Imagine the Success of Infinite if 343 had “ Done a Bungie” and said it’s ready when it’s ready….
A year later (late 2022/2023) Infinity is released
Full co-op
Forge
Major issues addressed (after multiple Betas)
Battle royal mode
This game would have been set for years to come
Holding on to a large player base and generating enough revenue long term to make up for the delay.
People were fed up of cheaters on Warzone & Apex and the gaming community were looking to Infinte with so much hope.
Now it’s (I am gutted to say) spiralling down
Losing players over numerous issues
No strategy to entice them back
This game is just talked about as “ What could have been”………
I guess they already used their free one year postponement card when it was supposed to be released in 2020. For the longest time I thought ok this game sucks but it’s Halo so of course the ship will eventually get corrected.
I’m actually really doubting the future of this game now. So many deep rooted issues that might be too difficult to fix without breaking the game further. The fact that they’ve done absolutely nothing and communicated like a spouse who wants a divorce has proven how incompetent 343 is.
I’m getting serious Anthem vibes from this game. I think part of the reason we’ve heard next to nothing is that there’s probably debate going on with whether the game is a financial liability or not and even worth saving. They’ll only dump resources to fix it if they think they can recoup those resources.
I don’t think it really matters. Good/strong updates will bring back players. Releasing early capitalises on the current market and playerbase.
I’d be surprised if this game wasn’t still a financial success in it’s current form. I feel like it’s probably made a silly amount of money in it’s first months. Realistically, players want more and the population will experience natural drop off. They really need to bring some strong updates to ensure population and cashflow remains healthy.
The current game is probably not going to be generating sufficient revenue for the series size and expectation. I assume we will either see radical change to attempt to reach overarching goals or gradually minimal support with the natural population decline and abandonment of the previously set targets and milestones.
I’m torn on this idea - I definitely would have preferred Forge, coop, and more game modes at launch - but I also have enjoyed my time with the campaign thus far, and while MP definitely needs work to be what it should be, I’ve also not been impacted enough by its state to not have fun when playing with friends. So, my struggle is - would I trade the fun I’ve had the past 4-5 months for a more complete game? I’m not sure which way I fall on that question, to be honest.
I just think if 343 was honest, people would have been more understanding. They shouldve been open about the development of infinite. If they were honest about the staffing issues and the development, it wouldve been a better reception than releasing the game 1/10th complete and explaining what happened AFTER they took money from so many people. If they wouldve delayed it, fans wouldve been upset for like a week or 2, then return to their normal lives until the next year came. Then hype would ensue again, etc, etc.
Instead of playing the long-term game, 343i decided to cut corners and release a f2p game that “we” (the community cannot stop complaining about a free game) and 343i is trying to play catch up with a partial complete multiplayer game.
I agree with the other issue, but was bungie ever really a ‘ready when its ready’ company? Halo 2 was notoriously rushed, there’s no real record of the games being delayed, and plenty of evidence of a lot being cut.
I think what Bungie did better than 343 was scope control. Knowing what to cut and what to keep to make sure they had a good product out on time.
I always like to think of how The Act Man puts things in his Halo videos: “You only get one opportunity to make a good first impression.”
Once people boot up your game for the first time and feel like it’s lacking content and isnt fun because of it, those players might shut off the game for good.
The only reason i have hope for this game is because I know how much work 343 put into fixing and expanding MCC, and it wasnt even really a main series game. Infinite is a main series game, so it’s make or break for 343.
Unfortunately for them, many peoples’ first impressions of this game was sour at best. Sadly, a good chunk of those players may never return…
Imagine how bad this game would have looked and played if they hadn’t delayed by a year as it was?! It seems to me as they’ve literally just wall papered over the cracks so it looks a bit nicer rather than scraping off the old plaster, skimming and painting…it looks better on the surface but it’s still a bad job.
What really gets to me is that Halo Infinite doesn’t even look or feel like what a “next gen” game should be…even more so when you consider the basic features that are missing, the poor UI, the total lack of content…and let’s not even start on the “next gen” features that this could have had by integrating social media aspects. It really is an empty shell of a game.
What else do expect from “live service?” In order for live service to be as effective as possible, the game needs to release with as few features as humanly possible. Then they just start drip feeding the rest of the game, so that it looks like theyre living up to what they promised. This also gives them more time to figure out what they want to release beyond that (which is the only explanation for why there still isnt a road map).
We’re in the Era of Patches. “Live Service” is just the latest facet of that era. 1.) Release unfinished game. 2.) Patch, patch, patch. 3.) Brainstorm new content while you patch. 4.) Incrementally release new content in the smallest doses possible to sustain the Live Service criteria.
IMO it doesn’t matter if they waited another year or not. How things played out would have most like happened either way. Maybe not so much the technical issues, but everything else…
Yeah or something like a soft relaunch. The game in its current form is very sad. It has absolutely no competition in its own field this year and still trips over its own feet.
I said weeks ago (and even made a thread about it) that they should officially roll the game back to “beta” and continue development behind the scenes with minimal support for the current iteration of the game. If they own their mistakes and be honest with the community then I would take that and have a bit more respect for them.
All they are doing at the moment is damaging their own reputation and that of the Halo franchise.
