So, I’ve been bored lately, so I decided to do some digging and try and solve the mystery of Halo 5’s ‘false’ advertising.
In the trailer titled ‘A Hero Falls’, Chief is presumed dead at the end of the trailer after a building collapses on him. Do I think he will die like this? No. But, this could be a little foreshadowing, as earlier on in the trailer, a UNSC Commander announces that Chief died on Meridian on October 27th, 2560. (A cool little eater egg as well, Halo 5 actually released on October 27th. Nice for 343i to add that small little detail.) Anyway, a quick Google check shows that Halo 5 infact takes place in 2558. Two or so years from the Chief’s presumed death. But wait, there’s a little bit more! In the Official Launch Trailer, a screen of text says 'Experience the beginning of the greatest hunt in gaming history’. Obviously Halo 5’s campaign was centred around the global hashtag #HuntTheTruth, thus implying that Halo 5 is only the beginning of the Hunt for Truth.
Gotta agree with AugCraftGaming3 here. It’s a silly theory which doesn’t make sense from a business perspective. Why would they skip advertising for the next game for a game which isn’t going to release for 3-5 years afterwards? That’s just silly. Especially when considering how literal the gaming community takes trailers; we all thought the Halo 5 trailers were for Halo 5 when they were happening so it would be pointless for it to be advertising something they aren’t releasing for a while.
The 2560 thing which was a big deal back in 2015 but turned out to be a mistake, as confirmed in HUNT the TRUTH. So this theory just makes no sense. It is nit-picky and doesn’t fit in the lore at all.
Even if this theory did hold any water at one point, I think that 343 will have changed their narrative direction after Halo 5’s story got a generally negative reception.
The most likely explanation I’m aware of is that Halo 5’s marketing was based on the original plot of Halo 5, before the re-writes. It’s possible that the stories presented in the advertising could be repurposed for Halo 6, but it’s not exactly the same thing as them having been intended for Halo 6.
I would like to think some twist like this is on the cards, but the fact is that 343i had to redo the story to Halo 5 due to Microsoft not liking the ODST style they were going for.
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> > That would be good. This means that 343 was actually thinking (for once).
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> Marketing for a game that doesn’t exist yet with the ads meant to advertise for a game soon to be released isn’t exactly thinking intelligently.
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> Even if this theory did hold any water at one point, I think that 343 will have changed their narrative direction after Halo 5’s story got a generally negative reception.
I actually think that 343 ALREADY changed their narrative direction and that’s what got the negative reception. If we’d actually gotten the story they’d promised, it would’ve been amazing. I still get excitement every time I watch the trailer…even though I know the actual campaign failed to live up to the expectations set by the trailer (e.g. what we now call false advertising).
343 should’ve kept the narrative they had going and not made those famed last minute campaign changes (e.g. changing the narrative)