Halo 5 Forge PC Should Be On Steam, But...

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

I posted this in the subreddit and immediately got shot down, so I hope people are a bit more reasonable here…

Halo Forge 5 PC should be on Steam, but it could work like, for example Trials Fusion, where you can launch it on steam and it opens the game through UPlay. So for Halo 5 Forge, you would click Play Game, like any other free to play game on steam, and then it would either open the windows store so you can install it, or launch directly into the game if you already got it installed.

While I would like it to be fully released on Steam, It seems really unlikely at this point. However, something like this doesn’t seem unreasonable considering they already have released a fair share games on steam, like Halo Spartan Assault/Strike, as well as Quantum Break. http://store.steampowered.com/search/?publisher=Microsoft%20Studios

Microsoft would still make you use the windows store, so it wouldn’t really “change” anything for them. But it would bring a whole lot more attention to it, when it’s right there on the steam store, and when someone notices a friend playing it, they might check it out too. And it really needs it considering few people outside of the Halo community cares about it, and most interested in Halo 5 already plays it Xbox, where there’s even more content. It really shows since there are barely anyone on the official r/halo discord and on other sites like HaloLFG and HaloCustoms.

The server browser may bring back some people, but there still needs to be an active player base ready to jump on it and keep it going, otherwise it will fall flat.

2

Don’t see why this should be shot down, it is a good idea.

3

> 2535470946907660;2:
> Don’t see why this should be shot down, it is a good idea.

Thank you. And I’m more than fine if people are not agreeing and presenting counter arguments, but just getting down votes and only getting comments that isn’t discussing the main point is really frustrating.

4

I really don’t see any issue if that happened, really don’t get why people would be against that… The only reason I could see it not happening is Microsoft using it as a reason for people to use Windows store instead, a business strategy if anything. That an exclusivity as I believe Valve does make some profit off of every copy of a game sold from steam, I think they would want to keep that extra profit for themselves.

Again, other then that, I think it would be good, more people to get it and stuff.

5

> 2535429756019039;4:
> I really don’t see any issue if that happened, really don’t get why people would be against that… The only reason I could see it not happening is Microsoft using it as a reason for people to use Windows store instead, a business strategy if anything. That an exclusivity as I believe Valve does make some profit off of every copy of a game sold from steam, I think they would want to keep that extra profit for themselves.
>
> Again, other then that, I think it would be good, more people to get it and stuff.

Good argument, but you made a mistake there. If Halo 5 for PC does cost money, then I understand the business strategy. But while it is free, they should put it on the steam store. Because hey, there not selling the PC version yet so might as well put it on there until they will make you charge for Halo.

Btw, anybody know when they will add the game browser? I’ve been waiting far too long to play with other people.

6

Same reason why battlefield is on Origin and no longer on steam i guess. Maybe its more of company branding. Which is why games like battlefield and overwatch are not on steam

7

> 2533274921574605;5:
> > 2535429756019039;4:
> > I really don’t see any issue if that happened, really don’t get why people would be against that… The only reason I could see it not happening is Microsoft using it as a reason for people to use Windows store instead, a business strategy if anything. That an exclusivity as I believe Valve does make some profit off of every copy of a game sold from steam, I think they would want to keep that extra profit for themselves.
> >
> > Again, other then that, I think it would be good, more people to get it and stuff.
>
>
> Good argument, but you made a mistake there. If Halo 5 for PC does cost money, then I understand the business strategy. But while it is free, they should put it on the steam store. Because hey, there not selling the PC version yet so might as well put it on there until they will make you charge for Halo.
>
> Btw, anybody know when they will add the game browser? I’ve been waiting far too long to play with other people.

I completely forgot it was free, just for exclusivity then maybe? Maybe Valve might charge to get the game onto steam?

8

Like Apple does for the App Store, I believe Steam takes a 30% cut of the sale. That’s why EA made their own thing.

9

> 2533274794445927;8:
> Like Apple does for the App Store, I believe Steam takes a 30% cut of the sale. That’s why EA made their own thing.

Microsoft wouldn’t want that and they might want to push their own thing, Windows Store, rather than using someone else’s. Since, Windows exclusive games don’t require game launchers like Origin, Steam, or Battle Net. I don’t see need for Microsoft putting their games on Steam. As one of PC gamers, it annoys me that using these launchers or clients is must in order to play games. I am grateful that Windows 10 exclusive games running as individual without any client needed. I want to commend developers under Microsoft for doing this.

As publisher and developer perspective, it’s better to get as much as profit as possible, which is why they are offering more to digital purchase over physical disc.

10

> 2535429756019039;7:
> > 2533274921574605;5:
> > > 2535429756019039;4:
> > > I really don’t see any issue if that happened, really don’t get why people would be against that… The only reason I could see it not happening is Microsoft using it as a reason for people to use Windows store instead, a business strategy if anything. That an exclusivity as I believe Valve does make some profit off of every copy of a game sold from steam, I think they would want to keep that extra profit for themselves.
> > >
> > > Again, other then that, I think it would be good, more people to get it and stuff.
> >
> >
> > Good argument, but you made a mistake there. If Halo 5 for PC does cost money, then I understand the business strategy. But while it is free, they should put it on the steam store. Because hey, there not selling the PC version yet so might as well put it on there until they will make you charge for Halo.
> >
> > Btw, anybody know when they will add the game browser? I’ve been waiting far too long to play with other people.
>
>
> I completely forgot it was free, just for exclusivity then maybe? Maybe Valve might charge to get the game onto steam?

Well, as I mentioned, you wouldn’t actually get it through steam, instead it would open the windows store and show the page where you can download it. That way you’re still introduced to the windows store and are required to use it. It would really just be a way for people to find out about the game through steam, which undoubtedly is the biggest market place for games on the PC. Sure, they are also going to be able to launch it through steam, but I don’t think that really matters because currently I just launch the game from the start menu and haven’t opened windows store in a while. And in terms of who normally launches it through the store and would switch over to launching it on steam, I feel like that matters very little compared to getting as many as possible introduced to the store, and starting to use it.

> 2535468425990603;6:
> Same reason why battlefield is on Origin and no longer on steam i guess. Maybe its more of company branding. Which is why games like battlefield and overwatch are not on steam

The reason why they could do that, is because of brand awareness. Battlefield is known to be a PC game and they got Battlefield Bad Company 2 on Steam. And Blizzard is one of the most well known PC game developers out there. Where as Halo haven’t been on PC for almost a decade now and for the longest time just been a console exclusive outside of some spin-off games, so people in the PC community either don’t know or care. They need to build brand awareness, so that once they release their next game outside of steam, people will know and care about it.

If you search for “Halo 5 Forge” on YouTube and check the most watched videos this last month, on the first page you’ll see views views ranging from 300.000 down to 30.000 views and some of those videos aren’t even about the PC version. If you do the same, but search for “Garry’s Mod”, you’ll see views ranging from 6.000.000 down to 300.000 views. Halo 5 Forge could maybe get half that successful on YouTube, but it won’t as long as there’s no awareness. So if they can’t go through steam, I would really suggest to reach out to some non-Halo channels and see if they are willing to make videos about it.

> 2535456165221911;9:
> > 2533274794445927;8:
> > Like Apple does for the App Store, I believe Steam takes a 30% cut of the sale. That’s why EA made their own thing.
>
>
> Microsoft wouldn’t want that and they might want to push their own thing, Windows Store, rather than using someone else’s. Since, Windows exclusive games don’t require game launchers like Origin, Steam, or Battle Net. I don’t see need for Microsoft putting their games on Steam. As one of PC gamers, it annoys me that using these launchers or clients is must in order to play games. I am grateful that Windows 10 exclusive games running as individual without any client needed. I want to commend developers under Microsoft for doing this.
>
> As publisher and developer perspective, it’s better to get as much as profit as possible, which is why they are offering more to digital purchase over physical disc.

Some of my comments above apply to this as well. As for a launcher, the idea is that it should stay like it is, I just used Trials Fusion as an example. So for you, it wouldn’t make a difference, all it would do is just allow you to find the game on steam and then launch it from there if you feel like it.

As for profit, for Halo 5 Forge it’s not really relevant. For their next game, they could just skip Steam entirely, but they won’t get much profit unless they have developed a brand awareness in the PC community.

11

I believe Microsoft is trying to push into PC gaming, and instead of using already well known services like Steam, they want to try to build there own. We are starting to see alot more Xbox titles coming to PC, so it makes sense in a similar fashion to what EA did with Origin. As a PC gamer i know how it would be great to have all our games in one place but from a business standpoint i understand why Microsoft is not putting there titles on Steam.

If i have to choose between Halo on PC but only on the windows store or no Halo on PC, ill choose the windows store despite my preference for Steam, now if Microsoft could actually make a dedicated app/program just for games and not books, and mobile apps and a bunch of other non sense i would gladly welcome that. For now the Windows store needs a major overhaul if future Halo games or big AAA titles are coming to it.

12

I don’t blame them for not wanting to be in Steam, they want they’re own platform. To me it’s good business practice, why would you want to influence customers to use competition? That’s not a greedy company thing, to me that’s business 101

13

> 2533274934001628;11:
> I believe Microsoft is trying to push into PC gaming, and instead of using already well known services like Steam, they want to try to build there own. We are starting to see alot more Xbox titles coming to PC, so it makes sense in a similar fashion to what EA did with Origin. As a PC gamer i know how it would be great to have all our games in one place but from a business standpoint i understand why Microsoft is not putting there titles on Steam.
>
> If i have to choose between Halo on PC but only on the windows store or no Halo on PC, ill choose the windows store despite my preference for Steam, now if Microsoft could actually make a dedicated app/program just for games and not books, and mobile apps and a bunch of other non sense i would gladly welcome that. For now the Windows store needs a major overhaul if future Halo games or big AAA titles are coming to it.

> 2535462333594080;12:
> I don’t blame them for not wanting to be in Steam, they want they’re own platform. To me it’s good business practice, why would you want to influence customers to use competition? That’s not a greedy company thing, to me that’s business 101

https://i.gyazo.com/adbc3fbaea7e6c2965b68fc664fc3aec.jpg . As I said in my original post, they already have Quantum Break on Steam, that’s published by Microsoft Studios.

Origin works, because they already had active communities on the PC for games like Battlefield and The Sims. So they already had games people were willing to play. As for Halo, the community is on Xbox, the PC community have moved on long ago, only leaving a few people behind.

They can push their store how ever much they like, but if the PC community doesn’t care about it and don’t even know about the games available on it, it doesn’t matter. The idea is simply to bridge the gap between Steam and their own store, for the time being, and as explained, when you click to get the game on steam, it would automatically open the windows 10 store, so you could get it from there. That way they can build awareness, and once they got that, they can start exclusively release games on their stores and more people would be interested in them.

14

> 2535449348170214;13:
> > 2533274934001628;11:
> > I believe Microsoft is trying to push into PC gaming, and instead of using already well known services like Steam, they want to try to build there own. We are starting to see alot more Xbox titles coming to PC, so it makes sense in a similar fashion to what EA did with Origin. As a PC gamer i know how it would be great to have all our games in one place but from a business standpoint i understand why Microsoft is not putting there titles on Steam.
> >
> > If i have to choose between Halo on PC but only on the windows store or no Halo on PC, ill choose the windows store despite my preference for Steam, now if Microsoft could actually make a dedicated app/program just for games and not books, and mobile apps and a bunch of other non sense i would gladly welcome that. For now the Windows store needs a major overhaul if future Halo games or big AAA titles are coming to it.
>
>
>
>
> > 2535462333594080;12:
> > I don’t blame them for not wanting to be in Steam, they want they’re own platform. To me it’s good business practice, why would you want to influence customers to use competition? That’s not a greedy company thing, to me that’s business 101
>
>
> https://i.gyazo.com/adbc3fbaea7e6c2965b68fc664fc3aec.jpg . As I said in my original post, they already have Quantum Break on Steam, that’s published by Microsoft Studios.
>
> Origin works, because they already had active communities on the PC for games like Battlefield and The Sims. So they already had games people were willing to play. As for Halo, the community is on Xbox, the PC community have moved on long ago, only leaving a few people behind.
>
> They can push their store how ever much they like, but if the PC community doesn’t care about it and don’t even know about the games available on it, it doesn’t matter. The idea is simply to bridge the gap between Steam and their own store, for the time being, and as explained, when you click to get the game on steam, it would automatically open the windows 10 store, so you could get it from there. That way they can build awareness, and once they got that, they can start exclusively release games on their stores and more people would be interested in them.

You as well as most people know Halo is a much bigger IP than Quantam Break. Halo does not just sale games it sells x boxes. So why would you put your console seller a different platform. Hell people still play CE on PC and that is not on Steam. Halo had a big enough following to put it on Steam, and personally I don’t really see the point.

This is just my opinion tho

15

I think you guys are missing the point of what he’s saying by quite a lot. Not a single time did he say sell Halo on steam, but rather but Halo 5 forge on their and get the exposure from the already large steam community looking for free to play games. From clicking on the download button you would be redirected to the windows store were you can download it.

No one’s losing any money, no one is taking a cut, because the game is already free and microsoft can use this as a chance for two things.

  1. Get halo 5 forge some exposure to a much large, more often used PC platform to help make this game more popular.
  2. Use this as a one time opportunity to show that the windows store isn’t Satan incarnate (trust me plenty of people hate the Windows Store) and show that it actually functions just fine
    I like it, it’s a good idea and Halo only stands to gain from this
16

> 2535462333594080;14:
> > 2535449348170214;13:
> > > 2533274934001628;11:
> > > I believe Microsoft is trying to push into PC gaming, and instead of using already well known services like Steam, they want to try to build there own. We are starting to see alot more Xbox titles coming to PC, so it makes sense in a similar fashion to what EA did with Origin. As a PC gamer i know how it would be great to have all our games in one place but from a business standpoint i understand why Microsoft is not putting there titles on Steam.
> > >
> > > If i have to choose between Halo on PC but only on the windows store or no Halo on PC, ill choose the windows store despite my preference for Steam, now if Microsoft could actually make a dedicated app/program just for games and not books, and mobile apps and a bunch of other non sense i would gladly welcome that. For now the Windows store needs a major overhaul if future Halo games or big AAA titles are coming to it.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > 2535462333594080;12:
> > > I don’t blame them for not wanting to be in Steam, they want they’re own platform. To me it’s good business practice, why would you want to influence customers to use competition? That’s not a greedy company thing, to me that’s business 101
> >
> >
> > https://i.gyazo.com/adbc3fbaea7e6c2965b68fc664fc3aec.jpg . As I said in my original post, they already have Quantum Break on Steam, that’s published by Microsoft Studios.
> >
> > Origin works, because they already had active communities on the PC for games like Battlefield and The Sims. So they already had games people were willing to play. As for Halo, the community is on Xbox, the PC community have moved on long ago, only leaving a few people behind.
> >
> > They can push their store how ever much they like, but if the PC community doesn’t care about it and don’t even know about the games available on it, it doesn’t matter. The idea is simply to bridge the gap between Steam and their own store, for the time being, and as explained, when you click to get the game on steam, it would automatically open the windows 10 store, so you could get it from there. That way they can build awareness, and once they got that, they can start exclusively release games on their stores and more people would be interested in them.
>
>
> You as well as most people know Halo is a much bigger IP than Quantam Break. Halo does not just sale games it sells x boxes. So why would you put your console seller a different platform. Hell people still play CE on PC and that is not on Steam. Halo had a big enough following to put it on Steam, and personally I don’t really see the point.
>
> This is just my opinion tho

Sure, it’s a really big IP, but for the longest time we didn’t get any proper Halo game released to PC, so at this point, people just knows it as an Xbox IP, that was once on PC back in the day.

These videos sums up the state of Halo CE and Halo 2 Vista on PC (strong language warning):

- YouTube

Those are old games at this point and it doesn’t really matter if a few people here and there are playing them. And if the PC community actually care about Halo on PC, then where did the player base for Halo 5 Forge go?

Discord: https://i.gyazo.com/a2d030948c69a9f6ad28bfd90f8e2a41.png
During the night, I can be lucky to find 1, if not 2 groups playing, but during the day, it’s completely deserted.

HaloLFG: https://i.gyazo.com/908b658f4a0244d5800d30d16838a87f.png
Sure, it might seem populated, but each of those posts are just one person every two hours hosting, or asking to join. In the screenshot you can even see a point where it wasn’t even active for 11 hours.

HaloCustoms: https://i.gyazo.com/c228328fc1d44714d25a8bc37e3ae20d.png
And that’s even worse.

I would consider discord the only decent option because of voice chat, so you can actually communicate with everyone and let the host know what you’d like to play, without a lot of hassle.

You might say that it’s all going to change once the server browser is released. But if a lot of people are eager to play the game, a lot of them would stick around and play it. And I expected the game to have an active player base of around 1000 since it’s an official Halo game on PC, but that’s far from the case. So now I don’t have high hopes for the server browser either, especially if the game doesn’t have an active player base ready to use it. I really hope I’m wrong though.

> 2533274820294620;15:
> I think you guys are missing the point of what he’s saying by quite a lot. Not a single time did he say sell Halo on steam, but rather but Halo 5 forge on their and get the exposure from the already large steam community looking for free to play games. From clicking on the download button you would be redirected to the windows store were you can download it.
>
> No one’s losing any money, no one is taking a cut, because the game is already free and microsoft can use this as a chance for two things.
>
> 1. Get halo 5 forge some exposure to a much large, more often used PC platform to help make this game more popular.
> 2. Use this as a one time opportunity to show that the windows store isn’t Satan incarnate (trust me plenty of people hate the Windows Store) and show that it actually functions just fine
> I like it, it’s a good idea and Halo only stands to gain from this

Yes, that’s exactly what I’m taking about. I’m glad someone gets it.

17

> 2535449348170214;16:
> > 2535462333594080;14:
> > > 2535449348170214;13:
> > > > 2533274934001628;11:
> > > > I believe Microsoft is trying to push into PC gaming, and instead of using already well known services like Steam, they want to try to build there own. We are starting to see alot more Xbox titles coming to PC, so it makes sense in a similar fashion to what EA did with Origin. As a PC gamer i know how it would be great to have all our games in one place but from a business standpoint i understand why Microsoft is not putting there titles on Steam.
> > > >
> > > > If i have to choose between Halo on PC but only on the windows store or no Halo on PC, ill choose the windows store despite my preference for Steam, now if Microsoft could actually make a dedicated app/program just for games and not books, and mobile apps and a bunch of other non sense i would gladly welcome that. For now the Windows store needs a major overhaul if future Halo games or big AAA titles are coming to it.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > 2535462333594080;12:
> > > > I don’t blame them for not wanting to be in Steam, they want they’re own platform. To me it’s good business practice, why would you want to influence customers to use competition? That’s not a greedy company thing, to me that’s business 101
> > >
> > >
> > > https://i.gyazo.com/adbc3fbaea7e6c2965b68fc664fc3aec.jpg . As I said in my original post, they already have Quantum Break on Steam, that’s published by Microsoft Studios.
> > >
> > > Origin works, because they already had active communities on the PC for games like Battlefield and The Sims. So they already had games people were willing to play. As for Halo, the community is on Xbox, the PC community have moved on long ago, only leaving a few people behind.
> > >
> > > They can push their store how ever much they like, but if the PC community doesn’t care about it and don’t even know about the games available on it, it doesn’t matter. The idea is simply to bridge the gap between Steam and their own store, for the time being, and as explained, when you click to get the game on steam, it would automatically open the windows 10 store, so you could get it from there. That way they can build awareness, and once they got that, they can start exclusively release games on their stores and more people would be interested in them.
> >
> >
> > You as well as most people know Halo is a much bigger IP than Quantam Break. Halo does not just sale games it sells x boxes. So why would you put your console seller a different platform. Hell people still play CE on PC and that is not on Steam. Halo had a big enough following to put it on Steam, and personally I don’t really see the point.
> >
> > This is just my opinion tho
>
>
> Sure, it’s a really big IP, but for the longest time we didn’t get any proper Halo game released to PC, so at this point, people just knows it as an Xbox IP, that was once on PC back in the day.
>
> These videos sums up the state of Halo CE and Halo 2 Vista on PC (strong language warning):
> - YouTube
> - YouTube
>
> Those are old games at this point and it doesn’t really matter if a few people here and there are playing them. And if the PC community actually care about Halo on PC, then where did the player base for Halo 5 Forge go?
>
> Discord: https://i.gyazo.com/a2d030948c69a9f6ad28bfd90f8e2a41.png
> During the night, I can be lucky to find 1, if not 2 groups playing, but during the day, it’s completely deserted.
>
> HaloLFG: https://i.gyazo.com/908b658f4a0244d5800d30d16838a87f.png
> Sure, it might seem populated, but each of those posts are just one person every two hours hosting, or asking to join. In the screenshot you can even see a point where it wasn’t even active for 11 hours.
>
> HaloCustoms: https://i.gyazo.com/c228328fc1d44714d25a8bc37e3ae20d.png
> And that’s even worse.
>
> I would consider discord the only decent option because of voice chat, so you can actually communicate with everyone and let the host know what you’d like to play, without a lot of hassle.
>
> You might say that it’s all going to change once the server browser is released. But if a lot of people are eager to play the game, a lot of them would stick around and play it. And I expected the game to have an active player base of around 1000 since it’s an official Halo game on PC, but that’s far from the case. So now I don’t have high hopes for the server browser either, especially if the game doesn’t have an active player base ready to use it. I really hope I’m wrong though.
>
>
>
>
> > 2533274820294620;15:
> > I think you guys are missing the point of what he’s saying by quite a lot. Not a single time did he say sell Halo on steam, but rather but Halo 5 forge on their and get the exposure from the already large steam community looking for free to play games. From clicking on the download button you would be redirected to the windows store were you can download it.
> >
> > No one’s losing any money, no one is taking a cut, because the game is already free and microsoft can use this as a chance for two things.
> >
> > 1. Get halo 5 forge some exposure to a much large, more often used PC platform to help make this game more popular.
> > 2. Use this as a one time opportunity to show that the windows store isn’t Satan incarnate (trust me plenty of people hate the Windows Store) and show that it actually functions just fine
> > I like it, it’s a good idea and Halo only stands to gain from this
>
>
> Yes, that’s exactly what I’m taking about. I’m glad someone gets it.

The reason it has such a small player base is because it’s not a full Halo game. PC already has tons of more advanced map making games so the need for Halo forge is quite small. I myself downloaded it and play it occasionally but the majority of PC players are not going to download a 30GB map maker with less tools then what we currently have available. Now if this was a full Halo release i would expect the numbers to be drastically different, also let’s not forget there was no advertising for Halo forge on PC, just a few internet posts that you had to actually look for. On top of the blow back from Halo 5 itself it ain’t a surprise there isn’t a huge community.

However there are quite a few people that are Halo fans and if they were to get a proper full release i expect that game to be well populated. Again i would love for this game to be on steam and considering it’s free they really should put it on steam, but at the same time they want people to only use there service as they want to get there products known. There is nothing wrong with that and i expect it to be that way despite all of our preferences if a full Halo release comes to PC.

Also if they were to release Halo 5 forge on Steam i do see how that may cause a rift of anger in the future if they were to release a full game but not put it on Steam. Again i would like it on steam, i like the majority of my games in one place, but on the other hand from a business stand point they are trying to grow there platform and if it means more Halo for PC, im all aboard.