343 worried H4 won't meet sales expectations?

Games Other Halo
1

Is 343 worried Halo 4 won’t meet sales expectations ?

I will explain why I think 343 might be worried Halo 4 won’t meet sales expectations . .

  1. No Legendary Edition (Not having a Legendary Edition is one way to cut down on
    costs)

  2. No Halo 4 Xbox 360 Bundle (Another way to cut down on costs)

(Hopefully 343 will announce a Halo 4 Xbox 360 Bundle sometime this month).

  1. Sadly Halo has been overshadowed by Call of Duty . .

A lot more people are playing Call of Duty over Halo everyday
(COD has about 300,000 everyday vs Halo with about 150,000 everyday)*

  1. Halo 4 and CODBO2 both are being released in the same month and just a week apart =(

(A lot of people might just get one or the other, sadly most of the people that will
only get one or the other will get CODBO2, because COD is a more popular
franchise)**

  1. This coming year I think will be the last year for the Xbox 360.

e3 2013 will be I think the year that Microsoft puts to rest the Xbox 360, and starts
teasing the next Xbox.

(343 most likely would know about such plans, and 343 might not want to pour to much
into Halo 4 because of such plans)

  1. From what is known about who is making the Forge for Halo 4 . . I think 343 might have
    a outside studio make the map-packs for Halo 4, so 343 can focus on making Halo 5
    after Halo 4 launches.

  2. Halo 4 might not have 2 years of new content that is made by 343, because of reason

  3. (Map-packs/any other type of content that Halo 4 might support, most likely will
    be made by a outside studio)***

I think all of these reasons point to a possibility that 343 is worried that Halo 4 might not meet sales expectations.

I am a very big Halo fan, I’ve been playing Halo since Halo CE on the Xbox, I have spent thousands of dollars on all things Halo. (I stated this because I don’t want people to think that I’m bashing Halo or 343, because I’m not)

I think that Halo 4 will see around 1,000,000 players online when it launches, sadly though on November 13 I think that number might go down by half or more =(

*(Numbers are based on what I have seen when I go into Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 and Halo Reach, these numbers of course are much higher for both franchises, when all titles for each franchise are combined)

**(A lot of people may not be able to afford both games, so they may buy the game that is more popular, there of course will be people who will buy both games.)

***(This doesn’t include Spartan OP’s because from what is known about Spartan OP’s, 343 is going to be making/supporting this part of Halo 4)

2

Wow, well that is one heck of a theory you have there. but maybe I can try and clear some of these points up:

> 2. No Halo 4 Xbox 360 Bundle (Another way to cut down on costs)

Well a next gen console should be coming out in 1-3 years so I don’t see the point of getting the consumers to make a large purchase now.

> 3. Sadly Halo has been overshadowed by Call of Duty . .

The Pre-order numbers for Halo 4 and COD would like to disagree that history will repeat itself.

> 5. This coming year I think will be the last year for the Xbox 360.
>
> e3 2013 will be I think the year that Microsoft puts to rest the Xbox 360, and starts
> teasing the next Xbox.
>
> <mark>(343 most likely would know about such plans, and 343 might not want to pour to much</mark>
> <mark>into Halo 4 because of such plans)</mark>

This is clearly false because 343i needs to impress the consumers. If they don’t deliver a hit game then Halo 5 will fail.

> 6. From what is known about who is making the Forge for Halo 4 . . I think 343 might have
> a outside studio make the map-packs for Halo 4, so 343 can focus on making Halo 5
> after Halo 4 launches.

This is frequently the case. Map packs are starting more often to be created by Certain Affinity.

> 7. Halo 4 might not have 2 years of new content that is made by 343, because of reason
> 6. (Map-packs/any other type of content that Halo 4 might support, most likely will
> be made by a outside studio)***

If it has Halo on it then it needs to be good quality because it represents the franchise. Spartan Ops is one way to make the game last longer. Season 1 of Spartan Ops will have around 12 hours worth of content.

Finally, Microsoft NEEDS Halo 4 to do well. Without Halo the Xbox would have never because the hit console it is today. This is why they have put together a very talented team consisting of over 250 developers who die-hard Halo fans. Halo 4 is not going to fail.

3

Halo 4 already has more pre-orders than Black Ops 2 last time I checked. Call of Duty looks like it may be suffering from fatigue from it’s yearly nature. Halo 4…come on, it’s the return of the Chief.

4

Just so you know, 343i has no reasons to cut down on costs; they are supported (more like owned) by one of the richest companies in the world: Microsoft.

They are also spending extra amounts of money to film Forward Unto Dawn and have that released to the public for Halo fans to see.

I don’t think that 343i is the slightest bit concerned about not meeting sales expectations.

5

i have one question have you looked at anything halo 4 related they have put in so much time and effort s they can try and fill the shoes that bungie has left them. they have a decade of halo that they have to top on there first try. if they where to throw away halo 4 the next halo would be nothing they would make half as much money. also with more people playing mw3 then halo its because mw3 is newer. everyone likes the newer game sure there are those die hard halo for cod fans but then there are the rest of us that just want to have fun. so we play both. also with halo it has a whole universe to work with cod is starting to run out of wars and get repetitive i and many others think.

6

1 more money to put into the game
2 new xbox coming
3 cods easier to play
4 so what halo will be better if im correct cod lost there 3 top devs not to mention its getting old thats why blops 2 is in the future and i may be wrong here but i heard somewhere theyve been using the same engine since mw or mw2 so basicly cod fans have been getting dlc rather then new games
5 correct pretty sure this has been confirmed
6 how is this bad
7 dlc will still be good

7

Both MW3 and BO2 don’t have their “legendary” edition either, that point doesn’t mean anything other than no one other than a few hardcore fans actually buy it.

8

I think those reasons are pretty bad .

9

and the faster this game gets finished all dlc included the better cus although im sure h4 will be nothing but amazing this is technicaly 343’s first game there all still new to working with each other getting there process for game deving etc so i cant wait for h5 or whatever there next game is its going to be over the top better then anything we could dream of

10

Actualy, theres less people playing reach and around 150.000 only, that lot, countring more players who play Halo 3 and wars thats a double. people aren’t playing halo cause of reach, they went to Cod for a while but the mayority don’t like them that much. And am sure they will get Halo rather than COD, cause last 2 year Reach i supposed failed, what maked fans sell their copies, but this year Halo 4 its different, we’re talking about MASTER CHIEF.

11

What needs to be understood here is that (AAA or not) 343 is a game studio like any other. They have a lot more going on because of the sheer scale of the franchise they are working on but none the less. Now, game studios are given varying budgets by their publishers depending on what these publishers assume they will make back. Halo is owned by MS, a company that isn’t exactly strapped for cash. So, like with any business, they make the most of their money. They need it to stand out, so they provide 343 with a BOATLOAD of a budget because they know the game is going to sell insanely. At the same time, their are departments that deal with every last detail of this kind of stuff to ensure they are getting as much as possible, for as little as possible. It’s not 343 that stands to lose the most money here, it’s the company in charge of the budget. This is all pointless anyway because one look at the pre order sales already shows that they are likely going to far exceed said budget. As far as surpassing or meeting expectations, who knows? For all we know, MS thinks they are going to make 78 billion dollars. In which case, no. They are not going to meet the expectations.

Trust me, the very last thing on anyones mind over at 343 or MS is that they are going to break even. This is Halo we are talking about.

12

1 and 2 can be explained by the fact that the economy is quite different now than it was in 2007 when halo three dropped, as evidenced by the fact that you can still find limited and even legendary editions of reach on store shelves. Just the other day I counted 8 limited and 3 legendary at wal mart

13

I completely disagree with OP, even though he is obviously an economics professor.

14

What?

Just a week and a half ago you were SO SURE that Microsoft was going to reveal the new Xbox at E3 2014 since the 360 is doing SO WELL.

I really think you’re grasping for straws here. Just because 343 is subcontracting the map packs to CA doesn’t mean that they’re worried about failure or anything of the sort. It just means they want to spread the workload. Besides, it’s not like they call Certain Affinity and say, “Hey, make me 3 super awesome looking maps for this Halo 4 game we’re working on, will you?” No. There’s design teams, meetings, etc. Collaborations aren’t new nor are they a harbinger of doom for 343i.

15

> 5. This coming year I think will be the last year for the Xbox 360.
>
> e3 2013 will be I think the year that Microsoft puts to rest the Xbox 360, and starts
> teasing the next Xbox.
>
> (343 most likely would know about such plans, and 343 might not want to pour to much
> into Halo 4 because of such plans)

Wrong. Next year the Xbox Handheld is being released, not a new console.

16

> > 5. This coming year I think will be the last year for the Xbox 360.
> >
> > e3 2013 will be I think the year that Microsoft puts to rest the Xbox 360, and starts
> > teasing the next Xbox.
> >
> > (343 most likely would know about such plans, and 343 might not want to pour to much
> > into Halo 4 because of such plans)
>
> Wrong. Next year the Xbox Handheld is being released, not a new console.

Oooo. Where’d you see this at?

17

> > > 5. This coming year I think will be the last year for the Xbox 360.
> > >
> > > e3 2013 will be I think the year that Microsoft puts to rest the Xbox 360, and starts
> > > teasing the next Xbox.
> > >
> > > (343 most likely would know about such plans, and 343 might not want to pour to much
> > > into Halo 4 because of such plans)
> >
> > Wrong. Next year the Xbox Handheld is being released, not a new console.
>
> Oooo. Where’d you see this at?

OP posted the source the other day, you’ll have to ask him.

18

> Is 343 worried Halo 4 won’t meet sales expectations ?
>
> I will explain why I think 343 might be worried Halo 4 won’t meet sales expectations . .
> 1. No Legendary Edition (Not having a Legendary Edition is one way to cut down on
> costs)

Guess what? There was no Prestige version for Modern Warfare 3 either, and last time I checked, they didn’t have low expectations. Game companies finally figured out that cranking out a bunch of $150 Collector Edition products isn’t a good idea because they end up collecting dust on shelves. I know I saw like 8 or so of the Halo: Reach Legendary editions sitting around for like $80 each as Best Buy a few months ago.

> 2. No Halo 4 Xbox 360 Bundle (Another way to cut down on costs)
>
> (Hopefully 343 will announce a Halo 4 Xbox 360 Bundle sometime this month).

Probably just not announced yet. Doesn’t matter anyway.

> 3. Sadly Halo has been overshadowed by Call of Duty . .
>
> A lot more people are playing Call of Duty over Halo everyday
> (COD has about 300,000 everyday vs Halo with about 150,000 everyday)*

Yeah, Call of Duty is the bigger franchise right now, but that doesn’t mean those same people won’t buy Halo, too. In fact, if 343/MS was worried, the game wouldn’t be launching right alongside Call of Duty and instead it’d launch in September or January or something.

> 4. Halo 4 and CODBO2 both are being released in the same month and just a week apart =(
>
> (A lot of people might just get one or the other, sadly most of the people that will
> only get one or the other will get CODBO2, because COD is a more popular
> franchise)**

See above.

> 5. This coming year I think will be the last year for the Xbox 360.
>
> e3 2013 will be I think the year that Microsoft puts to rest the Xbox 360, and starts
> teasing the next Xbox.
>
> (343 most likely would know about such plans, and 343 might not want to pour to much
> into Halo 4 because of such plans)

Yeah, they’ll announce the new Xbox next E3…and it probably won’t be out until late 2014 anyway. And even if it is, remember the transition from the Xbox to the Xbox 360? Halo 2 was still the most popular game until Gears of War came out. People still played the hell out of it, and it still kept a bunch of people playing Xbox Live.

> 6. From what is known about who is making the Forge for Halo 4 . . I think 343 might have
> a outside studio make the map-packs for Halo 4, so 343 can focus on making Halo 5
> after Halo 4 launches.
>
> 7. Halo 4 might not have 2 years of new content that is made by 343, because of reason
> 6. (Map-packs/any other type of content that Halo 4 might support, most likely will
> be made by a outside studio)***

I’d rather that 343 make this stuff, but having outside studios work on DLC/game components is increasingly common. Look how many companies slapped MW3 together.

> I think all of these reasons point to a possibility that 343 is worried that Halo 4 might not meet sales expectations.

Well, none of those reasons are any good in my opinion.

19

> What?
>
> Just a week and a half ago you were SO SURE that Microsoft was going to reveal the new Xbox at E3 2014 since the 360 is doing SO WELL.
>
>
> I really think you’re grasping for straws here. Just because 343 is subcontracting the map packs to CA doesn’t mean that they’re worried about failure or anything of the sort. It just means they want to spread the workload. Besides, it’s not like they call Certain Affinity and say, “Hey, make me 3 super awesome looking maps for this Halo 4 game we’re working on, will you?” No. There’s design teams, meetings, etc. Collaborations aren’t new nor are they a harbinger of doom for 343i.

When I posted this thread I saw it fall into the depths of the forums . . I’m surprised with the amount of reply’s this thread has gotten.

snickerdoodle I was talking about a possible Xbox Portable being at e3 2013 a week or so ago.

And I know that a lot of big franchises are getting licensed to outside studios to make content or whole games.

But with Halo 4 it just seems like 343 might go into actual development of Halo 5 after they get back from the post launch vacation, and just have 20 or so people on the Halo 4 side.

20

Let me tell you why they will hit their expectations:

  1. It’s Halo, simple as that
  2. People are excited and interested by a new developer.
  3. People are excited with the Chief being back after a five year vacation.
  4. It looks good as hell and probably will be good as hell.