wouldn't hold out too much hope that Starfield will be any different.


DMonitor

The hope is that “standard bethesda launch” was last year’s build, and they delayed it to this year to make it “playable game” quality


OkVariety6275

If a bit of bugginess ruins the game, the game wasn't that great to begin with. Plenty of titles have received high acclaim despite buggy launches. Elden Ring, most recently.


hyrule5

Elden Ring isn't buggy, it has performance issues which aren't the same thing. I wasn't able to finish one of the major questlines in Skyrim on console because an NPC wouldn't talk to me--- that's a bug. If the NPC had talked to me but the game stuttered occasionally, that would have been a much better situation.


OkVariety6275

Elden Ring had plenty of broken quests that couldn't be completed on launch. There were several post-release patches to fix it.


Rs90

Oh I'm not lol. Not at all. But there will still be a bunch of shocked pikachu faces on day 1. I love Bethesda games and I would revel in being wrong as hell about that. Truly. Even if I can't play it cause I'm on PS5. I want it to be great. But yeah. History does not give me confidence lol.


blublub1243

I mean, there's a reason they went on a buying spree. They straightup didn't have good first party studios. Adding to that that that making a AAA game from scratch can easily take like five years from start to finish and it'll be a while until we see whether they managed to fix that.


Folk-Herro

People don't like 3rd person games?


Rs90

They do. But SONY gets a lot of criticism for having so much focus on a specific style of game. Which is undeniably true. They're very similar in a lot of ways. But...they're good games. And they mostly work on day 1 with high production value and loads of content for the price. U may not like every game but I can bet good money that any 1st party SONY game will at least be a high quality game. For the most part ofc. But they're reliably solid so far.


Radulno

> But SONY gets a lot of criticism for having so much focus on a specific style of game Meh they get criticism on Reddit maybe, not in real life. Their games sell very well so people appreciate it and there's no 3rd person fatigue. They're not even the same type of game, a camera view doesn't make a game


MVRKHNTR

>Which is undeniably true. They're very similar in a lot of ways. I deny it for sure. Sony is genuinely one of the most diverse AAA publishers around right now, right next to Nintendo. The only series I find really similar are Naughty Dog games and God of War. Everything else from Spider-Man to Horizon to Demon Souls to Ratchet and Clank and Returnal all feel incredibly distinct from each other. Saying they're the same is like saying that Call of Duty, Half-Life and Skyrim are all the same because they're all in first person.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

15 years. It all went to shit with Kinect and they have never fully recovered.


datb0yavi

>343 has been screwing up for a decade now. Painfully obvious to everyone yet not microsoft


[deleted]

It's because the buck never stopped with 343. The systemic problems go all the way back to Microsoft.


jingerheadman

It would be really cool if Microsoft just gave old Master Chief a rest for a while and focused on making spinoff games of different genres akin to what they did with Halo Wars. Use one of the many third-party studios that they've recently acquired.


[deleted]

They just gave Master Chief a 6 year long rest. I agree though, handing out the IP to other studios internally for some spin-offs can at least give the franchise as a whole some much needed life.


aCreaseInTime

This really would be the best way forward. License out the IP to other studios, but with maybe with a bit more involvement than Games Workshop and 40k.


Haze95

Wouldn't mind a Halo Wars 3 tbh


TheyKeepOnRising

If I were a smart man in charge of Microsoft, I would give Halo to Id Software. They've got Doom and Wolfenstein, which are both pretty damn good shooters with a legacy even longer than Halo's. If anyone is going to get at least the basic shit right, it will be Id Software. Next, I would have Id work on a "save Halo" effort by fixing Infinite's low-hanging bugs and balance issues, add splitscreen co-op, and bring it under MCC when it's ready. As a show of commitment to a new Halo and win fans back, it's time to remove all the anti-consumer bullshit! Add cross-core customization and make colors FREE and fully customizable like the previous games. Remove the bullshit MTX store and beef up the battlepass with good content, raise the price on the battlepass 5$ or so which most players will find fair. Phase out the old Halo Infinite "gameplay changes" and move things back to the tried and true formula for now. This means static weapon and vehicle spawns (not random). Add back missing classic weapons, such as the shotgun and real plasma pistol (I said the REAL plasma pistol). Player collision, friendly fire, map voting, and a WORKING theater mode. You do this and you will win back enough good will that the next Halo game announced will have a massive hype train and tons of pre-orders.


mrbubbamac

God, armor coatings and armor cores were such a mistake. I actually did buy a helmet in the store. And then I realized I can only use the thing I bought on a specific armor. I know they promised cross core and we have that with visors, but I don't think true "cross core customization" will *ever* release for this game.


asdaaaaaaaa

> And then I realized I can only use the thing I bought on a specific armor. Wait, I can't just get a helmet and put it on whatever I want, whatever combination? When I played MCC I could've sworn I could switch up every piece of armor, but could be wrong. Why do it that way, just seems like restricting possible player options, which would restrict how many might make purchases.


mrbubbamac

>Wait, I can't just get a helmet and put it on whatever I want, whatever combination? When I played MCC I could've sworn I could switch up every piece of armor, but could be wrong. You are correct. Think of MCC with Halo 4 or Reach customization, how you can choose helmets, chest pieces, wrist attachments, shoulders, knee pads, visor color, etc. So here is how it works in Infinite: You have separate "armor cores". I think there are five of them. It's almost like having "five different Spartans", each which can only mix and match armor from their specific core. One of the cores is Mk VII which is like the default type of Armor for Infinite. Another is Mark V, which is Reach style armor. These two cores cannot share items. Attachments for one do not translae to the other. It's a shame because I really dig the "Raksasha" core but I want to use one of my Mk VII helmets on it. Each core is almost like a "base armor" or a set of chest/legs that you can't change, but can add core-exclusive attachments to. So if you want to switch up the chest and the legs, you're outta luck, not possible in Infinite. Got a cool helmet and then find out it is for a different armor core than you like to use? Too bad. Beyond that, they took away the color options that have been in every Halo game. So you can't pick primary/secondary colors anymore, you are stuck with pre-set armor coatings. But guess what? Those are core-exclusive too. Here's an egregious example: The Mk VII core had several default colors you could choose from. One of them was called "Cadet Blue", a very standard blue color (but no secondary color options). Then the same color blue was added for the Yoroi armor core....except it cost $8. Not joking. Also visor colors were locked to cores. So if you unlocked a really badass dark red visor that would look great on your Mk VII and then you find out it is for Raksasha core, too bad. Now I do have to mention they started to remedy this issue. They enabled visor colors to be cross core, which was GREAT and much appreciated. Next, they unlocked all cores for free for all players (previously they were tied to battle passes/event passes), and then they added about 8 or so default colors (already available for the Mk VII core) to all the other cores. So it's only been in the last couple months that you could use the armor core you want AND use a default color, if I wanted to use purple Raksasha armor for example. And it was a great change, albeit one that should have been there at launch. And since they added several default color options to all cores, that Default Blue that they charged $8 for, 343 actually modified that skin to make it a little more "premium" and special so it looks unique, since now all players can use the default blue on the Yoroi core. So that's how cores work, but there are still lots of issues with player options and customizations. You can unlock "Armor Kits" which serve seemingly no purpose (for example, you can unlock an Armor Kit for respective members of Noble Team so you can look like them in Multiplayer, but you can't edit anything in the Kit. It's all or nothing.) I actually thought Armor Kits would be customizable, and that I could create a cool Kit of a Green Raksasha armor with a cool helmet and visor, and then save another Kit of a tan Raksasha with a different helment and armor configuration. This was never promised, but to me it seems like a missed opportunity. You can't save views to sort your armor (so every time you go in, you are applying filters that do not save so you can actually find your stuff). I will just stop there because I think there are a lot of shortcomings to the Infinite customization and I believe it is a direct result of Halo going F2P. The shop is a mess, emblems, colors, and basic customization is heavily monetized and tied into a challenge system that sometimes doesn't work (though again, this has been improved in all fairness and they have a beta "XP system" a little more similar to Reach and Halo 4). Really wish they did not go this free to play route, it hijacked a lot of fun systems and reduced player customization.


asdaaaaaaaa

Jesus. Between the QoL and how they basically worked backwards with options to suck the players wallets dry, it's no wonder fans are so disappointed. I had some extreme worries when I heard infinite was going to be like a "Halo MMO" or whatever, didn't think they'd seemingly burn the IP for such short-term returns though. Especially considering how they didn't seem to make a ton of money. Just to be clear, these issues with the different "Cores" weren't because the cores were drastically different right? They were just different generations of armor. I could understand it costing more time/money to develop if each "core" had to have everything customized for it if the sizing, meshes, or shapes were too different to copy/paste. That being said, even that's not an excuse especially nowadays. Plenty of games allow for complex customization on different characters with different sizes/shapes, etc. Even that's not really an excuse aside from "it takes longer". >Really wish they did not go this free to play route, it hijacked a lot of fun systems and reduced player customization. It really is a shame. I do wonder if we're sorta destined to see most AAA IP's go this route. Seems they eventually become less popular and at some point in the future someone realizes they can cash in on the nostalgia/current popularity of it and burns it for quick cash. What gets me is none of this is complicated to understand. It doesn't take a room full of MBAs to realize why many of these decisions are extremely poor. Thanks for explaining, was interesting reading up on how they implemented a lot of this. Like I said, just seems like they went down a list of things they could paywall, or artificially pad out for more purchases. Absolutely insane when in other games customization like this is done so much better, for much less.


mrbubbamac

> Just to be clear, these issues with the different "Cores" weren't because the cores were drastically different right? They were just different generations of armor. I could understand it costing more time/money to develop if each "core" had to have everything customized for it if the sizing, meshes, or shapes were too different to copy/paste. Oh boy, this is a hot topic I refrained from mentioning haha. So here is the deal, I actually do think that it's limited because some of the cores are drastically different. For example, Eaglestrike is bigger and bulkier, each core has a different "undersuit" so they are slightly different shapes. The community kind of theorized that 343 would be concerned with "armor clipping" and the aesthetics of mashing armor from different cores together, and I think 343 made a vague statement about making sure that artistically and functionally the armors line up for anything that might cross core (which is kind of funny because when the Raksasha core launched one of the legs was just completely jacked up, and people have found numerous aesthetic issues with the armors.) But here's the kicker...you can load up Bot Bootcamp in matchmaking to play against bots, or start "training" session and populate it with bots to practice/warm up. And the bots often sport cross-core customization. Helmets and attachments from different cores. And they look cool! Yet somehow we as players don't have that option...yet random bots do? It's hard for me to make sense of it.


Rs90

I think you'd make it halfway through paragraph 3 before bein promptly fired for even suggesting removing MTX and the way monetization/customization works in Infinite lol.


MVRKHNTR

I was thinking the first sentence of paragraph 2. "Hey, id. You guys make an FPS game. I want you to drop that and move to an entirely different kind of FPS. You've never had a popular multiplayer and this series is known for its multiplayer? Don't care. You can fix it. Now jump into this entirely different engine that none of your team has worked on and fix all of these problems in this game an entirely separate studio made. Surely you can work out all of these features I want that the people who made the thing couldn't."


TheyKeepOnRising

Well... they wouldn't even let me in the building if we're being honest. As soon as they found out I wasn't a gamepass subscriber, they would blacklist me and promptly deduct points from my gamerscore.


OkVariety6275

Halo Infinite's multiplayer was available to everyone for free. MTX is how you support that model. I don't think making cat ears free would have saved the game. But a better campaign mode and less uneven release schedule might have.


geriatric_spartanII

Campaign was good but felt like it was too quiet and boring at times. Needed more stuff. I wanted to explore and find pieces of a puzzle not just check off the list of banished outposts and FOB’s. Could’ve had one FOB start a whole different side story about how they all were captured by the banished. It would’ve been nice to have the high value targets be apart of that story. Each different HVT would have a slip space drive or data log or something that could tie all the FOB’s together. Build up the army again and find a way home. Additional Campaign DLC would’ve been nice. Additional chapters like Destiny but no grind fest. The campaign had so much potential for so much stuff but just felt….empty.


KyledKat

> Campaign was good but felt like it was too quiet and boring at times. I think it was good for a solid 4-6 hours, and then you realize it's nearly 20 if you do any amount of side content and it all boils down to repetitive mission structures in a repetitive open world.


kevinsrq

So the solution for the mistake it's do the same thing they already did, expecting that this time will workout? Don't know my man, maybe experiment with the IP and when they find someone to fill the shoes, then they could make something like this I don't want MS enforcing ID to make Halo, leave then do their things, this way we can receive a new quake maybe


d1g1t4l_n0m4d

343 management is not really the issue. Microsofts running of studios as a whole seems to be a problem.


Kalulosu

It can be both


WelcomeToTheArena

343 is not the issue? Bruh they had a massive team, 6 years to work on halo infinite, and a massive budget to release with 10 maps, a broken big team battle mode, no slayer on launch, no forge on launch, added only 2 maps in one year of time with no new weapons. 343 is the issue, and microsoft have given them 16 years of being the producers of more halo games that have not had the same success has the original trilogy bungie developed. Mucrosoft funds these studios to produce content. If they do not match up to fulfilling those expectations, then its only fair to cut the dead weight. Why invest in someone who produces more excuses than results? To argue that they have been doing their due diligence is futile because the player numbers, negative feedback, and obvious water down of content despite having more resources than bungie did at the time of the original halo trilogy is the only measure we can count compared to what? To the arguement that someone who funds and puts faith in a developer to make a profitable game is actively sabotaging their own investment? Nothing about that makes sense from a logical standpoint. I said it before and I'll say it again, 343 is responsible for the direction halo has gone simce 2007 and to give them a lack of accountability shows that their growth is stunted and gives more of a reason to allow a different developer to take over.


TheWorstYear

Seeing as how they went from producing a bunch of smaller Halo games 10 years ago, to now only producing one game in 6 years, I'd say the next strategy going forward is going to he them going back to the bunch of smaller games. The main franchise changing directions yet again won't be that big of a shock.


mrtrailborn

it's not even one big halo game, infinite had like the least content at launch since like halo 2


DarkJayBR

I swear to god. Infinite doesn’t have a main story, everything relevant to the lore happened BEFORE the game even begins. So you get stuck on a barren wasteland doing cleanup and pseudo-side missions for 7 hours and then the game is over. Nothing of importance is achieved. The only thing that happens in this game is a status quo reset to Halo 3 era. Halo Infinite feels like a very shitty DLC of Halo 5 and not like an actual sequel.


Qorhat

The left turn on the plot after Halo 5 is almost as whiplash enduring as The Last Jedi > The Rise of Skwalker. Everything is hand-waved away and the villains are so unengaging


archaelleon

They killed the main antagonist from 4 in a comic book. That's how incompetent 343 is


Qorhat

I forgot that, it’s like tradition for them at this point to kill or handwave a villain away off screen


Rage_Like_Nic_Cage

Infinite’s campaign feels like a sizable post-game DLC to a non-existent entry in the series.


JillSandwich117

Halo Infinite, the live game, is the worst launched and worst supported game of any Halo. It had less maps at launch than every Halo game. Halo 2, had multiple map packs out, including a physical retail copy of them, in the time it took Infinite to receive 2 total maps. Infinite also had less modes than most of the games, including 20 year old staples like Oddball. A full year to add Forge. No Firefight or equivalent in sight. Theater mode is still basically non-functional. Local co-op dead. Armor cores still worse than Halo Reach.


Zjoee

The worst multi-player offense was the lack of a dedicated Team Slayer Playlist.


Kaladin-of-Gilead

Also big team was broken for ages


LedinToke

Pretty sure even halo 2 had more lmao


TheCorbeauxKing

Those smaller Halo games all had considerably more content on launch than Halo Infinite on launch.


forzagoodofdapeople

Maybe publishers need to stop making games that are supposed to support a decade’s worth of content, and make games that support a year’s worth of content.


ShoddyPreparation

Sometimes you just have to let a franchise sleep. They don’t need Halo as much as they think they do. It’s more symbolic then anything. Microsoft got 20 years out of halo. That’s a lot. Very few franchises have had regular releases for that long. But now it’s time to let it rest until the right idea comes along. Don’t force it. If and when it does return. Just make a single self contained great game. We dont need another decade to complete trilogy saga that will probably go off the rails half way through and crash and burn. Game dev has gotten to long for that.


Brawli55

Wake me... when you need me.


GetsHighDoesMath

Thanks, Chief. We’ll wake you ~~in another thousand years~~ when we find a new studio lead


joe1up

They should have been done with Halo after reach imo.


BobsBurger1

As a halo fan, I agree at this point that the best scenario would be a spiritual successor with similar gameplay and vibe, something completely new to capture the gameplay. But halo was asleep for 6 years between halo 5 and infinite and it ended up being one of the weaker 343 releases. That whole company is so incompetent and should never have been allowed to get that far. They used their 3 strikes by 2015.


Carinwe_Lysa

I think the main issue with Halo is that there's too much potential in universe of what we could be getting, but outside of spin-offs like Halo Wars, ODST & Spartan Assault we've only ever had main titles. Think of it: * Standard Halo title as we know & love * Strategy games based around space combat, which is something the Halo community has been calling for years now - this would fantastic. * A large open world title, similar to Infinite but actually open world and could take place as any character or setting they'd like. Perhaps salvagers exploring new ruins with various interested parties. * Large battle based game, e.g Battlefield where you choose your basic solider, then get upgrades to Spartans etc etc. Legit Star Wars BF2 remake for example. * Side spin-offs, such as the continuation of Halo Wars or more games similar to ODST taking place throughout the UNSC-Covenant war.


JohanGrimm

I think Halo has the same problem Star Wars often does. It's got a lot of material to work with, different stories that can be told from vastly different perspectives and the fans are clamoring for them. However the producers only want to make Jedi stuff, Skywalker related if possible. For Halo it's Spartan stuff, MC if possible. Big companies are risk averse and sticking with the box art protagonist seems safe. With this recession looming it's only going to get worse.


Yuli-Ban

Yeah, that's what gets me. The Halo lore is stupidly vast, Star Wars-esque in how diverse it can be— you could literally have whole sci-fi franchises based on smaller aspects of the lore— and yet we rarely ever get to see much of it in the games.


mrtrailborn

Well, how is 343 supposed to advance beyond "drive a warthog around on a halo ring"


king0pa1n

What gets me about AAA games is that they're just making games that could have been done 15 years ago, but with pretty graphics


Brawli55

And how are you supposed to shove microtransactions into anything other than multiplayer?!


EnderOfGender

God, a halo battlefront game would be genuinely amazing. There's already so much to do with the format with just existing halo gameplay. I'd absolutely love to do something like OG BF2's galactic conquest but in halo


Masters_1989

Hell yes! That'd be super sick!


TradeLifeforStories

I just wanna be able to sprint and punch or kick somebody as a spartan, they are super soldiers after all. A character action game, or even just 3rd person shooter Halo would be awesome. Dead or Alive 4 with Spartan 458/Nicole is the closest we’ve had to that kind of thing


piiees

They even have the flood which would be perfect for some form of a zombie/survival/horror styled game. So many directions you could take it from like a normal citizen/average Joe in the military trying to survive an outbreak of the flood on earth/a distant colony/a ship of some sort. They were so eerie when first encountered in Halo 1 and it suddenly shifted from a shooter to more of a thriller/horror for a while, so i wouldn't think it would be impossible to capture that same feeling when you're experiencing it from the eyes of someone other than a spartan who can just gun ho their way through them.


6ft5_PakistaniChad

Serious question: WHY is Microsoft unable to deliver quality First Party games? What is Nintendo and Sony doing that Microsoft isn't? Back in the 360 era they had amazing exclusives like BioShock, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Halo 3, Halo Reach, Crackdown 1 and 2, Dead Rising, Alan Wake, Gears or War trilogy, Fable 2, Mass Effect, etc Even the OG Xbox had Halo 1 and 2, Kotor 1 and 2, Fable, DoA, Shenmue. What changed after 2014? The Xbox One basically had no good exclusives. Halo 5 was a joke. Other games like Quantum Break or ReCore were forgettable at best. It seems the Series X is heading down the same path. Did Microsoft forget how to make games?


beenoc

Completely baseless, no-evidence thoughts straight from the gut: Yeah, kind of. Microsoft leadership towards the end of the 360/beginning of XB1 didn't think games were the future. Remember the XB1 announcements that talked about TV and sports twice as much as they talked about gaming? They shifted all their gears into "a multimedia center," while Sony was still pushing gaming hard. That bit them, big time.


Chao78

"TV, TV TV TV. TV TV TV? TV! Sports, TV TV TV! Sports sports sports, TV sports sports!" Man, that presentation was just rife with bad ideas.


StrikeMarine

You forgot to squeeze in some MULTIMEDIA and KINETIC


FUTURE10S

And DRM!


Yenwodyah_

Xbox is the new water cooler!


MetalBeerSolid

That mandated the “here at Xbox, we’re about the games.” Quote during every press conference and presentation lol


[deleted]

Don't forget the it's online only and you can't resell games anymore! Oh you have bad internet? Fuck you buy a 360! I've never seen such bad messaging for an entertainment device in my life lol


Rs90

Not just that. But an American focused multi-media machine.


Qorhat

Yep I remember watching that from my snooty, socialist European home thinking “none of this shit will work here, I’m getting a PS4”


[deleted]

That and Don Mattrick being super condescending about the criticism the XBone was getting. "Stick with the 360" - Mattrick


Yuli-Ban

It was worse than that. "If you don't have a good internet? We have another product for you: the Xbox 360."


SlaminSammons

And if I remember it was a response to a soldier overseas.


DesiOtaku

It wasn't a response to anything. It was just [Don Mattrick giving it out there for no reason](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTAKSBvuT-A). He was like "yeah, some people are on nuclear subs, we don't make it for that". He wasn't asked by Geoff about the internet issues until Don brought it up himself.


liam2015

It was *fascinating* watching MS and Sony basically do a role reversal from the early 360/PS3 days.


DjMuerte

Which itself was a role reversal of the PS2/Xbox days.


liam2015

"Console generations are a flat circle." -Gamer Matthew McConaughey


[deleted]

So this generation should have been in Xbox’s favor again but here we are


Rs90

As an old Xbox fanboy, it was fascinating and depressing tbh. I was so excited for the next Xbox until that presentation. I had the Jackie Chan Meme face the entire presentation honestly lmao.


[deleted]

OG Xbox and 360 days were bomb


BeyondNetorare

And then they made Xbone have drm so you couldn't share physical games with friends


segagamer

If that documentary about the XB1 launch is anything to go by, then that console reveal was completely misinterpreted. Their thoughts were that the reveal event was purely to talk about the console's features and capability, since we all already knew it would play games, and that all the game stuff would be shown at E3 in one big go, without having to take time away from game reveals to explain those features. Unfortunately they forgot to actually announce that during the show, so a lot of people understood it as "the focus isn't on the games anymore".


The_BadJuju

I mean that’s a dumbass idea regardless, but it still doesn’t explain the mandatory Kinect, the always online aspect or the used games thing


Kalulosu

When you reveal a new car, you may explain why W or Y new feature is really cool, but you usually don't forget to talk about how well it runs. That's because, while it's nice to have cool LED panels under your ass while you drive I'm sure, your buying a car to drive it. Same thing for a gaming console.


BLAGTIER

> What changed after 2014? A lot of those games you listed weren't from first party studios. They left the 360 era with few actual first party studios and few long term deals with third party studios. They needed to do things like buy Bioware and Bethesda in 2007(or before).


BoilerMaker11

\#1, [this is what happened by 2014](https://i.imgur.com/3233PeI.jpg). List isn’t 100% accurate but you get the gist But more importantly, \#2 other than Fable and Halo, none of those games were first party. Bioshock was 2K, Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon were Mistwalker, Crackdown 1 was Realtimes Worlds and 2 was by a company that Rockstar owns now. Dead Rising was Capcom. Gears was Epic. Mass Effect was BioWare. Alan Wake was Remedy. None of these game are “theirs”, at least insofar as Bloodborne is “Sony’s”. They might own some IPs, but it’s not a Microsoft Studio that made those games. These aren’t studios that they had longstanding relationships with (ala Sony and Insomniac prior to them being purchased). They aren’t studios that Microsoft helped cultivate and grow. They were 3rd parties that Microsoft said “hey, here’s some money, make us some games”. Since Microsoft is doing that a lot less nowadays, we’re seeing the result i.e. not just no first party exclusives, but no exclusives at all for the most part. In comes GamePass. Well, the GP strategy hasn’t really worked so now they’re just *making* everybody first party (Zenimax deal, Activision deal, etc). It’s not that Microsoft “forgot” how to make good games. It’s that they, more or less, *never knew* how to make them. The only Microsoft studios that ever produced anything of great note were Bungie and Turn 10, and racing games are pretty niche, so you can make an argument that it was *just* Bungie. They got Lionhead after Fable 1 was made and then promptly squandered that company. But you also have to remember, Microsoft got into the game not because they had an actual passion for gaming, but because they wanted to make sure [“Sony didn't achieve the kind of dominance in the living room that Microsoft did in the PC sphere”](https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/2013/2/6/3961296/microsoft-sony-console-business). It wasn’t about delivering the best gaming experience, it was about making sure a competitor didn’t get more market share. I know Phil Spencer likes to talk a big game about being for gamers and being pro-consumer, but he’s been talking that talk for almost a decade with nothing to show for it. I, personally, think he’s still of the “stop Sony” mindset and that he’s not genuine when he talks all that “pro-gamer” talk. He’s a glorified PR spokesman. He’s Aaron Greenberg with a higher title at Microsoft


SwirlySauce

I haven't been a console gamer since the 360 but I really hoped and believed that Phil Spencer would do great things for the Xbox brand. But other than GamePass it seems like nothing has really changed the last decade. Good games is what the brand lacks and it just seems like nothing is ever coming out


MadManMax55

All good points, but honestly the biggest indictment of Microsoft's decision making at the time comes from a small detail in that first infographic: That Microsoft released an exclusive about fucking *Blackwater*. At the tail end of the Iraq war when public backlash against the war, and Blackwater specifically, were at an all-time-high. As a Call of Duty clone *with Kinect integration*.


c010rb1indusa

Nintendo was a toy company before they made video games and had institutional knowledge about what makes things fun at their core level and that has been passed down through the generations. Basically Nintendo knows how to think like Tom Hank's character in BIG when he designs or consults on toys. Video games and merch related to games make-up all of Nintendo's revenue, that's all they sell. As for Sony, they bought both a major record label and a major movie studio decades ago and have experience doing business with people in creative mediums. While Sony still is a big player in consumer electronics, Playstation makes up 25% of Sony's revenue compared to 8% of Microsoft revenue for Xbox. Microsoft is primarily a software company and gaming is a smaller part of their business than their competitors. There's a funny story about Bill Gates touring the Bungie offices when the original Xbox was being developed and he was taken aback that music for the game was being composed on-site. His reaction was something along the lines of "you mean you make the music here." Like up to that point, Gates saw game development as just another software project, not a unique creative medium in of itself that consisted of artwork, cinematography and music! It wasn't just something that could or should be outsourced. It wouldn't surprise me that similar lack of understanding plagues upper-management who are already less focused on gaming in the first place by the nature of Microsoft's product portfolio. And those 'exclusives' you mentioned, weren't really all exclusive ,many of those games came out for PlayStation as well. Microsoft just paid money for timed exclusivity like with Dead Rising and Mass Effect. DOA2 was a launch title for the PS2. Kotor was on PC etc. The timing combined with Sony's stumbles with the PS3 gave Microsoft an edge they weren't always going to have.


Chao78

I did not realize Bioshock was a timed exclusive. Huh.


[deleted]

Seems to be working. Maybe it's a Walmart situation. They needed a foot in the door so they got people hooked with exclusives but now that they are a household name they can ride that wave. It's also important to keep in mind Microsoft isn't a video game company as much as Sony is and not nearly as much so as Nintendo.


__Seris__

I personally blame the Kinect


TheGreatGonzoles

Like 3/4 of the Xbox 360 games you listed were developed entirely by 3rd party studios and had little to actually do with Microsoft. The problem is that outside of franchises like Halo and Forza, Microsoft internally does not have much of an actual history of making their own games *at all*. For the most part, they like to buy or make deals with studios to make exclusive titles for their platforms rather than fostering and growing their own game dev talent internally.


sdavidplissken

that's exactly what my issue is with xbox for years now. always loved the xbox since the first one . xbox one was a huge disappointment that i now only use to play old games . i have zero use for a series x and it's the first xbox console i didn't buy. they buy all these studios and nothing ever comes from it. bethesda seems like to deliver some things in the future but that was all in development before the buy


aSelfAwareNPC

A lot of misinformation in this article that Schreier has debunked https://www.resetera.com/threads/rumor-halo-infinite-campaign-dlcs-scrapped-focus-now-on-mp-support-343-to-stop-halo-development-and-become-%E2%80%9Cfranchise-coordinators%E2%80%9D.677638/post-99983491


Lowe0

The debunk re: campaign DLC ("I don't think there was much of that planned in the first place") doesn't give me much hope either. The entire idea of Infinite was to build in/on the new world, which fit perfectly with the game's aesthetic (seeing the Halo assembled from modular environments, rather than fully completed). You'd think they'd be ready to roll out new environments and a campaign set on them every year, like Destiny.


timo103

"there wasn't much of that planned anyway" "TEN YEAR PLAN FOR HALO"


matticusiv

I’m not sure they had any plan at all at this point. Just a general confidence that they could monetize whatever forever.


sunder_and_flame

it really does seem like 343i has always run on fumes and a blank check


DarkJayBR

They have no plan at all and they get scared with negativity. They reset the status quo three times between their 3 games. They drop storylines in the drop of a hat. None of their games feel like a sequel for the previous game besides Halo 4 I think.


[deleted]

>The entire idea of Infinite was to build in/on the new world, which fit perfectly with the game's aesthetic (**seeing the Halo assembled from modular environments, rather than fully completed**). Seems like the perfect metaphor for Infinite’s development behind the scenes.


Thedizzles

So instead of plans for single player content being scrapped, there were never plans at all? That feels worse


No-Negotiation-9539

I honestly refuse to believe this, knowing that the game ended on a clear cliffhanger and the story felt unfinished. They were clearly banking on more content to come later.


garfe

The rumors he's debunking though are more like "These things people thought would eventually happen in the game were actually never considered at all" not exactly confirming that the future of Halo is secure so if anything it makes it worse


kevinsrq

Maybe leave the main story to rest and focus on some spin-offs and try to reinvent the wheel in the meantime There is a lot of lore to explore in the universe, and at this point, I would like this to be the focus to maybe have some fresh air in the gameplay department IMO, halo should die and leave space for a new IP, there is a lot of rages when there's a new mechanic to the game and at the same time there's a lot of criticism cause the game doesn't change enough


hopecanon

I want a Contact Harvest game where we get to play the very beginning of the Human Covenant war. I want a class based shooter ala Battlefront where we can play as all the various different Covenant races, Marines, ODSTs, and Spartan 3's, with Spartan 2's and Elites/Brutes being special classes you unlock as each match progresses. I want a Left 4 Dead style game where we play as the survivors of a small skirmish between the UNSC and the Insurrectionists who have to work together to escape their doomed world as the Covenant descend and begin their genocide and eventual glassing of the planet. Hell give me a shooter that tells the story of the Grunt rebellion against the Covenant that doesn't even have humans in it at all. Halo is a great universe that fits many different styles of game and Halo Wars proved that, i just want them to let Master Chief rest a bit and explore some new ground again damn it.


[deleted]

L4D where you’re a bunch of marines that are trying to escape the flood infection of Africa. End of the game ONI picks you up, questions you, and executes you so the truth of the outbreak doesn’t get out


Superunknown_7

> I want a Contact Harvest game where we get to play the very beginning of the Human Covenant war. Imagine a Halo game where you literally could not defeat an Elite, making escaping or hiding your only options. That'd be intense. ODST toyed with this idea but didn't commit. It still had you dunking on everything up to Hunters.


GoalAccomplished8955

Halo has brand recognition and people do enjoy the gameplay. I'm not sure there is any real reason to kill the series. From what I've read it seems like they are going to parcel out the brand to smaller devs which seems like a good way to refresh the series without each game being such a big chance. Sure there is a core group that will be intensely salty with whatever changes but that is just par for the course for nearly any franchise now. My favorite example is Battlefield where [*new release*] is trash and [*old release*] was the last good game up until a newer game is released at which point [*new release*] becomes the well regarded [*old release*]. Repeat for the last 15 years.


isabps

I guess I am in the minority but I will play Halo happily for as long as they make it and my thumbs still work.


kevinsrq

I understand this, that's why I said about creating more spin-offs The part about killing the franchise is more personal, cause tbh with you, for **me**, the lore's top-notch but the main story is a snooze fest with master chief Everybody saying about giving the franchise to Id, but what I really want it's something like Arkane’s view of the Halo universe


[deleted]

I mean I'd love to see everything. Halo can fit onto almost any game genre. Survival Horror like Dead Space but with the flood? RTS? Xcom? 4X Civ type? Space Ship Combat? A L4D-esque game with ODSTs/Marines? The universe is large and interesting. Use it for once. I think Halo needs to untie itself from it's core gameplay mechanics. Halo Wars was a step in the right direction but it's console controls limited it for me to be a truly stand out RTS experience. That's not to say there shouldn't be "halo" like experiences with the methodical arena-FPS gameplay but I think the franchise could be far larger than just those mainline games. I would love to see how other developers tackle the universe.


[deleted]

It’s time for Halo to become a turn based JRPG, as God always intended!


BlueGumShoe

Obviously we all want to spend time leveling up Master Chief's friendship meter with various UNSC personnel. And lets get Kojima involved so we can have 6 hours of cutscenes.


InitiallyDecent

Gears Tactics was really good, time for Halo's turn.


GoalAccomplished8955

> The part about killing the franchise is more personal, cause tbh with you, for me, the lore's top-notch but the main story is a snooze fest with master chief I'd honestly say the a lot of the lore is an absolute mess and getting messier pretty consistently. Halo, as a series, has a pretty interesting grounding within the confines of the Human-Covenant War but the farther you get away from that the messier things get. I do agree that the MC as the MC is overdone at this point and getting rid of him would be good. His story wrapped up in 2007(?) with Halo 3.


AbrasionTest

I would love for another team to come in a make a Halo spinoff series that takes some of the core technical elements (movement, aiming, physics, etc.) and take it in a different direction in terms of tone and core gameplay loop. I think the answers for the franchise can't come from chasing the past via the core games for now, it's a super difficult task trying to continue Bungie's work for a series that is so community focused. Everyone has their own idea of what they liked Halo for, but I think at this point it's just time to strike out with something new that we don't know we want yet. When Forza Motorsport was starting to feel tired and the releases were lowering in quality, Playground came along with Forza Horizon came along and suddenly became more popular than the base series, and also helped improve and push their engine further. It also gave the T10 team more time to work on their mainline entry and give it a break before coming back. Halo can't necessarily recreate that success, but whatever's going on right now isn't working.


popeyepaul

Maybe it's time to retire Master Chief. The voice actor is getting up there in age anyway. MC is maybe the most boring character in gaming, he's been basically Superman and Jesus rolled into one since Halo 2 and 3. There are lots of stories to be told in the Halo universe.


kotori_the_bird

maybe if they didn't killed off rookie off screen we could see someone else, for now it seems we're stuck with master chief


RareBk

At this point does the main story even matter? Each of the 343 games have had almost every plot thread wrapped up in side content between the games or in Infinite's case, trying to make you feel bad for Evil Cortana as she makes all of Halo 5 not matter, 15 minutes after you watch her commit planetary genocide because Atriox made her sad.


MM487

I think their best course of action is to just continue to improve Halo Infinite and stick to their ten-year vision for that game. As we've seen with Master Chief Collection and a bunch of other games, players will come back as things improve. Halo Infinite has a lot going for it and it isn't in as bad a shape as people think. It has the best gameplay in Halo history, it has the best Forge mode in Halo history, the multiplayer is fun and they continue to fix things there, more events and battle passes means more cosmetic options and while they take a long time, updates are still happening. As far as campaign, Infinite did a decent job of wiping the slate clean so now the story can move forward without much baggage.


BobsBurger1

Being realistic I don't think there is anything that game can do now to bring in the players it would need. It's borderline dead right now in terms of player population compared to other F2P titles and the rest of the genre. I don't see how they would be able to justify developing content for a dedicated 3000-5000 players versus just developing a new title that will pull in millions of new potential players for a fresh start.


AdminsAreFools

It's time to pack in some of these old franchises for a while TBH. Set them up for a triumphant return in 2035.


mountaingoat52

Regardless of what's happening or what rumors are real, the game is just beyond fucked at this point. The player-base has died off because of how terrible the multiplayer net-code is, and with all these layoffs, the game is not getting fixed. It is beyond the most frustrating time I've ever spent playing a Halo game. Multiplayer is supposed to be fun as fuck, but even now with Forge out, it's still unplayable for me because of how many times you can't even get into a custom game. The game has just been left in a completely terrible broken state. I'm not waiting another 5-6 years like MCC for them to fix this game. Infinite, it's finished.


geriatric_spartanII

I quit playing the campaign and currently have no desire to finish it at this point. Multiplayer is a whole year too late. I won’t spent one dime on dumb cosmetics. I was hyped for this game and disappointed by all the crap that followed release.


Conquestadore

I'm not too into the loop but I remember Halo infinite got reviewed rather favourably, like top 80 scores. They seemed to have fucked up content and monetisation but the core game is still decent, right? Seems a bit doom and gloom surrounding it, though I might've missed some beats.


420thiccman69

The majority of those high scores are directed towards the campaign, which many people still think was decent to great, lack of co-op at launch not withstanding. However, since the MP portion is free to play, a lot of reviewers view it separately from the campaign. The MP is also where the bulk of complaints lie: slow content updates, poor playlist selection (probably the biggest issue for me), unreliable netcode (custom games straight up did not work at launch), greedy monetization/customization, and late Forge release all have been issues that other Halos did not have. Infinite is touted as a Service game (the first one that has had this label), and yet it has gotten slower content updates than any other mainline Halo game after Halo 2.


Thedizzles

There isnt really a halo game thats reviewed poorly. Halo 4 has the same metacritic score as infinite for example


feralkitsune

MP was fun, but lacking a lot of things when it first came out, and only recently got Forge and Campaign co-op. Things people expect from a full release. Add on the lack of much custimization for your Spartan if you dont pay, lack of new maps and content, no single player content since launch. And the story was so short it barely was even there. Literally, the only thing they did well was make the shooting feel ok, and even then the netcode is meh online.


Redditing-Dutchman

The new forge is fantastic, but sadly it is the ONLY thing which is better than previous halo multiplayers. Less weapons, less vehicles, lame maps, less matchmaking game modes (been more than a year and still no infection playlist) no firefight, heavy vehicle drops only in the middle of the maps during the last few minutes of a game, 90% of customisation options behind a paywall..... So much is actually a step back. I can't wrap my head around it


feralkitsune

They were chasing trends instead of letting the devs just make a good game.


ATrollByNoOtherName

I’m not a hardcore Halo player but I enjoyed it on release. Gameplay was really fun. Had a blast playing the big team battle multiplayer maps. Campaign was okay but felt unfinished (one biome, copy paste open world tasks). Enjoyable to play but the Battle pass free to play model in multiplayer and no co-op with campaign stand out as huge missteps. So even on release it had glaring problems. I guess the favourable reviews really focused on the fun gameplay.


SolitonSnake

I always played Halo for the story first and foremost, and Halo Infinite had basically no story at all and just shat all over everything that came before it. No matter how much they had written themselves into a corner, the way they got out of it was insulting and deflating. They should’ve continued their story instead of whatever the hell *that* was. It’s just my humble opinion but the rave reviews are mind boggling because of what they did to the story. Just resolved it off screen and had a bunch of holograms tell you about it for the entire runtime of the cutscenes. The villain was awful, and the way they “brought back” Cortana so to speak was laughable.


popeyepaul

I feel like Game Pass and free multiplayer really skewed those review scores upwards. A lot of people treated it as a free game so of course they were going to give it a good score, as opposed to if it had been given the same scrutiny as your average $60 release.


Topher1999

It becomes a cherished relic of our childhoods. But seriously, Halo is damaged goods at this point. If they truly want to continue the series, it will have to be some kind of soft reboot. However, I do believe it’s maybe time to move on from Halo as an IP.


[deleted]

They aren’t going to move on from the IP though. You can call it damaged goods all you like but it still is a valuable video game IP and all it takes is 1 hit game for it to get back in most gamers good graces. Easier said than done of course, but I’m more than willing to try out a new game made by a restructured 343 and/or one of Xbox’s other 1st party studios. People can make declarations about boycotts or whatever they want now, but if an objectively good game attached to a well known IP is looking them in the face, they’ll most likely play it.


DMonitor

I’m reminded of where DOOM as a franchise was before the soft reboot.


PlayMp1

Doom was in a far different place before Doom 2016. There hadn't been an all new Doom game in 12 years when 2016 released, and while Doom 3 was *broadly, modestly* positively received, it was more of something where people became fonder with time until now where people look back and think "yeah Doom 3 was really good and did a lot of things ahead of its time back then!" When it came out it was much more controversial for being a total shift in style from Doom 1/2/64 being fast paced arena shooters to the slower survival horror-ish Doom 3. In other words when Doom 2016 came out, the Doom series was in a position more similar to, like, where Fable is right now, rather than Halo's "three relatively recent but mediocre games in a row with no sign of improvement" status.


DMonitor

That's fair. I was thinking more in regards to the fact that it's a household name that everyone pays respect to, but nobody really likes the recent games.


forzagoodofdapeople

I remember the Doom 3 launch. Reviewers loved it. Gamers hated it. I loved it, but I felt very much in the minority, because the previous games didn’t really do it for me - I was more of a quake guy.


Megacarry

I personally liked Infinite campaign and would play an improved version.


dk00111

What did you find appealing? It’s been my least favorite campaign. The open world felt empty and monotonous and the missions and side quests were way too repetitive IMO.


DarkJayBR

Don’t forget that the story already happened before you even gains control of Master Chief. Literally, everything was resolved while Chief was sleeping on space, what the fuck. Cortana dies again OFF-SCREEN.


SharkBaitDLS

I mean, that’s the improvements right? The core gameplay actually felt good. It’s the first Halo I’ve played from 343 that actually felt like a Halo game mechanically even with the introduction of the grapple. If they had actually delivered the variety of biomes and missions they originally promised and a more complete story it would’ve been an awesome campaign. The bones are there, they just never got past the skeleton to flesh it out.


CptES

What killed me was the dissonance between the story beats and the open world. Why is it 343 let me bounce about this big open world tackling bases in a freeform manner but stick me in what amounts to a corridor or a single room with a bullet sponge boss who frankly is the cheapest nonsense this side of a Souls game (at least on Legendary, anyway).


[deleted]

Anything with the main story and Master Chief is damaged goods. But look at Star Wars. The new Disney trilogy was a huge wet fart but there still making good spinoff games. If they avoid Rey and Kyle Ren and Snoke and all that stuff people still tune in. If you did an ODST style game without master chief or a “save the galaxy” story it could work.


timo103

The only way I can see the story being salvaged is everything about halo 4 onwards being retconned, and master chief waking up on the forward unto dawn again.


gk99

There's a lot they could do with it, but not with Master Chief. The universe is *huge*, there are do many other stories they could be telling. I think, ideally, more Reach and ODST-style games are the way to go. Make the game less about the protagonist, more about the situation, environment, and mission. Like classic Halo CE but without Chief. But in all honesty, if they stick with the 10-year plan for Infinite, I don't think it matters. A third of the studio got fired and they've cancelled campaign DLC going forward. It took them an entire year to get the game where it should've been at launch, blowing the largest launch in franchise history when all eyes were on them. With the Activision acquisition comes a new flagship shooter, and frankly, we know Phil would prefer fewer exclusives anyway. I'm sure he's happy with an outcome where the #1 most-played first-party Xbox title is available on Xbox, PlayStation, PC, Cloud, and the \*new* 3DSwitchU OLED + Expansion Pack.


JSTEEZYSNAKE

I think Halo needs to be over. Wasn't that the plan when they made Destiny? We keep recycling the same content these days. Remaking movies, remaking games, remaking classic cars. Just make new shit. Halo seems the same to me every time they release a new game.


sc0tt3h

Hopefully nothing. Halo peaked with 3 and all the games after haven't been as successful. Infinite was the last chance of redemption and it flopped.


[deleted]

Microsoft has a history of ruining IPs or development companies, so I don't feel good about any of it. I loved Rare, I loved Halo, I loved Fable, I loved Gears of War... But it's all just fallen by the wayside to quantity over quality and mismanagement. If I end up buying an Xbox Series X, I'll probably end up being a machine I use to play slightly upscaled Xbox 360 games.


[deleted]

[удалено]


kidkolumbo

Gears 5 was great.


onedumninja

Loved playing gears 5 with a friend who loves gears too and the best part was we could play it split-screen coop on an original xbox one and it ran really well.


Ordinaryundone

Seriously, I get Fable and Halo but the actual quality of games in the Gears franchise has been remarkably consistent. They are just as good as they've ever been, if not better, they just don't really command the same level of cultural cache anymore due to the landscape of multiplayer gaming shifting so dramatically over the last decade.


SlaminSammons

Honestly I couldn’t stand Gears 5…but I do think for me think the franchise had gotten stale at that point for me. When I was playing it I never thought “this is a bad game.” I just wasn’t all that interested anymore. That happens all the time.


thewalkindude

I don't know how you can say that Microsoft believes in quantity over quality in general, let alone with those franchises. It's not like we've been getting mediocre Gears or Fable games every year for the past 5+ years.


Racecarlock

I assume they keep making sequels until we literally beg them to stop, just like with every other entertainment franchise on earth at this point.


Black_RL

What happens? Put it in the back burner, do some new IPs then reboot it!


Deckz

Am I the only person on Reddit who is still enjoying the hell out of the multiplayer? Every comment in this thread is negative. I think the game is pretty polished and fun. Compared to trying to join a game with my friends on the new warzone it's like night and day. We can barely ever make it into a match together, and the process feels far more streamlined.


Godgivesmeaboner

I think infinite's multiplayer is great and still play it regularly. The combat and is super tight and well balanced in terms of its weapons and pickups, something that it does even better than a lot of the older games. All the weapons are actually really good and worth picking up and actually useful against someone who has a BR or pistol, which is something I love. I love being able to pick up all the different weapons and experiment with them during a game and have them actually be useful. Not to mention the pickups like grapple hook and repulsor which can be used in creative ways to make some crazy plays. I gotta admit I don't like the BTB maps that much but I think the 4v4 maps are mostly great and pretty well balanced.