Don't celebrate just yet Halo esports

Games Halo Infinite
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#1

Before you run to social media and shout from the mountain tops about how halo is king again , let’s do some numbers.

272 teams X $300 = 81,600
5 Sponsors at best 20k Dollars each = 100k
10 Vendors at $500 = 5k
Total = 186,600 Dollars

That should have been the budget for the event now let’s get to some expenses

Total Cash Payout = 350k + 5k FFA
Streamers ( drops ) 20k each , 4 total = 80k
Staff / Production 100 employees at $20 an hour , let’s say 30 hour event 100x20x30 = 60k
Venue - 20k for the weekend
Equipment - Monitors , Xbox’s , PCs , Cameras , EXT - lets go low 20k

Expenses 535,000 Dollars
Revenue 186,600
Negative -348,400 Dollars

I manage major events for the FGC so I know a little bit about hosting giant events. Astro and Monitor Vendors will typically lend their equipment for marketing their product. They will usually not add to the prize pot but even if they did , we are still not cash flow positive. I doubt all the talent made $20 an hour only either , so lets offset those cost.

I understand Halo put up some giant numbers , but similar to MLG back in the day , they are burning through cash , bigger prize pots does not mean higher registration numbers, or interest in your game. PUBG paid out $4,340,000 USD, over the weekend and had a fraction of Halo’s viewership. Halo has a casual audience problem , their user base is dropping fast.

Microsoft didn’t become a billion dollar company operating in the negative , this is a warning , and why I don’t like publisher money right away, the game has not proven itself to bring in enough cash just yet. Fortnite paid out 3 million after they made 3 billion , Pubg paid out 4 Million after making 1 billion , first you make a game that casuals will enjoy and this will fund your ESPORTS. Halo is doing it backwards.

2 Likes
#2

Halo is getting a ton of viewers for the first major tournament for this game. I think they have enough momentum to recover initial expenses. They are going to have to focus on keeping the game fresh and exciting with new competitive maps.

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#3

You do realize that using your same logic, that Halo Esports was always massively negative (cash flow wise)?

Your overall point that the game needs to be better for casual players is very valid, but I think that your criticisms basically throw shade at competitive Halo going all the way back to CE.

Your criticisms would’ve been far more appropriate for Halo 4/5 in my opinion. The first event wasn’t even that great (especially day 1) and it crap loads of viewers. Even if you look at rebroadcasts it still paints a picture that the overall interest for Halo Infinite Esports wise is massive.

And weapons, and the current gametypes are also weak I might add (looking at you Bazaar CTF :roll_eyes: )

1 Like
#4

Also there is a huge hole in this calculation, it does not take into account intangibles or possible ad revenue. Using your same logic, Man’s mission to the Moon was also a huge failure :roll_eyes:

It doesn’t properly grasp the magnitude of it I feel.

2 Likes
#5

I don’t doubt they lost money and were willing to for their first event. Don’t forget their numbers were inflated by paying streamers and their audiences to tune in. They wrote this off at a marketing expense for sure. To my main point is that the barrier of entry is too high to get into halo , I have to find a team which is no small task , play weekly online tournaments , book flights , hotels , team passes , food. You basically have to sell a dream or convince everyone they will be surrounded by like minded people for a weekend.

Eventually they will want to be in the green for this event , you cannot simply keep losing money on these events. I understand it is Microsoft but they didn’t get to the top losing money. They need to cater more to casuals, and give casuals who are the 99% to buy more skins / battle passes. I would rate their current system a 1/10.

I just logged into Fortnite for the first time in a year and immediately I was given 5 free skins/emotes/ ext. Halo has not solved this problem just yet , game still feels unfinished. It is a blast with friends in custom games , but even then game types are limited. Again I like the Esports scene, I just don’t like when corporate money gets involved because eventually they will want an ROI (Return on Investment) and end up setting the scene back 10 years.

In the FGC we only market crowd funded events , so everyone knows they are contributing to the cause , prize pots are not inflated , no one is paid to tune in. Everything is genuine , Esports as a whole feels ingenuine IMO , but only time will tell. Thanks for the responses.