I’ve been viewing the Xbox subreddit, and everyone there thinks that the whole “343i still making Halo games” bit is true. Supposedly some news outlets got it wrong, but I don’t buy it for a minute. Poor sods can’t accept that Xbox is kinda fucked. I’m curious to see if the Activision deal will still go through.
Microsoft needs to restructure their own studios. It is pretty clear they only care about gamepass sales and not producing major games. As of 343 they fumbled Halo Stories in the past. I enjoyed Infinite’s story. As of the mishandling of PVP. That’s all on Microsoft. As someone who has worked for a big corporation in production design I have received a lot of weird request from high up because they wanted was to make more money over releasing a quality product. So changing devs won’t change anything as long as the game is under Microsoft ownership.
Because they technically are, but it was only to save face and do damage control. Yes, I think one place did fuck up originally which fueled the fire, but time proved them right. So many people said 343 is dead and not working on Halo that they were forced to make a statement whether true or not. But seriously, how the hell are they supposed to make more games when they just fired a good deal of their staff. They physically don't have the man power to do it. Yes, they will continue with making Halo Games, as in they will oversee it as no one fucking trusts them to actually make another Halo game. But yeah, I can kinda see their sentiment, but as someone who has been around the gaming landscape for a long time, 343 is as good as dead, they just gutted the studio and a good deal of the fanbase hates them. They are just desperate to finally get a good game when other platforms are releasing good games constantly. You're not wrong and this isn't just a Microsoft thing, it's the entire gaming industry right now. They all went corporate because they know they can put out half assed games and people are desperate enough to not only buy them, but heavily defend the corporation and the suits fucking them over. We truly are living in a Cyberpunk dystopia where the corporations are in charge, and people are dumb enough to support them.
I personally think the decline of quality products in gaming started with the Xbox 360 era of gaming. Firmware updates, it’s 100% the reason why people can release botched up junk.
Sadly it's not just the gaming industry, this type of thing as well as certain other factions have been destroying a lot of entertainment industries. Comics which should have been elevated by movie popularity have been diminishing due to poor management and stupid mandates over storytelling. The movie and TV industry has seen many bombs and shows like Velma, Rings of power, and Halo over the last several years. Even the role playing industry has been affected lately. Several years back various corporate groups took over media companies and managed to over time push out the creatives that had been keeping their ships running. They replaced them corporate shills or activist types and most have no idea what they are doing or why these products were popular in the first place. So in many cases they start changing things in ways think they will make money or change things over recent ideological issues to appeal to a group that wasn't buying their product in the first place. While doing this they drive away the audiences who had been supporting their product for years. Then when they complain about the changes, say they are all trolls or worse and are surprised when no one buys the next game, movie or comic. Why are sales down? Well you focused on an audience that wasn't spending money on your product, and when the ones that did complained, told them that you didn't want them. Your new customers didn't support you and you drove away the old customers that did in your greed. .....Gee I wonder why you aren't making money. And we see this pattern happening again and again. Insanity it doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The only good news is it has finally started to affect multiple companies finances. Time will tell if they learn to change their tactics, The ones that don't may go out of business.
This is exactly it. I think people need to have the emotional maturity to move on when the franchises they indulge in stray from their interests. I'll never not be a fan of the original Halo games, and the time I spent with them won't be taken away, but I'm done participating in a hobby that actively discourages me from doing so. Whether Halo remains under 343i or is licensed to other studios, I'm out. I have other "teams" I can play for.
Alright, so reactions have been all over the fucking place. Some people are die hard Halo is dying and some are die Hard Halo isn't, so with that that said, I have heard multiple people put their thoughts out for who should replace 343 for Halo. So far, the most choices I have heard are IDSoftware, Certain Affinity, and a Branch of Activision or EA, so what are your guys' thoughts on who should replace them.
It doesn’t matter who. It won’t be anyone outside of Microsoft. It will still have those monetization issues.
Agreed, setting aside a dubious release state that only became what it should have been a year later, and the continual monetisation issues I love Infinite's multiplayer. Maybe even more than what Bungie did? Or at the least it is up there with 3 and Reach now that it has more than two maps and my personal technical experience with it improved like.. early 2022 I want to say? I only go to MCC for the campaigns now. This is a Microsoft issue through and through, remember that Gears 5 went through the same thing. And even without Microsoft, well you can look at Shadow of War, Assassins Creed, the EA Battlesuffix's. Good chance that even out of Microsoft's hands this happens. But in them it is a guarantee. Like, I would say, 100%, keep 343 on multiplayer. Aside from, you know they are not looking so good rn. They have gotten better every game, and aside from bs monetisation again they have been solid for the latter two of those three. I do not see another 4 MP from that team. Maybe get someone else for the campaigns? Particularly get rid of whoever will not commit to a narrative. Whether that be the story team or the people above the story team. But 343 multiplayer works for me.
I found Infinite to be fine as a whole. It’s probably my favorite PVP since Reach. But Halo 4 & 5 sucked.
Damn, if even IGN can smell past your bullshit, you ain't doing too hot. As no surprise here, it seems that Xbox and 343 truly are just trying to save face by putting out that statement. It's the Titanfall situation all over again, they said they were going to preserve and support their titles then immediately cut the team from it and stopped supporting it on storefronts. 343 is very obviously struggling and it's plain to see.
Yeah, I have a feeling there isn't a concrete answer yet. MS may still be weighing options, but the mere fact 343's continued involvement is even in question speaks volumes. I think, either way, the writing is on the wall. If 343 isn't out yet, my gut tells me they will be.
I think Microsoft is just now having the coming to Jesus talk, and how much they royally fucked up. As someone who has been around the gaming landscape for a very long time, I can say 343 is finished. I have seen studios get shut down for less. The fact they pretty much gutted 343, means they don't have much more interest in them developing games besides being a producer at most. And yeah, I truly do think both 343 and Microsoft is panicking about what they are going to do with Halo, because both expected it to last about a decade and be a massive hit, and it will do neither. We may see Halo finally get revamped or we may see it die; I am honestly fine with both at this point. I'd rather see it die, then have it continue the way it has been going.
I just want Microsoft to get their fair share of responsibility in the eyes of certain fans when all is said and done. I'm tired of people talking about 343 as if they're some sort of independent studio. They were built by Microsoft for the express purpose of shepherding Halo. Microsoft is the publisher and funds production. MS signs the checks. MS signs off on every decision made. Their own contract policies seem to have had a lot to do with how 343 operated and how Infinite was and wasn't designed ultimately, if reporting is to be believed. Scapegoating 343 and absolving MS is not going to address people's largest concerns about the IP IMHO. As to what I want to see happen, the same thing I've always wanted: robust single player with co-op, that is integrated seamlessly into a career progression system on the multiplayer side, where unlocks and customization aren't arbitrarily limited by arbitrary challenges that encourage people to ignore mode objectives in favor of "kill this many things with this weapon" battlepass XP nonsense. That's it. Everything else I could take or leave. But this is one of the most poorly managed first party exclusive IPs I've seen in 40+ years. That's all I have to say about the situation. Though I still maintain playing Infinite's campaign with a buddy in co-op really was fun, and the bot modes were neat too IMO. Shame about everything else.
Bot mode was the only hidden pleasure there and something I do hope they bring back. They got a dump truck full of issues they need to sort out and I genuinely am very concerned for this IP because it's in a very dark place right now and it can either continue to something somehow even worse or it could just die off completely with a small chance it will make a legendary comeback back to the game we all want it to be.
This comes from a Halo Xbox Research survey Damn, they truly are thinking about ending it all. They got a lot of unhappy people who would be very willing to share their thoughts.
