How Can 343 Make Amends for a Poor Launch?

Games Halo: The Master Chief Collection
1

Given the poor launch here, I’m guessing many will be wanting something in return for paying good money and not being able to use the product the way it’s intended. From a customer service perspective, I’d have to imagine there are Microsoft or 343 folks wondering how they can make amends with the players. Feel free to share your thoughts. Let me start with my list (no particular order):

  • 6-month Xbox Live subscription
  • $20 Xbox gift certificate
  • $20 Microsoft Store coupon
  • Offer of complete refund (this one would be trickier to administer but there may be lots of people regretting the purchase)
  • Free offer for Halo 5 for those players that have a confirmed login to the game in the first month (or however long the period is determined to be) - This one is my choice.
  • 1 yr. subscription to Office 365
2

I think they shouldn’t give us anything at all. They dont owe us anything, except for a fix to the issue at hand. Dont ask for handouts they dont happen.

3

You do realize that many of the games these days launch with issues yet there is never any compensation given? MCC isn’t the first game to come out that is plague with problems.

You are not entitled to compensation by any means. No one told you that you had to purchase the game right away. Is the issues that are occurring frustrating? They sure as hell are, however 343 is doing everything they can to ensure that we are all up and running without issues.

I’m not sure why people feel they are entitled to something when things don’t launch as planned. -Yoink- happens, this is life but in the end these issues will be fixed and everything will be fine.

4

$20 to everyone who bought MCC during launch? That would cost Microsoft millions of dollars, plus sending codes out to everybody who bought and didn’t just play it on their friends console would be impossible. I can only see that working for digital owners.

anyways, monetary compensation is completely out of the question. They never advertised a perfect launch, but it is expected and it is hurting their reputation. 343 and Microsoft don’t owe anybody anything but it is in their best interest to own up to it, apologize and offer something small.

personally, I like the 0g achievement idea “I survived the launch of the master chief collection”.

5

I could see them doing a free live weekend or giving everyone a small piece of DLC or something. You are asking for way too much. Honestly what most people want is a working game and they will be happy with that.

6

Right they don’t owe us anything other than a game that doesn’t work. You apologists crack me up. Do you smile when the burger joint forgets your burger at the drive through? They don’t owe you anything, right?

If you love buying stuff that doesn’t work, why don’t you buy the amazing new game I just made. It doesn’t work yet but it should someday - surely you won’t mind Paypaling $60 to me since I don’t owe you anything. KA-Ching! 343 is laughing all the way to the bank

7

It will cost them millions of dollars wtf do you mean? We just paid billions of dollars to play this game. Im good with the game just being fixed but I can’t imagine them not giving anything back to the people. Going on 3 days now I just want to play 1 matchmade game. I cant even play a custom game its so broken. 343 wheres your humanity.

8

All I want is for the major issues to be fixed. I don’t think we are owed anything, especially this early on.

9

> 2533274839179587;6:
> Right they don’t owe us anything other than a game that doesn’t work. You apologists crack me up. Do you smile when the burger joint forgets your burger at the drive through? They don’t owe you anything, right?
>
> If you love buying stuff that doesn’t work, why don’t you buy the amazing new game I just made. It doesn’t work yet but it should someday - surely you won’t mind Paypaling $60 to me since I don’t owe you anything. KA-Ching! 343 is laughing all the way to the bank

So when the burger joint forgets my burger I go back in and get WHAT I PAID FOR. They don’t give me something special extra on the side because they messed up. They gave me what it was that I paid for, which is exactly what 343 is trying to do by pushing out patches / hot fixes as soon as they can. That’s a bad analogy to use because while I understand your frustrating, the only thing they owe us is a WORKING GAME, which they are trying to achieve.

Edit: again, no one told you that you had to go out and purchase this game, that was your own prerogative. if you are pissed that you bought the game and it doesn’t work on launch day then maybe you’ll think twice about buying games as soon as they come out OR you’ll read up on the game the day it launches so that you’re aware of the issues that are occuring.

10

Well, seeing that most games released these days have issues, I hope they just quickly correct them before the community gets really mad. I’m gave up waiting on the BF4 fixes for Xbox One and they had HUGE issues. I think the issues that 343 have not come close to what other games have experienced. I’ll admit that there are a few bugs but I’m fairly happy with this launch.

Crying about your problems and screaming for retribution doesn’t do any good. Collect your bug reports and pass them along to the proper channels. I’m sure they’ll fix them without you threatening them.

11

For those that believe 343 doesn’t owe us anything, you are correct. They don’t. They sold a product and you bought it. The relationship can end there but businesses are more interested in keeping you as a customer. It is more cost effective to keep a customer than it is to get a new customer. There are many of us who have bought every iteration of Halo since it first came out. However, there are probably many more where this will be their first Halo purchase and their first experience with 343. I feel pretty confident that execs right now are wondering first how to get the service up and running correctly but a close second is how to salvage this release so they can sell more during the holiday shopping season and tee up customers for Halo 5.

Lastly, look at it from a customer service perspective. How many times were you relieved or willing to give a business more of your business when they made some kind of gesture to make amends to a poor experience - free dessert for poor dinner service, a coupon for a free drink, etc. A relatively small (even if it costs several million dollars) gesture is a small price to pay to maintain your reputation and keep customers happy and wanting to come back. Don’t get me wrong, the small gesture doesn’t have to be significant in cost, but it needs to be something of value otherwise it will have the opposite effect and make matters worse.

Just my 2 cents as a consumer and long time fan.

12

> 2533274819884576;9:
> > 2533274839179587;6:
> > Right they don’t owe us anything other than a game that doesn’t work. You apologists crack me up. Do you smile when the burger joint forgets your burger at the drive through? They don’t owe you anything, right?
> >
> > If you love buying stuff that doesn’t work, why don’t you buy the amazing new game I just made. It doesn’t work yet but it should someday - surely you won’t mind Paypaling $60 to me since I don’t owe you anything. KA-Ching! 343 is laughing all the way to the bank
>
>
>
> So when the burger joint forgets my burger I go back in and get WHAT I PAID FOR. They don’t give me something special extra on the side because they messed up. They gave me what it was that I paid for, which is exactly what 343 is trying to do by pushing out patches / hot fixes as soon as they can. That’s a bad analogy to use because while I understand your frustrating, the only thing they owe us is a WORKING GAME, which they are trying to achieve.

Wrong, if a burger joint screws up your order and you come back to get them to fix it they (more often than not) will give you a coupon for a free ice cream cone or small fry or something. They admit that they screwed up and give you something to compensate you for wasting your time for their mistake.

When MMOs have bad launches they often give you free subscription time in order to compensate you for the time they were down. This would most likely be Microsoft extending everyone’s current subscription by a week or so when the game stabilizes.

I am not asking for my money back or for them to give me gifts to overcompensate for the poor launch but minor things like extending my subscription by the time that Halo was unplayable in multiplayer would be great, or something like an armor set that is granted to only people who logged in within the first 72 hours of launch.

Small things of compensation go a long way

13

> 2601632999038896;1:
> Given the poor launch here, I’m guessing many will be wanting something in return for paying good money and not being able to use the product the way it’s intended. From a customer service perspective, I’d have to imagine there are Microsoft or 343 folks wondering how they can make amends with the players. Feel free to share your thoughts. Let me start with my list (no particular order):
>
> - 6-month Xbox Live subscription
> - $20 Xbox gift certificate
> - $20 Microsoft Store coupon
> - Offer of complete refund (this one would be trickier to administer but there may be lots of people regretting the purchase)
> - Free offer for Halo 5 for those players that have a confirmed login to the game in the first month (or however long the period is determined to be) - This one is my choice.
> - 1 yr. subscription to Office 365

son you’re drunk. 6 months of xbl? 20 dollars? complete refund? free halo? whatever you’re on you should share.

They owe us a game that is complete, they are working on that. Don’t get me wrong its -Yoink- its broken, but they chance of them giving us anything is next to zero, especially something of that much worth. Giving the hundreds of thousands of folks who have this most likely is one of the craziest things I’ve heard. thanks for the giggle man.

I understand your point, but you are missing the point that 1. its the opening week, if this is 2 month down the line I’m with you on them owing us something. But offering free xbl for half a year, or half the price of the game in credit, over what amounts to ab0ut 48 hours total downtime so far? holy -Yoink- man you’re tripping.

> 2533274839179587;6:
> Right they don’t owe us anything other than a game that doesn’t work. You apologists crack me up. Do you smile when the burger joint forgets your burger at the drive through? They don’t owe you anything, right?
>
> If you love buying stuff that doesn’t work, why don’t you buy the amazing new game I just made. It doesn’t work yet but it should someday - surely you won’t mind Paypaling $60 to me since I don’t owe you anything. KA-Ching! 343 is laughing all the way to the bank

your example is -Yoinking!- awful, when a burger place forgets my burger at my burger place, I don’t sit around for 48 hours (or a equivalent length of time) being like ERMAHGODMYBURGER, I say hey you forgot my burger, they go and get me said burger, and it gets resolved. you’re tripping balls man, we paid for a game, they owe us a game, its 48 hours after it went live to the public, thinking they owe us half the price in the game back is mental, and I’m not a 343 apologist, they’ve -Yoink- the bed, but thinking they owe us xbox live or money for it is just stupidity of the highest order. Even posting in agreement of this makes you seem dumb. Suggesting a company refund half the price of a game that has been -Yoink- for a week is the worst idea ever. It would be like getting the burger and still demanding half the money back for having to walk back into the shop and that minute was that valuable, then times that by a huge game launch, if you think any company would refund that then you are just loopy.

I don’t disagree with the basic premise, if 343/ms were like hey it was down for 5 days, heres a week extra of xbl credited to your account, or 70/700 points added to your rewards account or whatever that would be lovely, but they owe me a game, not half again the price of the game.

14

I am sorry why should we be entitled to anything in the form of compensation. The game works, just not as expected. What do you expect when a game of this caliber gets released. I mean think about it, four campaigns running on multiple engines. The original multiplayer types for all four games. I almost expected there to be issues with this launch. You have four incredible campaigns. Why not work through those while you wait for these issues to be resolves.

15

> 2533274806689453;12:
> > 2533274819884576;9:
> > > 2533274839179587;6:
> > > Right they don’t owe us anything other than a game that doesn’t work. You apologists crack me up. Do you smile when the burger joint forgets your burger at the drive through? They don’t owe you anything, right?
> > >
> > > If you love buying stuff that doesn’t work, why don’t you buy the amazing new game I just made. It doesn’t work yet but it should someday - surely you won’t mind Paypaling $60 to me since I don’t owe you anything. KA-Ching! 343 is laughing all the way to the bank
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > So when the burger joint forgets my burger I go back in and get WHAT I PAID FOR. They don’t give me something special extra on the side because they messed up. They gave me what it was that I paid for, which is exactly what 343 is trying to do by pushing out patches / hot fixes as soon as they can. That’s a bad analogy to use because while I understand your frustrating, the only thing they owe us is a WORKING GAME, which they are trying to achieve.
>
>
> Wrong, if a burger joint screws up your order and you come back to get them to fix it they (more often than not) will give you a coupon for a free ice cream cone or small fry or something. They admit that they screwed up and give you something to compensate you for wasting your time for their mistake.
>
> When MMOs have bad launches they often give you free subscription time in order to compensate you for the time they were down. This would most likely be Microsoft extending everyone’s current subscription by a week or so when the game stabilizes.
>
> I am not asking for my money back or for them to give me gifts to overcompensate for the poor launch but minor things like extending my subscription by the time that Halo was unplayable in multiplayer would be great, or something like an armor set that is granted to only people who logged in within the first 72 hours of launch.
>
> Small things of compensation go a long way

eh I don’t disagree with the premise, but OPs suggestions were -Yoinking!- mental. 2 days down so they go negative on making a game? niiiiiiice. If they gave each person like 5 pound refund/whatever currency you use if its down for a month, or a week added to XBL or whatever then lovely, but suggesting they get h5 free and -Yoink- is just stupid as hell.

16

> 2790623340544113;15:
> > 2533274806689453;12:
> > > 2533274819884576;9:
> > > > 2533274839179587;6:
> > > > Right they don’t owe us anything other than a game that doesn’t work. You apologists crack me up. Do you smile when the burger joint forgets your burger at the drive through? They don’t owe you anything, right?
> > > >
> > > > If you love buying stuff that doesn’t work, why don’t you buy the amazing new game I just made. It doesn’t work yet but it should someday - surely you won’t mind Paypaling $60 to me since I don’t owe you anything. KA-Ching! 343 is laughing all the way to the bank
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > So when the burger joint forgets my burger I go back in and get WHAT I PAID FOR. They don’t give me something special extra on the side because they messed up. They gave me what it was that I paid for, which is exactly what 343 is trying to do by pushing out patches / hot fixes as soon as they can. That’s a bad analogy to use because while I understand your frustrating, the only thing they owe us is a WORKING GAME, which they are trying to achieve.
> >
> >
> >
> > Wrong, if a burger joint screws up your order and you come back to get them to fix it they (more often than not) will give you a coupon for a free ice cream cone or small fry or something. They admit that they screwed up and give you something to compensate you for wasting your time for their mistake.
> >
> > When MMOs have bad launches they often give you free subscription time in order to compensate you for the time they were down. This would most likely be Microsoft extending everyone’s current subscription by a week or so when the game stabilizes.
> >
> > I am not asking for my money back or for them to give me gifts to overcompensate for the poor launch but minor things like extending my subscription by the time that Halo was unplayable in multiplayer would be great, or something like an armor set that is granted to only people who logged in within the first 72 hours of launch.
> >
> > Small things of compensation go a long way
>
>
> eh I don’t disagree with the premise, but OPs suggestions were -Yoinking!- mental. 2 days down so they go negative on making a game? niiiiiiice. If they gave each person like 5 pound refund/whatever currency you use if its down for a month, or a week added to XBL or whatever then lovely, but suggesting they get h5 free and -Yoink- is just stupid as hell.

Agreed, I think a small compensation is in order due to the fact that they shipped the game and it was broken. I bought Halo for the multiplayer, not the campaign. The multiplayer is broken and it cannot be justified by the “not working as advertised” line I have seen

17

Good to see that people are saying no way to my suggestions. The intent was not to get people to agree or disagree with my list but rather get people thinking about how 343 can make it right. Some people don’t feel anything is due but I think lots still think that they need to do something. I completely disagree with people saying this is what we should expect - new product means bumps and bruises after opening day. A little I can understand and appreciate but completely screwing up multiplayer, that’s not anywhere near acceptable. They should’ve have learned from the bad experiences when other studios screwed up. To this day I know a bunch of people who will never go back to Battlefield no matter what. Please keep the ideas coming. What small token or gesture would you like to see 343 make? Let’s not assume the problem will go away in days. If it was so screwed up from launch, it has to be some time before it meets original specs. My guess is that we’ll get incremental improvements and bug fixes for months. We are a long way off from shippable product quality.

18

> 2533275003520089;14:
> I am sorry why should we be entitled to anything in the form of compensation. The game works, just not as expected. What do you expect when a game of this caliber gets released. I mean think about it, four campaigns running on multiple engines. The original multiplayer types for all four games. I almost expected there to be issues with this launch. You have four incredible campaigns. Why not work through those while you wait for these issues to be resolves.

I bought the game for multiplayer, multiplayer doesn’t work, therefore the game doesn’t work.

If you bought the game for the campaign and hate multiplayer and when you tried to play the campaign it just sat there loading for 3 days would you consider your game to be working? No you would not

19

343 owe us one thing, to fix the issues at hand, that’s it. Hopefully soon, we don’t deserve any compensation unless the game never gets fixed. Would it be nice if we all got a map pack or something, sure. But they don’t owe me one.

20

> 2601632999038896;1:
> Given the poor launch here, I’m guessing many will be wanting something in return for paying good money and not being able to use the product the way it’s intended. From a customer service perspective, I’d have to imagine there are Microsoft or 343 folks wondering how they can make amends with the players. Feel free to share your thoughts. Let me start with my list (no particular order):
>
> - 6-month Xbox Live subscription
> - $20 Xbox gift certificate
> - $20 Microsoft Store coupon
> - Offer of complete refund (this one would be trickier to administer but there may be lots of people regretting the purchase)
> - Free offer for Halo 5 for those players that have a confirmed login to the game in the first month (or however long the period is determined to be) - This one is my choice.
> - 1 yr. subscription to Office 365

I like that halo 5 for free lol