I have a deep love for the Halo franchise. I first played Halo 2 on the Xbox. After which I rushed out to purchase Combat Evolved for the PC before the disc copy disappeared. Since I have bought every version of the game since, and every version has been the most expensive version. I even bought the Halo 4 console when the game came out. With that said, I love how the games have turned out under 343, gameplay wise. I love them all from 4 all the way to Halo Wars 2. But there have been some missed opportunities and things that frankly astonish me on the business side of things that Microsoft and 343 simply don’t seem to get.
MCC launch. This game launched to an almost entirely broken MP experience. And you know something? I can forgive this. Not simply because anyone that purchased the game early got ODST as a free expansion to MCC, but because I understand that this was a very difficult endeavor. The most difficult thing they have and possibly ever will do. 4 games, on the same package, one getting a new remaster, and all having a multiplayer playlist. On paper this is the definition of grand.
*ODST also doesn’t even include Firefight, so another missed opportunity, thanks H8TRFFC
Halo Online. One of the largest missed opportunities out there. When people take the time to mod your Free to Play Alpha into a working product, you should take note of that. You should see that there is an obvious demand for Halo on the PC, so much so that the original game is still well populated to this day, and then this. They continue to miss this opportunity time and time again. Sure, we get stuff like Spartan Assault, and as of recently, Halo Wars. But these are no substitute for what we actually want on the PC platform. Microsoft literally has the ability to print money with release of ANY main series Halo game to Steam. The windows store is a joke, and I will get to this topic more in a bit.
Halo Wars 2 Ultimate preorders So, those of us that purchased Halo Wars 2 Ultimate Edition early were granted early access to a discounted bundled version of Halo Wars 1 for Xbox One and PC. I was soooo excited when I heard that one of my favorite Halo games would be coming to my platform of choice. So I preordered the game through Windows Store, like many others. However my preorder was later, so I knew what to expect. Those that preordered prior to Dec. 20th, did not. In one of the most confusing and frustrating moves in history, for Xbox and PC gamer alike, they decided to send the codes out in waves of 7-10 days each. The main premise of an online market place, is that on release of the game in any form that game is available at that moment. It should not have been as hard as 343 and Microsoft made it to get the game. There are stories of people that got the game far after the 7-10 days. I fortunately was not one of them, but having to wait for a simple digital code was a poor way to handle the initial launch of Halo Wars DE. And this turns out to be the less evil of the 2 decisions regarding this game
Halo Wars Definitive Edition… On Steam So, I am not against having the game on Steam, at all. It opens the game up to far more exposure than simply being limited to Windows 10. And that in itself is a good decision on 343s part. Credit where credit is due. But there have been a few very questionable decisions made in relation to how this was handled. Firstly, lack of details on this announcement. We basically found out an announcement for the games stand alone release that it would be getting released to Steam. This announcement came almost 2 months after the initial release of the game on Windows 10 for UE buyers. Again, this alone is not a bad thing. In fact, this is a great thing. But for UE buyers, its not that great. So in the same announcement only 3 days prior to the launch of HW DE for Steam, it was also stated that the game would not have any connectivity to the Windows 10 version, with no real explanation given as to why. 343 has not even responded to this in any way. So early adopters now have a choice to make. Purchase the game a second time if they wish to play Multiplayer, as the population is obviously going to migrate to the more popular platform. Or settle for almost never being able to find a game as you are only going to be able to play with other Windows 10 users. This is essentially planned obselence of the product on Windows 10. They are going to rake in money for the version on Steam and its going to work as intended, while early adopters basically got the shaft. This would not be nearly as bad if we told beforehand that there would be a standalone release of HW DE on Steam, and that it would have no connectivity with the Win10 version. In fact, I would be a bit upset, but I would have enough time to make an informed decision about what route to take with purchase instead of being in the situation that I am right now, as of this very moment.
The Future So I have no idea what the future holds, but I can only hope it doesnt include more missed opportunities and poorly made decisions like these. Halo and 343 wont be able to survive if they don’t learn from all of this. But so far, there doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of learning on their part in this particular area. That is where we as the community come in. Don’t be afraid to voice your concerns for these types of things to them. If we don’t let them know these things are a problem, they will never know. We have to help guide 343 and in turn, Microsoft (not holding my breath on that one), so that they can make a quality product that does right by their community. I still love Halo and plan as of this moment to purchase Halo 6 upon release, but with all of this in mind I’m not preordering the game. I want them to make good decisions and they need our help to do it. We are a team!
