343 has shared virtually nothing on this game since its development began almost 5 years ago. We got a small taste last month and while it was a disappointing reveal for a lot of people, for me personally I was excited about the direction the game was heading. The art and gameplay looked spot on imo. The graphics and performance definitely needed work and I’m glad 343 made the difficult decision to delay the game. With that being said, I don’t think it is sustainable for 343 to continue to be silent on the development process and they need to layout the actions they are taking and not taking based on the community feedback if they want to keep any hype for this game to continue for potentially another year. They need to manage expectations and keep us in the loop, this game was obviously behind a veil for a reason and they need to be honest and open moving forward about the progress they’re making if we’re going to trust them to put out a quality product.
> 2557401216976241;1:
> 343 has shared virtually nothing on this game since its development began almost 5 years ago. We got a small taste last month and while it was a disappointing reveal for a lot of people, for me personally I was excited about the direction the game was heading. The art and gameplay looked spot on imo. The graphics and performance definitely needed work and I’m glad 343 made the difficult decision to delay the game. With that being said, I don’t think it is sustainable for 343 to continue to be silent on the development process and they need to layout the actions they are taking and not taking based on the community feedback if they want to keep any hype for this game to continue for potentially another year. They need to manage expectations and keep us in the loop, this game was obviously behind a veil for a reason and they need to be honest and open moving forward about the progress they’re making if we’re going to trust them to put out a quality product.
They really need to release something similar to their Sprint series. I have a degree in Computer Games Technology, and I am really interested in development cycles and the breakdown into ‘Sprints’
Lets just pray that this isn’t going to be another 6 months of a drought.
> 2533274797973608;2:
> > 2557401216976241;1:
> > 343 has shared virtually nothing on this game since its development began almost 5 years ago. We got a small taste last month and while it was a disappointing reveal for a lot of people, for me personally I was excited about the direction the game was heading. The art and gameplay looked spot on imo. The graphics and performance definitely needed work and I’m glad 343 made the difficult decision to delay the game. With that being said, I don’t think it is sustainable for 343 to continue to be silent on the development process and they need to layout the actions they are taking and not taking based on the community feedback if they want to keep any hype for this game to continue for potentially another year. They need to manage expectations and keep us in the loop, this game was obviously behind a veil for a reason and they need to be honest and open moving forward about the progress they’re making if we’re going to trust them to put out a quality product.
>
> They really need to release something similar to their Sprint series. I have a degree in Computer Games Technology, and I am really interested in development cycles and the breakdown into ‘Sprints’
>
> Lets just pray that this isn’t going to be another 6 months of a drought.
My guess is that at best we will see a spring release which is 7-8 months away. I mean 6 months from now is the start of 2021 so it will be at least that but yeah I’m gonna need to see more regular updated and pictures of what Craig is up to in the meantime.
> 2557401216976241;1:
> 343 has shared virtually nothing on this game since its development began almost 5 years ago. We got a small taste last month and while it was a disappointing reveal for a lot of people, for me personally I was excited about the direction the game was heading. The art and gameplay looked spot on imo. The graphics and performance definitely needed work and I’m glad 343 made the difficult decision to delay the game. With that being said, I don’t think it is sustainable for 343 to continue to be silent on the development process and they need to layout the actions they are taking and not taking based on the community feedback if they want to keep any hype for this game to continue for potentially another year. They need to manage expectations and keep us in the loop, this game was obviously behind a veil for a reason and they need to be honest and open moving forward about the progress they’re making if we’re going to trust them to put out a quality product.
I agree to an extent. 343 has been unusually tight-lipped about Halo Infinite from the start, and that’s rubbing a lot of people the wrong way. That said, the workplace disruption caused this year by COVID is partly to blame, as 343 have said that a beta would be impossible to manage under the current work-from-home circumstances. I just hope that the delay gives 343 not only the opportunity to complete and polish Halo Infinite, but also to share more about the game with the community before it launches.
I sort of agree and disagree at the same time. With the way this community is for instance, they take a massive risk if they would constantly show us stuff. This fanbase is opinionated and ruthless and if they see something they don’t like you’re in trouble as a developer. So showing too much for a long period would potentially harm development of Infinite.
However. Now that the negative genie is out of the bottle anyway if would be wise to use the extra time to full effect. A few vidocs like Bungie did back in the days for instance would be wise. Sharing some more screenshots and ‘in depth’ stories in weekly updates wouldn’t hurt every now and then.
> 2674012278771805;5:
> I sort of agree and disagree at the same time. With the way this community is for instance, they take a massive risk if they would constantly show us stuff. This fanbase is opinionated and ruthless and if they see something they don’t like you’re in trouble as a developer. So showing too much for a long period would potentially harm development of Infinite.
>
> However. Now that the negative genie is out of the bottle anyway if would be wise to use the extra time to full effect. A few vidocs like Bungie did back in the days for instance would be wise. Sharing some more screenshots and ‘in depth’ stories in weekly updates wouldn’t hurt every now and then.
I don’t expect them to put everything on the table, but I do think they need to share what they’re doing to improve the visuals. Showing improved brute designs, maybe with some fur would go a long way in showing that they are listening to the community. Something like that I don’t think would be very controversial. I understand if they are more tight lipped on the gameplay and story, because those are locked in whether we like it or not.
> 2557401216976241;1:
> 343 has shared virtually nothing on this game since its development began almost 5 years ago. We got a small taste last month and while it was a disappointing reveal for a lot of people, for me personally I was excited about the direction the game was heading. The art and gameplay looked spot on imo. The graphics and performance definitely needed work and I’m glad 343 made the difficult decision to delay the game. With that being said, I don’t think it is sustainable for 343 to continue to be silent on the development process and they need to layout the actions they are taking and not taking based on the community feedback if they want to keep any hype for this game to continue for potentially another year. They need to manage expectations and keep us in the loop, this game was obviously behind a veil for a reason and they need to be honest and open moving forward about the progress they’re making if we’re going to trust them to put out a quality product.
At least they didn´t had put an infinite hype like Halo 5, if it get´s bad, it won´t be a dissapointment because they don´t had done a lot of hype. But let´s hope Infinite is great.
> 2557401216976241;1:
> 343 has shared virtually nothing on this game since its development began almost 5 years ago. We got a small taste last month and while it was a disappointing reveal for a lot of people, for me personally I was excited about the direction the game was heading. The art and gameplay looked spot on imo. The graphics and performance definitely needed work and I’m glad 343 made the difficult decision to delay the game. With that being said, I don’t think it is sustainable for 343 to continue to be silent on the development process and they need to layout the actions they are taking and not taking based on the community feedback if they want to keep any hype for this game to continue for potentially another year. They need to manage expectations and keep us in the loop, this game was obviously behind a veil for a reason and they need to be honest and open moving forward about the progress they’re making if we’re going to trust them to put out a quality product.
I don’t believe that this game has been in dev for 5 years. Both Halo 5 and the MCC were not complete games on release and resources was pumped into these two titles in order to finish them. Based on the reveal that we saw, 343 has mainly developed this game during 2019 and 2020.
343 has a record of not communicating with us and chasing trends.
Its good in theory to say they 343 need to be honest and communicate with us, but they will only communicate to a certain degree.
Halo Infinite Displayed Clamber, Slide, and Sprint. A large portion of the Halo community has been asking since 2012 for a return to classic gameplay. 343 has ignored this and gone with what ever they deem fit.
After Halo 5 rocket launcher design replacing the classic rocket launch and the black lash, common sense would dictate that redesigning classic weapons and adding generic weapons isn’t what the Halo community wants.
But look at the reveal and the generic weapons we were shown.
As a Halo fan its time to accept that 343 cares little for what we have to say, unless it aligns with what they want.
> 2557401216976241;6:
> > 2674012278771805;5:
> > I sort of agree and disagree at the same time. With the way this community is for instance, they take a massive risk if they would constantly show us stuff. This fanbase is opinionated and ruthless and if they see something they don’t like you’re in trouble as a developer. So showing too much for a long period would potentially harm development of Infinite.
> >
> > However. Now that the negative genie is out of the bottle anyway if would be wise to use the extra time to full effect. A few vidocs like Bungie did back in the days for instance would be wise. Sharing some more screenshots and ‘in depth’ stories in weekly updates wouldn’t hurt every now and then.
>
> I don’t expect them to put everything on the table, but I do think they need to share what they’re doing to improve the visuals. Showing improved brute designs, maybe with some fur would go a long way in showing that they are listening to the community. Something like that I don’t think would be very controversial. I understand if they are more tight lipped on the gameplay and story, because those are locked in whether we like it or not.
I think from now on they should at least talk about those things you mention. I feel like part of what caused the delayed release is Microsoft forcing 343i to make bigger changes than they wanted to do themselves at first. So I do expect Brutes with fur and all that to be shown at some point.
> 2533274902469708;8:
> > 2557401216976241;1:
> > 343 has shared virtually nothing on this game since its development began almost 5 years ago. We got a small taste last month and while it was a disappointing reveal for a lot of people, for me personally I was excited about the direction the game was heading. The art and gameplay looked spot on imo. The graphics and performance definitely needed work and I’m glad 343 made the difficult decision to delay the game. With that being said, I don’t think it is sustainable for 343 to continue to be silent on the development process and they need to layout the actions they are taking and not taking based on the community feedback if they want to keep any hype for this game to continue for potentially another year. They need to manage expectations and keep us in the loop, this game was obviously behind a veil for a reason and they need to be honest and open moving forward about the progress they’re making if we’re going to trust them to put out a quality product.
>
> I don’t believe that this game has been in dev for 5 years. Both Halo 5 and the MCC were not complete games on release and resources was pumped into these two titles in order to finish them. Based on the reveal that we saw, 343 has mainly developed this game during 2019 and 2020.
> 343 has a record of not communicating with us and chasing trends.
> Its good in theory to say they 343 need to be honest and communicate with us, but they will only communicate to a certain degree.
> Halo Infinite Displayed Clamber, Slide, and Sprint. A large portion of the Halo community has been asking since 2012 for a return to classic gameplay. 343 has ignored this and gone with what ever they deem fit.
> After Halo 5 rocket launcher design replacing the classic rocket launch and the black lash, common sense would dictate that redesigning classic weapons and adding generic weapons isn’t what the Halo community wants.
> But look at the reveal and the generic weapons we were shown.
> As a Halo fan its time to accept that 343 cares little for what we have to say, unless it aligns with what they want.
There are multiple teams at 343 that work on these different projects. I do think that the studio needs to have the freedom to try something new, but I agree that removing the classic weapon designs is a mistake. As far as gameplay goes though i’m torn between the two camps of including advanced mechanics vs the classic halo feel. This is where communication would be nice from 343, I think if they shared why some design choices were made it would help the community be more open minded to those changes.
> 2674012278771805;5:
> I sort of agree and disagree at the same time. With the way this community is for instance, they take a massive risk if they would constantly show us stuff. This fanbase is opinionated and ruthless and if they see something they don’t like you’re in trouble as a developer. So showing too much for a long period would potentially harm development of Infinite.
>
> However. Now that the negative genie is out of the bottle anyway if would be wise to use the extra time to full effect. A few vidocs like Bungie did back in the days for instance would be wise. Sharing some more screenshots and ‘in depth’ stories in weekly updates wouldn’t hurt every now and then.
I disagree: 343 have an story of doing what they feel like without thinking in the current fanbase and doing what they like. Lets not forget that they only exits to continue the work of Bungie and bringing us, the fans, new games. If they have shown us the change in art style/music/sound/everything in Halo 4 they could have save the title. i loved that campaign but they change everything from one year to another, and that really didnt help. They keep doing their stuff until Infinite when they finally heard us and showed us that they are returning to the classic style, and only after Halo Wars 2 did it first.
They SHOULD share more stuff. The first news of Infinite was in like 3 years ago. Then nothing, and finally just an 8 minute gameplay that not enough. Im no saying that they should listen to EVERYONE and follow instructions, but they should show stuff, connect with the community and keep doing moving in the best direction possible. They should connect with us, we are gonna buy that game Infinite is for us.
> 2557401216976241;10:
> > 2533274902469708;8:
> > > 2557401216976241;1:
> > > 343 has shared virtually nothing on this game since its development began almost 5 years ago. We got a small taste last month and while it was a disappointing reveal for a lot of people, for me personally I was excited about the direction the game was heading. The art and gameplay looked spot on imo. The graphics and performance definitely needed work and I’m glad 343 made the difficult decision to delay the game. With that being said, I don’t think it is sustainable for 343 to continue to be silent on the development process and they need to layout the actions they are taking and not taking based on the community feedback if they want to keep any hype for this game to continue for potentially another year. They need to manage expectations and keep us in the loop, this game was obviously behind a veil for a reason and they need to be honest and open moving forward about the progress they’re making if we’re going to trust them to put out a quality product.
> >
> > I don’t believe that this game has been in dev for 5 years. Both Halo 5 and the MCC were not complete games on release and resources was pumped into these two titles in order to finish them. Based on the reveal that we saw, 343 has mainly developed this game during 2019 and 2020.
> > 343 has a record of not communicating with us and chasing trends.
> > Its good in theory to say they 343 need to be honest and communicate with us, but they will only communicate to a certain degree.
> > Halo Infinite Displayed Clamber, Slide, and Sprint. A large portion of the Halo community has been asking since 2012 for a return to classic gameplay. 343 has ignored this and gone with what ever they deem fit.
> > After Halo 5 rocket launcher design replacing the classic rocket launch and the black lash, common sense would dictate that redesigning classic weapons and adding generic weapons isn’t what the Halo community wants.
> > But look at the reveal and the generic weapons we were shown.
> > As a Halo fan its time to accept that 343 cares little for what we have to say, unless it aligns with what they want.
>
> There are multiple teams at 343 that work on these different projects. I do think that the studio needs to have the freedom to try something new, but I agree that removing the classic weapon designs is a mistake. As far as gameplay goes though i’m torn between the two camps of including advanced mechanics vs the classic halo feel. This is where communication would be nice from 343, I think if they shared why some design choices were made it would help the community be more open minded to those changes.
there’s nothing wrong with trying something new, don’t get me wrong.
But for almost 10 years, fans have been asking for a classic Halo game. 10 years is too long to just shrug something off and continue to take other features from other games and add them to Halo. that isn’t innovation. What would be nice to see is a spin-off taking Halo 3 gameplay, modernizing it and implementing features from Reach that worked well with the community. Like customization, Invasion, and commendations.
It’s a double edged sword; obviously, there’s an inherent problem with over building hype by putting out too much promotional material- Halo 4 was very guilty of this.
On the other hand, it is astounding that five years of development and silence from 343i results in such a shaky debut as what we’ve seen recently from Infinite. In this sense, they really haven’t “shown their work,”; what they’ve displayed in no way sums to what reasonable expectations of five years of non-stop development with Microsoft Money ought to resemble. This leaves many, myself included, scratching our heads as to why after such a rich and lengthy development window, we’re left with a studio that seems downright hesitant to show off the fruit of their labors.
There is a common refrain I’ve heard tossed up in defense of this obscenely long dev process: “New Engine! These take a long time to build and get right!”
I afford that an entirely new engine is literally an unprecedented issue for Halo development dating back to CE, but a five year development window that’s well structured and directed accounts for these types of issues. The end-all deadline for going gold should be the final one of many, many production hurdles. I can’t pontificate about when the engine should’ve been done since I’m not educated or experienced with things like this. That being said, people who are educated and experienced in these departments should’ve been able to outline (and roughly adhere to) a development structure that would allow for ample post-engine dev time with five years of foresight.
“But, Covid!” You say. Yes, that’s a factor, and not a negligible one. Still and yet, other developers who’ve been working on their games for shorter periods of time have been walayed by the same problem, and many of them are still meeting their deadlines for fall and holiday launches this year. Given that Infinite’s been in development vastly longer than many of these projects, I don’t see how Covid applies as an especially uniquely applicable excuse for 343i.
What I can’t help but see here is 343i playing end-of-semester cram after having spent five years and a lot of development budget, relatively lackadaisically. If there were regular, somewhat detailed development updates regarding the Slipspace Engine’s developments, including some indication of its intended scope, potential, etc as well as some truthful disclosures for challenges that the ambitions of the engine provided for the devs, that’d be one thing. That’d be showing their work, and it’d leave folks like me with no recourse to assume that the development has been directionless and driveless. As is? That’s what Occam’s Razor suggests to me has occurred. It just seems like so many other forces in the industry have accomplished a lot more with a lot fewer resources in smaller amounts of time.
Final judgment has to be reserved for the final product, but while I can appreciate that there are some guts involved in making a difficult call like this, I don’t see how the primary response from a community that has long been strung along by comforting vagueries about how Infinite is coming along so well and will be a truly special addition to the franchise ought to be praise for their bravery in delaying it in the eleventh hour. To me, the obvious reaction is, “What have you been doing for five years?”
Thats why I personally find the dev update announcing the delay so inadequate. It provides no substantive details or information about when to expect to hear more, or an updated game-plan of any kind. It basically says: “Yeah, so, the game’s not gonna be ready when we said it would be, sry, K, thx, ttyl.”
Hopefully we can expect to hear more details and info soon. From here till release, they no longer receive the benefit of the doubt from me that they’re using their time wisely in developing Infinite. More frequent and detailed communication is, I think, their only real way of proving that they’ve been working hard all of this time and truly had to delay the game despite a rigorous and expansive dev process to date.
Something akin to ViDoc level releases intermittently between now and release detailing their ongoing processes as well as recapping some of the hurdles in development to date would be greatly appreciated and would help reinstate some confidence in their competence.
> 2533274892705114;11:
> > 2674012278771805;5:
> > I sort of agree and disagree at the same time. With the way this community is for instance, they take a massive risk if they would constantly show us stuff. This fanbase is opinionated and ruthless and if they see something they don’t like you’re in trouble as a developer. So showing too much for a long period would potentially harm development of Infinite.
> >
> > However. Now that the negative genie is out of the bottle anyway if would be wise to use the extra time to full effect. A few vidocs like Bungie did back in the days for instance would be wise. Sharing some more screenshots and ‘in depth’ stories in weekly updates wouldn’t hurt every now and then.
>
> I disagree: 343 have an story of doing what they feel like without thinking in the current fanbase and doing what they like. Lets not forget that they only exits to continue the work of Bungie and bringing us, the fans, new games. If they have shown us the change in art style/music/sound/everything in Halo 4 they could have save the title.
Disclaimer: I do agree with your second part of the post which I deleted in this quote to keep things short 
But the bold text is exactly why I disagree with a part of this community. No hard feeling but hear me out. Saying this implies we as fans know game design just as well as a developer. As if our input would always equal a good game because it might result in exactly what we want. The thing is: exactly what we want is what we play now or the game before it…which kills creativity and results in a CoD or Fifa where every new game is just a midly tweaked iteration of the former. And secondly: consuming a form of entertainment doesn’t make you a good creator of it. Just because you know good food doesn’t mean you’re a good chef. Just because you are an art critic doesn’t mean you’re an artist. Same for movies, books and other media including games.
Not saying what we think should be ignored. We’re the consumer after all and if you want to make money you take your consumer in consideration. But it does mean our way of looking at a game isn’t what makes game development work. At the same time that doesn’t mean a developer is always right. Mind you. There are plenty of examples of that including Halo games. But our input isn’t a magical touch that makes a game good.
I don’t know, just my two cents.
> 2674012278771805;5:
> I sort of agree and disagree at the same time. With the way this community is for instance, they take a massive risk if they would constantly show us stuff. This fanbase is opinionated and ruthless and if they see something they don’t like you’re in trouble as a developer. So showing too much for a long period would potentially harm development of Infinite.
>
> However. Now that the negative genie is out of the bottle anyway if would be wise to use the extra time to full effect. A few vidocs like Bungie did back in the days for instance would be wise. Sharing some more screenshots and ‘in depth’ stories in weekly updates wouldn’t hurt every now and then.
Bungie constantly drip fed information about Halo 3 and Reach for a year or two prior to release with Vidocs being the highlights announcing major features and improvements. I have been getting an Anthem vibe from 343i as if they are embarrassed about what they are making, instead of Bungie who were critical of themselves, but also excited about how the public receives some of their new features and improvements.
Halo 4 had plenty of trailers and promotional content showing the art and armor, heck most the backlash about the armor (including the nanobot explanation) happened before the game came out.
> 2533274819683252;15:
> > 2674012278771805;5:
> > I sort of agree and disagree at the same time. With the way this community is for instance, they take a massive risk if they would constantly show us stuff. This fanbase is opinionated and ruthless and if they see something they don’t like you’re in trouble as a developer. So showing too much for a long period would potentially harm development of Infinite.
> >
> > However. Now that the negative genie is out of the bottle anyway if would be wise to use the extra time to full effect. A few vidocs like Bungie did back in the days for instance would be wise. Sharing some more screenshots and ‘in depth’ stories in weekly updates wouldn’t hurt every now and then.
>
> Bungie constantly drip fed information about Halo 3 and Reach for a year or two prior to release with Vidocs being the highlights announcing major features and improvements. I have been getting an Anthem vibe from 343i as if they are embarrassed about what they are making, instead of Bungie who were critical of themselves, but also excited about how the public receives some of their new features and improvements.
The down side to that was we also saw things that didn’t make it into the game. Like the truly brutal behavior of the Brutes in the Et Tu Brutes vidoc. Never made it to H3 unfortunately.
But I feel that is the way to go for 343i now. Drip fees info. Be selective in what you show. Just be more open to us without showing too much.
> 2533274861158694;13:
> Something akin to ViDoc level releases intermittently between now and release detailing their ongoing processes as well as recapping some of the hurdles in development to date would be greatly appreciated and would help reinstate some confidence in their competence.
First of all, it is always a delight to read your writing. Though I’m one of the folks in the camp of being at first crushingly disappointed and then cautiously approving of the delay, you make a lot of great points about how the potential disadvantages of being silent during development are activated by a delay announcement: as you said, “What were you doing during those five years?” The ViDoc release solution is a great one: it allows (a) 343i to select which slices of transparency they allow to be published and therefore control what is seen of their kitchen, and (b) simply puts faces on video talking to the community and thereby humanizes 343i. No matter the tech, reason (b) remains a powerful way to both restore trust and generate cushion for future negative announcements: at a basic level, people connect more strongly with faces.
<mark>This post has been edited by a moderator. Please refrain from making non-constructive posts.</mark>
*Original post. Click at your own discretion.
They just need to realize that they can’t deliver a halo game. If infinite fails then they as a studio should cut their loses and more on and let Microsoft find devs that can deliver on the challenge. I’m sure they can’t be thrilled with how halo has been handled since being turned over to them. I’m not trying to be rude but its an honest observation. Sometimes losing can lead us to a win later on.
> 2533274861158694;13:
>
Majorly agree. With all this trouble, I think it’s quite likely Infinite suffered similar problems as Halo 5, with a constantly changing vision and a lot of scrapped/reworked material that changes with every deadline. I guess the (deserved) backlash to the demo reminded 343i that they can’t afford another messy launch. I hope this means they’ll backtrack the cancellation of a proper open beta test, since IMO that and a delay to late 2021 could be the only way to salvage this title (if the situation is as bad as it appears).
Hopefully, 343i starts communicating more and showing signs that the development hasn’t been as troublesome as it appears at the moment. I agree that ViDocs and BTS clips can definitely help, as would showcasing the Multiplayer (and only the Multiplayer) since that feature should be more or less complete by now.