The 2007 Halo 3 is still the best selling Halo game of all time. Even Halo 4 with the much hyped return of Master Chief could not outsell Halo 3 even though there were far more installed users of xbox 360s in 2012 than 2007. Microsoft wants and needs to create a Halo game that will outsell one from 6 years ago and that is going to be hard to do on the Xbox One. The Xbox 360 had a year advantage versus the higher priced PS3 and Sony messed up getting things right of the PS3 for many years. This time around Sony is launching the PS4 at the same time and $100 less than a Xbox One and looks like they won’t be making many of the same stupid mistakes like they did with the PS3. With this being said I will be buying an Xbox One and not a PS4 solely because of my love for Halo.
If Microsoft is going to create a Halo game that will outsell Halo 3, they will need to delay Halo 5 until 2015 to allow the installed user base of the Xbox One to grow for a few years like they did by releasing Halo 3 two years after the Xbox 360 was launched in 2005. One difference now is that Microsoft is going to keep supporting the xbox 360 for a while longer, while back in 2005 Microsoft was quick to kill off the original xbox and move all their focus to the 360. This means there is a good chance Halo 5 could be available on both the xbox 360 and xbox one at the same time in order make a Halo game (that for the first time in history) that would be available on more than just one system. While I would expect that Halo 5 on the xbox one will have improved graphics and some unique levels and huge forge world, but making a Halo game for two systems at the same time could almost guarantee that Halo 5 will outsell them all.
I do not believe there is anything that can be done for the next Halo to outsell Halo 3. Too many of the fans have moved on at this point; half of the friends I used to play Halo 3 with didn’t even bother with 4, and the other half stopped playing after a month.
Halo 3 sold nearly 12 million. The only way I believe it could possibly be toppled is if Halo 5 really returns the series to its former glory. Should Halo 5 be universally regarded as a success, then maybe Halo 6 could take the crown.
First we need a Halo that’s superior to every one of its predecessors. The sequel to that game can beat Halo 3. The sequel to Halo 4 can’t.
Halo 3 has been out for 5 years and has sold 11.8 million units.
Halo 4 has been out for less than 1 year and has 8.4 million units sold. There’s still a year left until Halo 5 comes out. With the Halo 4 & Tomb Raider XBox 360 bundles coming out for the holidays, there’s a chance that Halo 4 gets close to Halo 3’s units sold, if not more.
> Halo 3 has been out for 5 years and has sold 11.8 million units.
> Halo 4 has been out for less than 1 year and has 8.4 million units sold. There’s still a year left until Halo 5 comes out. With the Halo 4 & Tomb Raider XBox 360 bundles coming out for the holidays, there’s a chance that Halo 4 gets close to Halo 3’s units sold, if not more.
Halo 3 was released from 25-27 September 2007 around the world, and sold 8.1 millions by January 3, 2008.
Which means Halo 3 after it’s big launch, only sold 3.7 million copies in 6 years.
Halo 4 needs 3.5 million more units sold, and I think I read somewhere that Microsoft would stop supporting the Xbox 360 market after another 3 years has passed.
Looking at the fact there is a new xbox in release, making the Xbox 360 an outdated gaming console there is absolutely no chance that Halo 4 is going to qonquer that title, ever.
I can’t provide a quote but I believe 343 has said Halo 5 is going to be an Xbox One offering only.
As for outselling Halo 3, sure, would be nice. But Halo 3 was a generational game… expecting the franchise to surpass that hurdle at every turn, or even return to it at all, is rather optimistic (and not so realistic) IMHO.
As for fans moving on, there are multiple reasons, and not all of them have to do with Halo 4’s mixed results. Consider - demographics. Halo is an old franchise by FPS standards. My friends and I started playing CE LAN games as soon as they were available to us in college. We’re married now, most own homes, and some have kids. Video games aren’t exactly high on our priority list. Halo 5 could well be the best Halo yet but there’s a very real (And very sad) chance that we might not be able to partake in the fun. Not everyone who leaves the franchise does so by choice.
They need to just not BS everyone this time around and make a game that really does “brings halo back to its roots”. Thats the reason why halo 4 sold how it did. They made a statement that everyone wanted to hear but lost all of their player base once everyone realized it was a huge lie.
I want to be addicted to halo again like I was with reach and 3 but 343 is making it hard for me. Im not even buying the new xbox until I hear if the new halo is good 3 months after it comes out.
I really like Halo 4, but the two things that disappointed me were Forge World being smaller than Reach, and not having a Firefight mode. Spartan Ops is fun as long as there were new episodes every week, but once there were no new episodes it got boring being told to do the exact same thing every time you played it. Reach Firefight remains fun because you can play it however you want and all the customizing of the waves keeps it fresh.
I think Halo 5 should be on the Xbox 360, but the xbox one version should lots of extra content. Maybe the xbox 360 version has an 8 hour campaign while the xbox one version has over 12 hours plus a giant forge world.
Who cares about sales? I just want Halo to be great again.
> I really like Halo 4, but the two things that disappointed me were Forge World being smaller than Reach, and not having a Firefight mode. Spartan Ops is fun as long as there were new episodes every week, but once there were no new episodes it got boring being told to do the exact same thing every time you played it. Reach Firefight remains fun because you can play it however you want and all the customizing of the waves keeps it fresh.
>
> I think Halo 5 should be on the Xbox 360, but the xbox one version should lots of extra content. Maybe the xbox 360 version has an 8 hour campaign while the xbox one version has over 12 hours plus a giant forge world.
Why on earth should it be on 360 when it would limit the game drastically which caused the small forge maps. Also how would the 360 and XB1 versions having different lengths accomplish anything other than being stupid and shipping an incomplete game.
Microsoft owns Halo to make a profit. Sure a great Halo game will make them more money but it would be hard for them to ignore the 80 million xbox 360 owners while there might be only 20 million xbox one owners by next year at this time (at best).
> Microsoft owns Halo to make a profit. Sure a great Halo game will make them more money but it would be hard for them to ignore the 80 million xbox 360 owners while there might be only 20 million xbox one owners by next year at this time (at best).
That wouldnt be a good business move since by limiting it to the XB1 it allows for the game to bot be restricted to hardware limits which crippled some of halo 4 and allows for good connection with dedicated servers and a bigger transfer rate. And if they want to play H5 they have to get the XB1 which many people would do thus boosting the sale of the new console.
> Who cares about sales? I just want Halo to be great again.
343i cares…
No offense towards 343i, but they are a business. That means money and sales come first period. If they make H5 like Halo 3 then only the hardcore H3 groupies would buy it. They would not make much money and they would probably find themselves looking for new jobs.
Incentive: Appeal to the masses (Casual gamers and Cod babies) and you will make money and keep your jobs!
Sadly, this is the way of things…
Halo 4 is already on track to pass up Halo 3. It passed Halo 2 not too long ago…
> Microsoft owns Halo to make a profit. Sure a great Halo game will make them more money but it would be hard for them to ignore the 80 million xbox 360 owners while there might be only 20 million xbox one owners by next year at this time (at best).
Halo 5 is not coming to the 360. Would be a terrible idea.
Take what made Halo 3 good.
Take the good stuff from Halo 4.
Fix problems that made people “irk” on both games.
Sell Halo XB1.
Cash. Cow.
Great gameplay trumps title. Halo started off well because it was a great game. Make a great game and you won’t need to rely on reviewers telling everyone that its a 10/10.
> > Who cares about sales? I just want Halo to be great again.
>
> 343i cares…
>
> No offense towards 343i, but they are a business. That means money and sales come first period. If they make H5 like Halo 3 then only the hardcore H3 groupies would buy it. They would not make much money and they would probably find themselves looking for new jobs.
>
> Incentive: Appeal to the masses (Casual gamers and Cod babies) and you will make money and keep your jobs!
>
> Sadly, this is the way of things…
What made everyone buy Halo 3 then? Quite a lot of people have been playing Halo 3 for a long time, and Halo 3 has more sales then Halo 4. So their strategy isn’t really going by plan.
Halo 3 had Ranked and Social, thus appealing to both crowds. Every week we had Double XP, which was a great reason for the casuals to come back at weekends and play again.
@ OP:
As already mentioned, Halo 5 for the 360 would be a terrible and idiotic move for 343i to make. What needs to be done, is to put Halo back to the roots. They shouldn’t tell us that it still has the Halo feel while changing everything. They need to give us the Halo feel,the real one, back. And it doesn’t work by dumbing down the game even more.
> <mark>The 2007 Halo 3 is still the best selling Halo game of all time. Even Halo 4 with the much hyped return of Master Chief could not outsell Halo 3 even though there were far more installed users of xbox 360s in 2012 than 2007.</mark>
Wrong, Halo 4 did outsell Halo 3 when comparing the launch numbers. The only thing Halo 3 has going is that it has sold more due to it being out on the market a lot longer.
> An interesting note to take from the announcement is that the information in which the sales data for Halo 4 is based comes from Microsoft’s “retail sales sell-through data for each respective fiscal year.” This means that Halo 3 is still the probable leader in lifetime sales, although it’s bound to be overtaken in only a matter of time if the numbers keep up.
> Microsoft’s “Halo 4” sold $220 million worth of games in the first 24 hours. At $60 a pop, that’s 3.7 million copies in just one day. That beats the record “Halo 3” set in 2007 of $170 million in first-day sales.Microsoft said the first week of sales are on track to top $300 million, which is exactly what “Halo 3” did five years ago.
> With those one-week sales numbers still coming in, Microsoft said that the latest game is on track to surpass its predecessors one-week global sales, but it’s not able to say by exactly how much.
Halo 4 has sold more in its first year than Halo 3 did in its so I guess 343i has already made a game than can out sell Halo 3.
Even though I really like Halo 4, it just didn’t have the staying power like Halo 3, and has little chance of ever surpassing Halo 3 in total sales. If Microsoft actually thought Halo 4 had a chance at trumping Halo 3 they wouldn’t be giving away Halo 3 for free for Gold Live members.
“Halo 4 grossed US $220 million on its launch day and $300 million in its opening week, a record for the franchise.”
Sure, Halo 3 might have sold more than 11.5 million copies in it’s lifetime, but Halo 4 clearly blew all previous Halo records away IN ITS FIRST WEEK. If this trend continues, Halo 5 should be able to break Halo 4’s record and blow Halo 3 out of the water. Just saying.