I’ve been a Halo fan since Combat Evolved released on the original Xbox and I’m looking forward to Halo: Guardians. What I’m not looking forward to is multiplayer DLC fracturing the fanbase or simply disappearing off the playlists all together.
343, the way you’ve handled DLC since taking the reins from Bungie has been, for lack of a better word, criminal. You’ve basically ripped people off by continually removing DLC map-packs from matchmaking. Whatever your reasons are, whatever they could be, they simply can’t justify charging for content and then removing that content from the core matchmaking experience.
So I have an idea.
You normally release 3 map-packs after releasing the game. Since you charge for these, not everyone buys them, which splinters the overall player base and leads to other problems; like repetitive map choices in standard team deathmatch… think Haven and Halo 4.
It would be nice if every map released as DLC routinely appeared in matchmaking, as the multiplayer is truly the reason people come back to Halo, the reason Halo has established itself as one of consoles hallmark franchises, and the one area of the game that shouldn’t be a affected by dishonorable sales tactics. Which you’ve certainly done.
So instead of charging for those 3 DLC map-packs, how about releasing them for free and break up the single player instead. Release and charge for that in the same way you would have with the MP.
Most Halo fans already expect to pay more for the game than it’s initial release price and I would be fine with switching the added cost to the single player component of the game instead of the MP end.
You want them to release single player chunks and then want them to charge us for them? Not a good idea. I mean maybe you could add in extra single player levels as DLC. Something that takes place in another part of the universe during the events of Halo 5. Maybe. But otherwise. No.
The multiplayer solution is alright. What might happen is that they’ll charge for the DLC packs and then later down the road make them available to everyone for free.
What they would end up doing is charging us for both lol. I have another thread on here somewhere suggesting they just raise the price point of the game and make the doc mandatory. What that would do is lower the cost of the DLCs for those that would have bought it anyway and force everyone to have the same map availability.
They should just go the halo 3 route and force people to buy the dlc in order to play most playlists. Obviously this wouldn’t happen right away.
Bungie is taking a lot of heat right now for the way they’re charging for expansion and making it mandatory for progression. And 343 tested making DLC mandatory for the holy grail of playlists: team slayer. The population dropped to virtually nothing for the duration of the test, and never fully recovered. This is just a no-win scenario as long as developers continue to think of MP map packs as a profit center. They need to make these maps and they need to give them away for free. Not to sound like a wise–Yoink-, but I can forge a multiplayer-worthy map in two days. Singlehandedly. There’s is no conceivable way that any developer needs the revenues of a map pack to cover it’s development costs. If they’re really hard over for extra cash, then charge more for the game up front. Just make this problem go away.
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> Bungie is taking a lot of heat right now for the way they’re charging for expansion and making it mandatory for progression. And 343 tested making DLC mandatory for the holy grail of playlists: team slayer. The population dropped to virtually nothing for the duration of the test, and never fully recovered. This is just a no-win scenario as long as developers continue to think of MP map packs as a profit center. They need to make these maps and they need to give them away for free. Not to sound like a wise–Yoink-, but I can forge a multiplayer-worthy map in two days. Singlehandedly. There’s is no conceivable way that any developer needs the revenues of a map pack to cover it’s development costs. If they’re really hard over for extra cash, then charge more for the game up front. Just make this problem go away.
I think the revenue from map packs helps fund side projects like ODST, which I loved.
No freaking way. I occasionally buy a map pack or two, but as a lore nut, making campaign episodic would be awful. I’d have to buy it all. Which wouldn’t be fun.
Or just make the map packs free, since there isn’t even enough content for the price. If they want to make money off DLC, add something worthwhile, like some story stuff or maybe an ODST-esque mini-Campaign for like $20.
seriously people just have maps cost $15 or maybe less for “Early Access” make this known that its only for early access, then do a full release for free a month for couple weeks down the road
Hardcore dedicated fans will pay for early access and a playlist for early access maps.
All other will get the maps for free down the road with full playlist support with new maps
No sell everything altogether… Not seperate that’s bad for any game
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> > You want them to release single player chunks and then want them to charge us for them? Not a good idea. I mean maybe you could add in extra single player levels as DLC. Something that takes place in another part of the universe during the events of Halo 5. Maybe. But otherwise. No.
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> > The multiplayer solution is alright. What might happen is that they’ll charge for the DLC packs and then later down the road make them available to everyone for free.
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> If the multiplayer solution is alright, than I’d be playing the maps I paid for in both Reach and Halo 4 through matchmaking. But I’m not, nor is anyone else. I mean c’mon dude, what do you mean it’s ‘alright’… ?
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> > 2533274873486404;2:
> > > 2533274873486404;2:
> > > You want them to release single player chunks and then want them to charge us for them? Not a good idea. I mean maybe you could add in extra single player levels as DLC. Something that takes place in another part of the universe during the events of Halo 5. Maybe. But otherwise. No.
> > >
> > > The multiplayer solution is alright. What might happen is that they’ll charge for the DLC packs and then later down the road make them available to everyone for free.
> >
> >
> >
> > If the multiplayer solution is alright, than I’d be playing the maps I paid for in both Reach and Halo 4 through matchmaking. But I’m not, nor is anyone else. I mean c’mon dude, what do you mean it’s ‘alright’… ?
I mean it’s alright if they release the map packs to everyone for free. Those maps would then be added to the regular playlists.
I like the idea of having campaign expansions, but they should be a separate story, not cut from the main story.
If it meant we could get free maps, I wouldn’t be against selling cosmetic items such as armour as small dlc purchases.
If they do keep selling multiplayer maps, they should stop selling map packs, and instead just sell the season pass. I think map packs either split the community too much or get ignored in matchmaking, so the season pass idea reduces the effect of splitting the community. It will still cause problems, but nowhere near as much as selling individual map packs. This would also allow them to release content more regularly if they are not required to use map packs. They could release a new map each month for example, with weekly new cosmetic items (armour, poses, emblems, etc) and objects and maps for forge. This means that people are more regularly given a reason to return to the game.
A very aggressive approach that will be unpopular would be to include forge only as part of the season pass, if this is done forge maps will need to be added to matchmaking (see the next paragraph).
Another idea would be to have three playlists dedicated to forge maps and custom game modes. There will be a like, dislike vote at the end of each match, and the maps will be sorted into categories based on how many people have liked them (bronze is new maps (and bad ones), silver is for good maps, gold is for very good maps and game modes, and the best maps are added to the official playlists), but people only have access to these playlists if they have the latest map pack. Many people have been asking for a long time for forge to be added to matchmaking, and I think a lot of them, including myself, would be willing to buy the map packs to continue to use this feature.
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> I wouldn’t be against selling cosmetic items such as armour as small dlc purchases.
NO. I want to UNLOCK my armor, not buy it.
I think any DLC map packs should be free. I hate trying to play any multiplayer game with my friends and being limited to certain maps because either my friends or I don’t have the most recent maps due to finances. And Hell to the no they shouldn’t break up the campaign to sell as DLC! If they want to craft campaign add-ons( like Shimmering Isles for Oblivion or Raam’s Shadow for Gears of War 3) and charge for them then sure. But to take campaign content already made for and integral to Halo 5s story and chop it up to increase revenue would be the absolute worst thing 343i could do.
I’m not against them making money, but to make money the “Activision” way is wrong. Now, if they want to create Armor, Emblems, Stances, etc post release of Halo 5 and then charge a fair and reasonable amount for said DLC then that’s fine. But they must ABSOLUTELY NOT remove things from the actual game to sell back to the consumers, whether it be mp maps, campaign, or cosmetics