I honestly believe 343 have tried to continue the halo franchise as best they can and i can understand it was big shoes for them to fill as the original bungie halo games were so popular and made xbox what it is today!
However i think 343 are not right for this job and they simply cant stick to bungies formula and everytime they try something new and apply there own ideas it results in backlash!
I really believe the halo franchise needs to be removed from 343 and passed onto a different developement company one that has plenty of experience and realises bungies vision of halo was fine to work from! theres no need to try change so much just add to the formula that was left by bungie and already worked!
343 have messed the story up so much over the course of halo 4, 5 and infinite they had so many options they could have taken the stories in but instead kept them mediocre and full of plotholes while also introducing new characters and then dropping most them off before we even get to know them! Il never forgive them for the mess of Cortana’s story and the fact they killed off that character…twice cause the writing was so bad!
They care more about marketing! The games feel like there not the main objective for the company anymore but instead there busy leaving massive parts of the story missing in the games and you need to read several of there books to know exactly whats going on! There spending time having toys made, t.v shows etc the games are no longer there only focus!
Multiplayer… where to start is it even worth repeating what most of the topics on this forum are about?! Xp progression, ridiculous challenge system, content not being unlocked through playing but only by paying! Store prices, lack of content, lack of patches, lack of communication and planning etc
I have never seen a forum full of halo fans so devided and disappointed!
Its time to create your own games and hang up the spartan armour you tried but your vision is to different to that of the fans and the original halo games
I have said it before.
Give Halo to the guys who know how to do it RIGHT.
Microsoft should buyout the following studios, since they already use their services on a daily baisis as third-party development staff -
Saber Interactive
Certain Affinity
Skybox Labs
Blur Studios
Liquid Development
They should combine these studios into one that works together at making Halo great again.
SI staff focuses on the Campaign.
CA staff focuses on Multiplayer.
SL staff focus on Forge.
BS staff focus on cutscenes and art direction.
LD staff focus on cosmetics and modeling.
Well it’s a Microsoft built studio designed specifically for Halo. I think the higher ups will inevitably be moved on, no matter what way you spin it, this game is not doing well. It likely will never recover it’s player base.
Honestly I would scapegoat them, hand it to another studio because they’re buying them up all over, market it as under new development and disband 343, distribute their staff to other studio’s. Probably won’t happen but still.
The issue for me is they’ve had Halo a long time, there’s no excuse of a learning curve and still understanding Halo as a franchise, it’s been long enough. They’ve had 10 years of making mistakes and clearly haven’t learned anything.
Think about it like this. Looking at H4, H5 and now this, would you really pump anymore money into that studio at this point? Would you trust them with another 9 figure sum to bring in a profit?
It’s a studio that was handed a gold mine, a thriving franchise with a massive player base for it’s time, any studio’s dream and they absolutely tanked it from the start up until now.
Anyone that thinks this will make a comeback are deluded or don’t understand how the industry works. Look at Cyberpunk for example, they fixed it up and that game til this day is still being used as an example of an unfinished product. The name of 343 doesn’t do the game any favours. It’s a studio that will likely go down as one of the worst in modern gaming.
I do think they can do it, but they always want to put their stamp on it. Halo 4, change the artstyle, Halo 5, new main character. Halo Infinite has gone back on a lot of what makes the core of Halo, Halo. So they are getting there. If it wasn’t released in a buggy mess with a terrible shop, I think most people would be happy with what they did with Infinite and the direction they’re moving in.
343i is the studio dedicated to Halo. The internal teams rotate constantly. We need to change the project managers for Halo to take another direction.
Focus on the essence of the Halo universe, not legos or shop. F2p multiplayer, worst idea in the world for players, excellent idea to make money, understood!