Halo Infinite and the Future of Halo

Games Halo Infinite
1

After the Xbox Games Showcase event, I was happy to see Halo Infinite finally showcased. My thoughts on the gameplay and graphics don’t really matter for this particular topic that I want to talk about. After the event 343 did their press demo and took time to answer questions from various media outlets. We got a lot of interesting answers from the developers. Well, the most interesting part for me was when Chris Lee said this:

> **"**Halo Infinite is the start of our platform for the future,” he said. “We want Infinite to grow over time, versus going to those numbered titles and having all that segmentation that we had before. It’s really about creating Halo Infinite as the start of the next ten years for Halo and then building that as we go with our fans and community."

Now this brings up something that I’m not sure a lot of people are really looking at, and trying to understand, to better prepare for the future of the series. If Halo Infinite is meant to have say, story DLC that tells different Chief centric stories (or perhaps other characters on the Ring) then I want to ask this question to better understand where it’s all going. Where will this “ten year plan” leave us at in terms of the story that we will experience in Infinite? The more I think about it the more I start to become unsure. If this game takes place entirely on the Ring against a portion of the Banished forces, then what happens with Atriox, the actual leader of the Banished, on the Ark? Does that story get settled in a Halo Wars 3 or even off-screen? My worry is that certain larger elements of the narrative will be turned into small/medium DLC content that (in my opinion) deserves their own large standalone game.

The showdown between Chief and Atriox has now been built-up. The Banished are talking about the Will of Atriox and now that he has been teased in a main line Halo game, well, you kind of have to deliver on that. And what I mean is to not bring in this large of a character in a Halo Infinite update for some $40 to $30. And I hope that this doesn’t mean we are locked to this Ring for the next “ten” years. The Ark is the final destination of this new saga. It almost has to be. There are too many story elements to not have the true final standalone Halo be set on an explorable Ark with the most iconic Spartan, the Leader of the Banished, and the threat of The Flood, as well The Gravemind still looming somewhere. Now I’ll be the first to admit, if that’s the Halo game that needs “ten” years to make and Infinite is set to lead us there then I’m all for it. Sign me up. That’s the final Halo game I want to play, the last true standalone Halo featuring Master Chief.

Halo Wars 2, tells a great story and a better set up for this new threat in Halo universe. Awakening The Nightmare was a wonderful DLC that reintroduced The Flood, and showed us that they are still there and they’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to rise again. Why waste all that potential for the opportunity to build a game that utilizes the full power of the SlipSpace Engine after years of developing on it (much like what Bungie did with Blam!), only for it to be pumped into a game that’s base story is the set up to all of this in the first place? In “10” years Halo Infinite could still be a great game after updates and story content, but my concern is that it’ll be the crutch for a larger narrative to end on. That narrative to me feels like it’ll miss out on the potential for Halo to finally reach the peak we all knew it could. 10 years from now there will be new consoles, new hardware for PCs, and different games with different stories and gameplay options. Microsoft would love to have a new Halo game to sell it’s new console, just like it’s doing now, over the next 10 years or so. Granted this is a Microsoft thought process, but the point is we would be in at least another console generation with the same Halo game and we’re still resolving minor issues and not focusing on the big picture. If we as Halo fans are still stuck on Halo Infinite then I think that would be as if 343 were holding back on what I’m sure all those devs want, and that’s to make the true, final, most ambitious Halo ever and to conclude Master Chief’s story.

In these 5 years from Halo 5 to Halo Infinite, I think as fans we have grown accustom to this being the developer cycle for Halo. A new Halo game every 5 years? Welp in those planned 10 years we would’ve missed out on 2 possible mainline Halo games. Does a story saga need multiple games to be complete? No. But I do think this Banished saga needs a game of it’s own to conclude. If 343 wants to tell different stories in the Halo Universe then they need to finish Chief’s first and to do it in the best possible way and send him out with guns blazing with everyone’s best efforts to due a game like justice. Look, COVID won’t last, we’ll be back to normal soon. Working remotely won’t be limiting development anymore. Being back in the studio will yield the greatest fruits of labor and that’s what I expect once these times in the world are behind us. Halo can then operate at it’s max, with all cylinders firing. I’m no dev, never claim to understand how any of it works, but I’m sure ya’ll wish you could be working on this game in the studio.

If Halo Infinite is supposed to be a “soft-reboot” and mirror H:CE then why end it at the first game it’s trying to evoke? Wouldn’t this reboot warrant each new game in this franchise to mimic the next? To me it plays out like this, Halo Infinite will be developed to just be a Destiny style franchise. Destiny was a live service game, made for different types of hardware at the time that held it back (Xbox 360 and PS3). They had to drop support for those consoles. They then made a Destiny 2. Why can’t a Halo Infinite 2 be made? Sure there are games that are sustained for long periods of time (H5, D1-D2, GTA 5, etc) but at some those games stop being developed on and you look towards building something new with the tech and knowledge you’ve acquired. I ask myself “How can Infinite be the foundation that will support all these major elements that, as we all know, will be way too big for the game itself to handle?” If the scope is bigger now, then imagine where it will be in the next 5-10 years. Halo will need a new game.

The hope I hold on to is the part where Chris says "It’s really about creating Halo Infinite as the start of the next ten years for Halo and then building that as we go with our fans and community." That’s all great, I love that ideology. Build Infinite as the start, but do not build it as the finish as well. My points are kind of all over the place but the jist is this, I don’t think I’m okay with new plan for Halo. It just feels like the story will miss certain beats if it’s limited to being on this platform for the foreseeable future. There’s nothing wrong with story DLC for Infinite (if it’s to fix the game overall story then there’s an issue). To me it just feels like the main story of Halo Infinite being Chief trying to take back a Halo Ring from just a portion of The Banished and only 1 of it’s leaders, not even their main leader, doesn’t seem like it should be the be-all-end-all of what’s touted as the last standalone Halo. The last standalone Halo should end an amazing story where the main cast of characters (Chief, Arbiter, Atriox, The Flood) come together (on The Ark) for a final confrontation, not start one then leave it up to DLC to finish it.

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The way I see it, I still think that 343 Industries will do the next 10 years plan for Halo in a similar way like how Kevin Feige did with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If 343 Industries really want to build up to an epic fight between Master Chief and Atriox, they need to take their time telling the stories in the Halo video games. They can have their own Phase One, Phase Two and Phase Three in the Halo video games. That is why I also think that the Halo spin off video games will be the next one to come out after Halo Infinite coming out on Xbox Series X, Xbox One and PC.

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They didn’t really have a choice making Halo Infinite the last Halo, they screwed up 4 and 5 so badly people wouldn’t want another game after this

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> 2535434101253033;2:
> The way I see it, I still think that 343 Industries will do the next 10 years plan for Halo in a similar way like how Kevin Feige did with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If 343 Industries really want to build up to an epic fight between Master Chief and Atriox, they need to take their time telling the stories in the Halo video games. They can have their own Phase One, Phase Two and Phase Three in the Halo video games. That is why I also think that the Halo spin off video games will be the next one to come out after Halo Infinite coming out on Xbox Series X, Xbox One and PC.

This is an idea I can get behind and understand. Make the last Halo game be the Avengers Endgame of series. I think that’s what we all want in some form or another. Using Infinite as a base is fine, just not necessarily the last game in the mainline series. If Infinitr has maybe an Arbiter DLC where we play as him to set up the Sangheli against the Banished forces and the Harbinger that leads into this epic scale battle then I’m all for that. Like you said that could be Phase 2 or 3. But you hit the nail on the head, they need to take their time telling the stories in the Halo games whether be mainline or spin offs.

5

It sounds like P R talk to me. Speaks as if our game isn’t ready we’ll give you what we have and see how that goes depending on that will decide if we bother to keep the game going or not. It looks like -Yoink- now and probably not much different at launch but don’t worry we’ll add “ray tracing” in a “free patch” later on.
It’s basically games as a service. Remember fallout 76 and how that went down and it’s doing now “it just works”.
Another thing that’s kind of getting forgotten amongst the backlash is how are they going to fund this for the next 10 years??? What kind of intrusive dodgy micro transactions are they going to shove down our throat ? Crappy game pass? Req packs? Skins that can only be payed for not even grinded out ? ect
I think it was monster energy drink that was doing a thing where you get an xp booster for infinite if you buy it. Does that imply we’ll be paying for xp boosts ? Who knows but the picture it paints ain’t pretty.

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> 2533274813946507;5:
> It sounds like P R talk to me. Speaks as if our game isn’t ready we’ll give you what we have and see how that goes depending on that will decide if we bother to keep the game going or not. It looks like -Yoink- now and probably not much different at launch but don’t worry we’ll add “ray tracing” in a “free patch” later on.
> It’s basically games as a service. Remember fallout 76 and how that went down and it’s doing now “it just works”.
> Another thing that’s kind of getting forgotten amongst the backlash is how are they going to fund this for the next 10 years??? What kind of intrusive dodgy micro transactions are they going to shove down our throat ? Crappy game pass? Req packs? Skins that can only be payed for not even grinded out ? ect
> I think it was monster energy drink that was doing a thing where you get an xp booster for infinite if you buy it. Does that imply we’ll be paying for xp boosts ? Who knows but the picture it paints ain’t pretty.

Yeah selling it for $60 like normal, but then putting it on GamePass is where the bulk of revenue this time around may not come from. Granted none of us know how GamePass’ revenue works for the games on the platform. We know the game won’t include real money loot boxes, but those aren’t sources of player frustration anymore. It’s season passes, it’s a store front where you can buy whatever you want using in game currency or real world money. I like GamePass, but for a game planned out for 10 years there has to be some form of monetization. And then it begs the question of what will these monetization tactics yield in terms of content we get in the future. Is buying a set of ODST armor for your Spartan allow them to fund an ODST style DLC? The free ray tracing is nice, but it should be there at launch, pandemic or not. And saying that this game will be built in the years to come is very worrying, we might be getting another H5 situation where there are key features missing.

7

Here’s another quote talking about this “ten year plan” (from videogameschronicle.com):

> With respect to the ‘ten year plan’ 343 has talked about, can we expect the game’s story to evolve over time and if so, will this happen as live updates or additional expansions?
> Lee: Halo Infinite is the continuation of Master Chief’s story in the saga that we started in Halo 4 and Halo 5, and then we’re going to tell more stories. Infinite kind of kicks off telling news stories in continuing Master Chief’s saga for years to come. Those will be coming online in the future and we don’t have specific plans for how we’re going to tell those to share today, but we have lots of great ways for how we’re going to bring those online for fans as Halo Infinite grows over time.

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And this one mentions other Halo games in the next generation (wccftech):

> What did you mean exactly when you said that Halo Infinite will be a platform for future installments?
> Chris Lee: That’s a great question. We really wanted to build this Halo Infinite experience to continue the saga of Master Chief’s story from previous games, but also as the start for the next generation of Halo games and experiences. And one thing we really wanted to keep in mind when we were building this is how can we build that as kind of more platform so that we can bring on experiences over time inside of Halo Infinite. We think of this very much like Halo Infinite and the campaign that we ship for players to experience this holiday will be a complete story, like the next major installment, but we’ll still have more stories of Master Chief to tell and we want those to become part of Halo Infinite over time for years to come. We really think about how this can grow over time and expand as we kind of grow our experience.

This would make it seem like Chief will stay in Infinite for the time being which is good and that they can expand and more to his saga while other games are being made. As not have to always have to wait for more Chief like we normally would. I like that approach, but he mentions the next generation of Halo games and experiences so we will get more games that’s for sure. But will it be Halo Wars 3, a spin off featuring Arbiter, Osiris, just what does it all hold for the future. Right now it’s to early to tell. A road-map would be great and I imagine we’ll get one in the follow up to Infinite’s release. I was talking about this over on Reddit and of course they would make more Halo games. Like why wouldn’t they? It’s great that they have more stories of Master Chief to tell, I LOVE that, and using Infinite to tell them could be great. But the crux is this, does it stay on the Infinite platform long enough (this ambitious 10 year plan to keep Infinite updated while other games are being made along the side) and then end there too? I like the idea of this game telling a simplistic, good story that’s focused and knows where it’s going. But the next few mainline Halo games need to happen and they need to be the ones to build on this game’s foundation to tell the story of Master Chief in more epic and larger scale (and possibly end it). Not be stuck on whatever limitations (technology specifically) Infinite will have in 10 years, is the point I’m trying to make

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If all of this results in a Halo “shooter-looter” equal to Destiny, then go ahead. Like a spin-off or a new line of games.

> 2535412226505972;3:
> They didn’t really have a choice making Halo Infinite the last Halo, they screwed up 4 and 5 so badly people wouldn’t want another game after this

I have been here for years without commenting. And I have never seen you contribute a single constructive comment on the forum.

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> 2533274842428280;9:
> If all of this results in a Halo “shooter-looter” equal to Destiny, then go ahead. Like a spin-off or a new line of games.
>
>
> > 2535412226505972;3:
> > They didn’t really have a choice making Halo Infinite the last Halo, they screwed up 4 and 5 so badly people wouldn’t want another game after this
>
> I have been here for years without commenting. And I have never seen you contribute a single constructive comment on the forum.

lol okay buddy whatever you say

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> 2535412226505972;10:
> > 2533274842428280;9:
> > If all of this results in a Halo “shooter-looter” equal to Destiny, then go ahead. Like a spin-off or a new line of games.
> >
> >
> > > 2535412226505972;3:
> > > They didn’t really have a choice making Halo Infinite the last Halo, they screwed up 4 and 5 so badly people wouldn’t want another game after this
> >
> > I have been here for years without commenting. And I have never seen you contribute a single constructive comment on the forum.
>
> lol okay buddy whatever you say

Do not take it bad. But there are times when I find you too aggressive when it comes to responding. More than anything for repeating comments like “zoomer” and others. I understand your support for the classic Halos, but I don’t think you always have to be aggressive on the forum.

It’s just a personal comment, buddy. Without bad rolls.

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To get back on topic here, I think the key phrase in all of this is “the last mainline Halo title FOR A WHILE” which makes sense and is a more understandable point because of course game development takes a long time. They’ve got a lot of time to build on the new engine and hit those story beats in meaningful ways in Infinite. But 10 years to possibly get there? That’s a long time to get to the next main game in Chief’s saga and who knows what could happen in Infinite by that time. Everything could be settled and we’ve moved on to a new enemy, and to me that would be a narrative waste. 2001-2007, three games, to finish Bungie’s trilogy for Master Chief. How long for 343 to finish Master Chief’s new saga in this spiritual reboot? Personally, I’m glad to see the Reclaimer saga end in this game and a new story saga to begin (technically it started in Halo Wars 2 but that neither her nor there). I just wonder how much gets told across those 10 years in this 1 singular game.

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> 2535425511078773;12:
> To get back on topic here, I think the key phrase in all of this is “the last mainline Halo title FOR A WHILE” which makes sense and is a more understandable point because of course game development takes a long time. They’ve got a lot of time to build on the new engine and hit those story beats in meaningful ways in Infinite. But 10 years to possibly get there? That’s a long time to get to the next main game in Chief’s saga and who knows what could happen in Infinite by that time. Everything could be settled and we’ve moved on to a new enemy, and to me that would be a narrative waste. 2001-2007, three games, to finish Bungie’s trilogy for Master Chief. How long for 343 to finish Master Chief’s new saga in this spiritual reboot? Personally, I’m glad to see the Reclaimer saga end in this game and a new story saga to begin (technically it started in Halo Wars 2 but that neither her nor there). I just wonder how much gets told across those 10 years in this 1 singular game.

I am all in for 343 Industries continue doing more Halo video games. If they really want to do more Halo video games, who is going to be in charge of the next 10 years plan for Halo? Does 343 Industries have their own Kevin Feige, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni? Like do they have people that understand the Halo Universe, while at the same time really knows how to communicate with Halo fans?

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> 2535434101253033;13:
> > 2535425511078773;12:
> >
>
> Does 343 Industries have their own Kevin Feige, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni? Like do they have people that understand the Halo Universe, while at the same time really knows how to communicate with Halo fans?

They most certainly do, GrimBrotherOne is just one of many lore/Halo universe experts they have working on Infinite as well as other Halo projects such as novels.

15

honestly, I just see them doing campaign expansions and graphic updates. We know raytracing will be shortly after launch. If slipspace is as flexible as they say, updating the game to be “newer” down the line is completely possible. Hell, that could also breath old life into older campaigns that are infinite down the line

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Since after Halo 5 they were adamant in pressing the whole “it’s not a trilogy anymore, it’s a saga” thing, I’m sure they’ll have to make another separate title eventually, but I just am not convinced that stretching the lifespan of Infinite as far as it will go is a good idea. 3 years is a great space of time between games; you get the initial release which can get you through the first 6 months on its own, then through out the next 2 to 2 1/2 years you maintain support with new official maps being released into multiplayer or co-op, and near the end of the game’s life cycle when you are winding down you can take the “best of” fan maps from Forge and put some of those into rotation while you are finishing up on the next full game. I suppose we’ll see though, as I could be totally off base and it ends up being the best idea 343 has ever had.

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> 2533274927740213;14:
> > 2535434101253033;13:
> > > 2535425511078773;12:
> > >
> >
> > Does 343 Industries have their own Kevin Feige, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni? Like do they have people that understand the Halo Universe, while at the same time really knows how to communicate with Halo fans?
>
> They most certainly do, GrimBrotherOne is just one of many lore/Halo universe experts they have working on Infinite as well as other Halo projects such as novels.

Grim is good people. He seems genuine and I like hearing him talk about Halo. He’s someone I see as being in tune with the story and what the fans want from it so it’sgood to have him for Infinite and other Halo media. At least in my opinion.

> 2533274899826761;16:
> Since after Halo 5 they were adamant in pressing the whole “it’s not a trilogy anymore, it’s a saga” thing, I’m sure they’ll have to make another separate title eventually, but I just am not convinced that stretching the lifespan of Infinite as far as it will go is a good idea. 3 years is a great space of time between games; you get the initial release which can get you through the first 6 months on its own, then through out the next 2 to 2 1/2 years you maintain support with new official maps being released into multiplayer or co-op, and near the end of the game’s life cycle when you are winding down you can take the “best of” fan maps from Forge and put some of those into rotation while you are finishing up on the next full game. I suppose we’ll see though, as I could be totally off base and it ends up being the best idea 343 has ever had.

I can get behind this idea and actually feel better if this ended up being the case. It’s a better strategy in my opinion and makes more realistic sense for a game that won’t necessarily be a live service game (or at least that’s what is being touted). I don’t know about 3 years being the dev cycle for a Halo game anymore. I think 5 years is fine and with the content that Infinite is supposed to receive then it hopefully won’t make it feel like a content drought of Halo. The question on that front is how many resources do you keep on Infinite and at what point do you take those away to focus on other projects or the next game? If it’s a mainline title, then I say all hands on deck after 4 or 5 years.

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I think they will structure halo infinite like the destiny games but it wont be a 100 percent clone of the destiny game. There could be games like halo infinite flood returns or halo infinite cortana returns