I doubt that Bungie will ever return, because I had just discovered that Bungie didn’t want to make any more halo games after 3, but because we love this franchise SO MUCH, that Bungie decided to end the franchise by making and releasing Halo REACH as the LAST bungie halo before moving on to Destiny 1 & 2. 343 also loves halo and so, Microsoft gave the franchise to 343 so that they will develop more halo sequels so this fandom may live on forever!
When I first played Halo 4 I thought it was the Master chief’s and Cortana’s final journey. I thought it was the finale. But when they started developing Halo 5: Guardians and announced it, I was surprised! I couldn’t wait for what exciting new adventures S-117 would experience! And after I started playing it I thought it was an amazing game, but I DID notice a few things in the campaign: Spartan Locke was the main spotlight and Cortana was back to life, but as a brainwashed and corrupted villain. I didn’t think it was a big deal, but as soon as INFINITE released, and I started to interact with the fandom, I was shocked and upset to find out what happened with the fandom: THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of fans were complaining about what was wrong with all of 343’s halos, mostly focused on Halo 5’s Campaign and almost everything about INFINITE.
Well, now that I understand more about the franchise and not just on the story, I can agree with SOME of the issues INFINITE does have: no Campaign DLCs, no mission replay, no split-screen and co-op, no forge, no griffball, no extra vehicles, no shotgun and plasma rifle and there were many bugs within the matchmaking multiplayer. And even after co-op, some split-screen, forge, custom browser and mission-replay returned it still wasn’t enough to save the game!
And to make matters worse, we’ve been wanting to watch the long-awaited halo tv series on paramount and, (in MY personal opinion, I thought it was a good show) millions hated the show even more, all because they made the UNSC look like the bad guys, replacing blue team with silver team, have a human girl team up with the covenant and they made the show play out like a Star Wars knock-off with the young girl Kuan taking up one-third of the series.
Bonnie Ross was to blame for the mismanagement and Microsoft made Joseph Staten the head-lead of 343’s story/dev team. Joseph TRIED to rescue the franchise with the help of some of the ex-Bungie devs, but the situation was just… TOO far gone. 30 million played halo 1, 2, and 3, but because of what happened last year we are down to just 8,000 players daily: 99% of the community left the series!
So, with very little choices left to make, Microsoft had to lay off 10,000 (including Staten) working at 343, and the originally-planed sequel, Halo: the Endless (Which will be created with Unreal Engine 5!) will NOT be developed by 343 anymore… I guess the 10-year plan for INFINITE is going to be cancelled.
So my question now is… who, or what new gaming industries is going to own and save Halo now?
