Mandatory downloading of Halo Channel App

Games Halo: The Master Chief Collection
1

I just want to speak my mind and wonder if others agree with me on this.

This is not a technical problem thread, this has nothing to do with game stability or bugs.
This is an intentional design/idea almost certainly dreamt up by the most shameful marketers in 343.

When you play the MCC campaigns, you can access terminals for additional story and achievements, they are kind of necessary for completions sake and also provide good entertainment about the halo universe, i really liked the halo 1 and halo 4 terminals personally.

However in game you access the terminals with your use button, and then…you are pulled back to dashboard whilst the app store page is opened, and directs you to the MANDATORY download of the Halo Channel app to watch this content. Now both games with video terminal cut scenes both ran this content off the disc/HDD and it was seamless and didn’t take you out of the game client.

This is a blatant attempt to force apps onto systems, which users are given no fair choice.
Im not saying i wouldn’t use this app, the content seems fine, i have watched most of the videos on there its good… i would probably have downloaded it anyway because for a halo fan it is totally relevant and useful, there was no need to ruin my experience in the game and cause this resentment.

You want your app to be successful and get used 343i… i get it.
But give me the freedom to choose, don’t make my decisions for me. This leads to the future of entertainment you purchase being gated with the proviso you download, subscribe, friend, +1, sign up , sign in, rate, comment etc etc etc etc
This might be great for your rankings, ratings, targets and board room -Yoink!- size but it sucks for consumers and is ultimately superficial and vapid in any real world value.

I ask you personally never to do this again, not because the lack of my one purchase will bring your company down but because it kills the experience of the product and it loses your company respect which as you know is incredibly hard to earn.

Thanks!

2

Honestly, the only problem i have with Halo Channel is that it auto open when i start a terminal, this is annoying…
Except that, i think there is no problem if the app is mandatory… It could be build in MCC, but they wanted to make the content available on Wphone and W8.1.
I can see the terminals, and other stuff everywhere if i want, and the app (if they do what they said), will be rich in content.

So yes, maybe it’s a bit annoying for someone to download an app to watch terminals, and then delete it after, but i think most of the people that wanna see the terminals, would have downloaded the app anyways.

3

I think it’s quite a good idea so far, yes is can be a bit of a hassle jumping on and off but it’s like a mini halo netflix :’)

4

I downloaded the channel before I even started playing, but I do wish it didn’t have to boot the channel just to see the terminals in game.

5

I get what you mean. It sort of ruins the immersion of it all too.

On the plus side though, when the terminal video starts playing you can snap it to the side and continue playing halo 2 while you watch it… not that you can hear it very well over the sound of you shooting things.

6

I hate that it pops the app open everytime as well. I know when the xbox one first came out it would always run apps in the background. If you enable the auto on by speaking, it never fully powers down and thus causes crashes later because of all the apps. I turned off this feature and do a full power down everytime and no longer have app crashing issues which were very frustrating with xbox fitness. I can’t help but think this app jumping is causing atleast some of the issues in the game like freezing or the controller becoming unresponsive since it has happened a couple of times after a terminal. I like the channel and all videos should be there, but when in game for a terminal found in game, keep me in game…

7

If the app ran smoothly, it would be fine. The Xbox One tries so hard to have a dedicated app for every little thing, and they all run terribly when compared to the 360 where things like friends lists, messages, achievements, etc were all built in to the OS rather than a separate app running on top.

The Halo Channel app is no different. It’s pretty jarring to go from a smoothly running game to an app with horrendous input lag, wait times to navigate menus, or sometimes failure to load content altogether.

8

I would not mind it but sometimes it makes my halo kill its self.