Well, their logic was that they wanted to make Halo “evolve” into something that would satisfy a broader audience and that by bringing in new people that had almost no context on the series; it meant that there would be new ideas that would be unrestrained.
And that is entirely the problem.
They erased all of the boundaries at once and then pushed beyond them.
Boundaries exist for a reason.
Because plenty of lines were crossed by more than a mile; fans were frustrated.
Halo 4 was supposed to be a sequel to Halo 3. But it is a sequel in script only.
When it comes to gameplay, sound, and appearance; Halo 4 comes off as being a VERY heavily modded version of Halo Reach when it came to gameplay and as a generic-sci-fi experience when it came to the visuals and soundtrack.
The result was around 10 Million copies sold worldwide to Retailers.
And probably around 7 Million refunds made to said retailers when players were upset.
The player population peaked at around 420,000 players online on DAY TWO of going live.
By day 365 of being live, Halo 4 only had about 9,000 players online, with the day before being around 20,000 online. that was the range of players online for the final six months of the first year of Halo 4.
Because of this sharp drop in dedicated players, 343 had to scrap the final 2/3 of DLC Content.
36 Multiplayer Maps were cancelled, a couple of which repurposed for Halo 2 Anniversary.
It is unknown how many Spartan DLC Armors went unused. But Mark IV was confirmed then later came to Halo 5. Hayabusa was already fully modeled but never implemented in Halo 5 or Halo Online.
And then Season 1 and Season 2 of Spartan-Ops was then converted into comic book form, taking up around 70% of the content in the 24 issues of Halo Escalation.
Halo 5 Gorbians saw 343 make only the bare minimum of adjustments to ensure that the players would be satisfied. But there was still too many changes and alterations to the visuals and sound. Gameplay had balanced starts again but now Spartans moved around with thrusters as if it was another game entirely.
And the story TANKED this time around.
The saving graces of Halo 5 Gorbians was Forge being so well put together this time around, the multiplayer combat statistics being more finely tuned, War Zone being something that drew people in, and REQ Packs that ensured a constant income of money.
343 Industries doesn’t listen to their fans.
They do love plugging their ears and hear only muffled voices when it comes to feedback, hence why it has taken so long to make the necessary alterations to restore the franchise closer to the status quo it never should have left.
The whole thing was ludicrous because Halo 3 and Halo Reach WERE SUCCESSFUL TITLES because that is what the players wanted.
All the changes to the franchise were to “obtain a broader audience” to sell to.
And by doing so, they angered the actual franchise fanbase.
A fanbase that ensured that Halo 3 peaked at 1,808,888 players online in a single day.
A fanbase that kept Halo 3 playing at more than 300,000 players up to three years later, only dropping below 200,000 players online AFTER the launch of Halo Reach.
And then Reach showcased a peak population of around 900,000 players within the first year, with a year later the average weekend showed a player base of 500,000 online and on the weekdays the lowest online was just slightly above 300,000.
If it isn’t broken, DON’T BREAK IT just so you can “show off your skills” at fixing it.
And then when you haphazardly fix it, don’t act like you did us a favor.
You broke a cultural family heirloom and then put it back together with unnecessary alterations you called “improvements”.
Honestly it comes off like a slap-stick comedy skit done by the three stooges
“You broke it.”
“I’ll fix it.”
“Ey whats the matta wit you? Whats this?”
“An antenna!”
“Why does a stove need an antenna?”
“So you can listen to the radio while you cook of course!”
“You idiot. And what’s this?”
“Wheels so you can cook on-the-go.”
“Oi vey why did you nail them on?”
“They are improvements!”
“They ain’t improvements if they are all counter-productive you buffoon!”
That would’ve actually caused more problems, if you could believe it.
343 promised that players would be able to unlock all cosmetics without microtransactions.
But then Halo Infinite got delayed over and over again due to staffing issues and Covid-19 slowing production, even halting it.
The following is a screenshot of Halo during development circa 2019. A lot of fans wanted this game released in 2020.
- https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQGzaU6WQAYAe0t.jpg
Clearly it was not going to be ready in time, thanks to quarantine delays.
And thus, the corporate investors were a bit miffed.
They invested money in Halo Infinite, a contract was made where the gist of it read -
- “By signing this contract, you ensure that - INSERT CORP0RATE INVESTOR’S NAME HERE - has invested X amount of monies into your product. By Y date the game is expected to be released. By Y-a Date, you acknowledge that Halo Infinite would have received enough money to repay the Investor X+20% amount of monies. If you do not make this payment by Y-a date, then for every Z amount of days afterwards, another 5% of X monies will be expected to be added to the grand total.”
Basically, because of the delays that Halo Infinite had; we not only had less production, but more money was needed to pay off the Legal Loan Sharks (Corporate Investors).
So now instead of making a 20% profit off of however much money these Investors put into Halo Infinite’s budget; they were now likely asking for a 60% increase due to all of the delays.
So if X amount of monies was $100,000, then instead of owing $120,000 to some guy who made an investment, they now owed $160,000 to that one person.
And that is just ONE investor.
Who knows how many backers 343 had for Halo Infinite. Most of the Budget does come from Microsoft, but plenty of it comes from elsewhere.
Halo Infinite HAD to release at the time it did to ensure that no other shooters could rival it’s downloads and sales.
Halo Infinite HAD to release at the time it did to ensure that they didn’t have to owe those investors ANY MORE MONEY already.
Thus, they broke their promise.
And now 50% of the cosmetic content is only obtainable in the shops.
We were frustrated with the harsh price of $20 bundles.
Prices were dropping as they made their income and paid off the necessary dues before a final due-date that would make 343 see class-action lawsuits due to failure to adhere to contract.
And then we saw the Gas Prices rise and now the bundles rose in price again because when Gas goes up, EVERYTHING goes up.