Marketing For Halo 5 An Emotional Rollercoaster

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Marketing for H5 has been a roller coaster of hype and disappointment. Compound this by the fact that we never have any idea when we are going to get new information or what we can expect to see. Sometimes news comes from Twitter, sometimes from Neogaf, sometimes from Reddit, sometimes in random magazine articles that spoil E3, sometimes on Waypoint (though this almost certainly is never the case, which is another issue in and of itself). The following breaks down my emotions as they’ve played out over the past year:

E3 2014: New image of Chief and mysterious Locke character revealed. Get incredible trailer of MCC and Locke watching Chief clip with Arbiter narrating. Locke seems badass. Hype at all time high for Halo. Seems like 343 knows what they’re doing.

Nightfall: Completely undermines badass vibe of Locke from E3. Nightfall one of the worst productions I’ve ever seen. What was the point of this? Hype dropped.

MCC: disaster of epic proportions, but appreciate the thought and love given to Halo 2. Still giving 343 some love, though I’m very skeptical.

H5 Beta: most fun I’ve had in a Halo game since the launch of Halo 2 10 years ago. Hyped again.

343 goes completely silent for 6 months: Still hyped but eagerly awaiting news of things we haven’t seen (campaign, forge, and non-arena multiplayer).

#HuntTheTruth and live action trailers: Chief a traitor? Man on the run? AWOL? ONI plotting against humanity? Conspiracy and the promise of exposing the Spartan program of abducting children, a galaxy at war? My god, HYPED LIKE NEVER BEFORE!

#HuntTheTruth ends: Chief no longer traitor, still untarnished hero, Spartan program not exposed, Ben dead, back to square one. Entire #HuntTheTruth campaign meaningless. Again, what was the point of this? Bummed.

GameInformer article: Amazing new information. Blue team!!! 4 player co-op and friendly AI at all times. Details on Osiris. Buck!!! Hype at all time high again. Thinking that if they are revealing this much prior to E3, surely 343’s showing at E3 will blow us away!!!

E3 2015: No new information on campaign aside from what Game Informer spoiled (why would 343 allow this to be published prior to E3?), linear level demo, same boring AI, hideous explosion effects, mediocre graphics, no forge. Only 5 minutes devoted to H5 on stage. New Warzone mode seems promising, but really hoping this isn’t the only thing 343 is banking on showing us for the next several months prior to launch. Overall worst E3 showing of Halo probably in the history of the franchise. Bummed again, but clinging to that beta experience as reassurance. New Sprint series is entertaining and fun to watch.

ComicCon: Tease of Raid on Apex 7, the “spiritual successor to the Silent Cartographer”. News that it will be covenant themed rather than forerunner. Hyped for Warzone now, and hoping they show footage of it at ComicCon. No footage, just a block model of it (albeit with an AMAZING score piece from Kazuma Jinnouchi). Bummed for lack of gameplay and news on Halo 5, but hyped for Fall of Reach animated series.

Gamescomm and the weeks leading up to it: Random news bits start hitting the net from all over the place. Disorganized mess. News of no flood, no split screen (people start gathering their pitch forks and torches), no new campaign information, boring footage of watching pros play arena, seemingly cool new map, same rehashed footage of Warzone over and over and over and over again, footage of Blue Team mission (hyped to hear Fred, Kelly and Linda speaking, but footage looks like Halo 4, really surprised how dated the game looks).

PAX: No Forge confirmed, likely get the same rehashed footage of Warzone. I’m already sick of that map and I haven’t even played it yet. Most definitely will not be voting for it when the game launches. Thinking that 343 is either going to withhold any new information entirely, or reveal a ton of new information on an IGN First exclusive during October leading up to launch. Bummed, yet hopeful more is coming.

Conclusion: I’d say my hype from E3 2014 to now has gone from 100 to 50. The “traitor” tagline 343 keeps throwing around seems to be nothing more than speech to get us hyped about something that won’t play out in the game at all. Locke isn’t a mysterious badass with ulterior motives, he’s just a chump with a new voice actor (thank god for that, at least). The promise to “unleash the power and potential of the Xbox One” seems to be PR double talk. Fireteam Osiris seems interesting, and excited to see how 4 player co-op will play out. Mostly hyped to hear the full score Kazuma has whipped up, and to get my hands on Forge and seem more playlists and the full map list that 343 intends to have at launch.

Overall, the game looks good, but their marketing of the game itself hasn’t done it any justice at all whatsoever.

2

Agreed. Hunt the truth in particular gave me the bluest of balls; I didn’t expect Ben to succeed in opening the eyes of the public or anything, but it could’ve at least gone somewhere.

3

> 2533274823519895;2:
> Agreed. Hunt the truth in particular gave me the bluest of balls; I didn’t expect Ben to succeed in opening the eyes of the public or anything, but it could’ve at least gone somewhere.

Tell me about it. The first half played out so great, and I was hyped more than ever for Halo 5. When the dust settled and we were back to the status quo of “Chief is the savior of mankind”, I was extremely disappointed (though entertained).

4

Id say I got Hyped again when they revealed the Console… I know it was just a matter of time but damn that bad boy is sweet.
Has nothing to do with the actual “game” I guess lol

as for everything else, pretty much spot on lol.

5

Can’t say that I agree. I love it when I can still get all the info they’ve dumped on us (especially considering they don’t have to give us any) without spoiling anything. Otherwise I’d have to go dark which isn’t as much fun.

And I thought HtT was great! Sure, nothing changed in the end, but that just shows the dark power of ONI, you know, that shadowy organization that ordered Locke to hunt Chief?

6

> 2533274825044752;5:
> Can’t say that I agree. I love it when I can still get all the info they’ve dumped on us (especially considering they don’t have to give us any) without spoiling anything. Otherwise I’d have to go dark which isn’t as much fun.
>
> The original post kind of comes off as whiney, imo.

I’m with this. H5’s plan has walked the fine line between giving us something and spoiling what we’ll get. All that I’d like to see now prior to launch is a few more of the armor options in multiplayer and maybe gameplay on one more Warzone map.

7

> 2533274825044752;5:
> Can’t say that I agree. I love it when I can still get all the info they’ve dumped on us (especially considering they don’t have to give us any) without spoiling anything. Otherwise I’d have to go dark which isn’t as much fun.

I’ll agree with you that I don’t like the game to be spoiled. We’re not likely to get any more campaign information, and that’s fine. I was just hoping to see how they use the tech of the xbox to achieve new things. Maybe just show a hint at how large some of the battles will be or something. So far, we’ve just seen really narrow corridors, and it really isn’t doing their message of “largest campaign ever” any justice.

I do think, however, that they need to show more Warzone maps (there are 6 in total), Forge tools, and divulge what their specific plans are for playlists available at launch, if there is a custom games browser or clan support, and when exactly we can expect to see classic BTB and other playlists roll out.

These are key aspects to the game that won’t spoil anything, and can impact someone’s decision to buy the game or not.

8

You should see Fallout 4’s marketing. They haven’t released any gameplay or screenshot since the week of reveal, three months ago. That games comes out two weeks after Halo 5. Perhaps game developers want you to live the experience playing instead of watching/reading/hearing…?
They aren’t just business, they are artists. They feel the work they create, and are personally passionate about it.

9

Uhm…how does halo 5 look dated? It’s halo. They chose to go style over photo realism a while back and it’s not gonna change really. It’s their way not to fall in the uncanny valley but the level of detail is insane.

10

Disagree about hunt the truth, although it didn’t really add much it dropped hints of the direction the story is heading and has gotten me hyper pumped about that. Seeing ONI flex it intelligence muscle to flush out Fero was incredible and the final episode was probably my favorite. It was almost hard to listen to as ONI discredit Ben piece by piece and ultimately ruined his life.

11

> 2533274875903884;8:
> You should see Fallout 4’s marketing. They haven’t released any gameplay or screenshot since the week of reveal, three months ago. That games comes out two weeks after Halo 5. Perhaps game developers want you to live the experience playing instead of watching/reading/hearing…?
> They aren’t just business, they are artists. They feel the work they create, and are personally passionate about it.

True, but Fallout 4 and Bethesda aren’t in a position of needing to convince people that their newest game will right the wrongs of previous games or that they can be trusted with a flagship franchise.

Fallout 4 is one of the only, if not THE only, games that can succeed on hype alone. Bethesda is unanimously loved and praised in the entire community of Fallout fans.

12

> 2533274892061674;11:
> True, but Fallout 4 and Bethesda aren’t in a position of needing to convince people that their newest game will right the wrongs of previous games or that they can be trusted with a flagship franchise.

Is 343 really going to be the voice that convinces you, or are you going to need to be convinced by someone you know and will more likely believe?

13

> 2533274875903884;8:
> You should see Fallout 4’s marketing. They haven’t released any gameplay or screenshot since the week of reveal, three months ago. That games comes out two weeks after Halo 5. Perhaps game developers want you to live the experience playing instead of watching/reading/hearing…?
> They aren’t just business, they are artists. They feel the work they create, and are personally passionate about it.

Exactly this.
We should be thankful for what they have divulged knowing that they could’ve remained completely silent.

14

> 2533274800110367;9:
> Uhm…how does halo 5 look dated? It’s halo. They chose to go style over photo realism a while back and it’s not gonna change really. It’s their way not to fall in the uncanny valley but the level of detail is insane.

The Blue Team footage looked like cut footage from Halo 4’s first mission. The explosion effects are embarrassingly bad, and copied directly from Halo 4.

15

> 2533274825044752;13:
> > 2533274875903884;8:
> > You should see Fallout 4’s marketing. They haven’t released any gameplay or screenshot since the week of reveal, three months ago. That games comes out two weeks after Halo 5. Perhaps game developers want you to live the experience playing instead of watching/reading/hearing…?
> > They aren’t just business, they are artists. They feel the work they create, and are personally passionate about it.
>
>
> Exactly this.
> We should be thankful for what they have divulged knowing that they could’ve remained completely silent.

343 can’t afford to be completely silent. After Halo 4 and the disastrous launch of the MCC, Halo would be dead if they didn’t show Halo 5.

16

> 2533274805497312;12:
> > 2533274892061674;11:
> > True, but Fallout 4 and Bethesda aren’t in a position of needing to convince people that their newest game will right the wrongs of previous games or that they can be trusted with a flagship franchise.
>
>
> Is 343 really going to be the voice that convinces you, or are you going to need to be convinced by someone you know and will more likely believe?

Good call. Hell, you should probably listen to the opinion of anyone BUT the developers.

17

> 2533274823519895;16:
> > 2533274805497312;12:
> > > 2533274892061674;11:
> > > True, but Fallout 4 and Bethesda aren’t in a position of needing to convince people that their newest game will right the wrongs of previous games or that they can be trusted with a flagship franchise.
> >
> >
> > Is 343 really going to be the voice that convinces you, or are you going to need to be convinced by someone you know and will more likely believe?
>
>
> Good call. Hell, you should probably listen to the opinion of anyone BUT the developers.

They’re still trying to sell you something. If you don’t like what they’ve sold you before, they’re probably the last people you want to listen to.

18

I’m super bored of Warzone already too, mainly that same decent/subpar looking map. The fly in animation looks ugly and platform you fly unto to get on, is just as ugly. Why are they using an ugly drab yellow and red, with cheap plastic looking LZ (1080p 60fps of ugly). Why does the human pallet A.R.C look like Complex from Halo 4, the ugliest human theme to date. Also, the map looks color washed. Hype is at an all time low and I’m getting bored tbh. The only good looking arena maps imo, are Truth and Fathom so far, everything else is ok or ugly. Who knows, maybe they made those maps look ugly too, because Post Eden has lost all of its beauty. I just really never liked 343’s art direction, and it’s killing me. Lack luster textures and bland art.

Aside from the rant, can we get something on Grifball, forge, other playlists, the many weapons that have yet to be seen. 343 also seems happy about unveiling Breakout as one of there new playlists, but I think it is lame.

19

> 2533274805497312;17:
> > 2533274823519895;16:
> > > 2533274805497312;12:
> > > > 2533274892061674;11:
> > > > True, but Fallout 4 and Bethesda aren’t in a position of needing to convince people that their newest game will right the wrongs of previous games or that they can be trusted with a flagship franchise.
> > >
> > >
> > > Is 343 really going to be the voice that convinces you, or are you going to need to be convinced by someone you know and will more likely believe?
> >
> >
> > Good call. Hell, you should probably listen to the opinion of anyone BUT the developers.
>
>
> They’re still trying to sell you something. If you don’t like what they’ve sold you before, they’re probably the last people you want to listen to.

For sure. I’d say that applies regardless of whether or not you enjoyed their previous work. I won’t be fooled again, I still wake up in a cold sweat some nights remembering that I bought Fable 2 on release without reading a single thing about it first from third parties.

20

> 2533274892061674;14:
> > 2533274800110367;9:
> > Uhm…how does halo 5 look dated? It’s halo. They chose to go style over photo realism a while back and it’s not gonna change really. It’s their way not to fall in the uncanny valley but the level of detail is insane.
>
>
> The Blue Team footage looked like cut footage from Halo 4’s first mission. The explosion effects are embarrassingly bad, and copied directly from Halo 4.

People cried for 60 fps and already spilled rivers of tears becsuse…ZOMG no splitscteen. You cannot have both amazing eye candy 60 fps and tons of units in a console game. But this is besides the point. Explosions have been less than amazing since the first halo, I am not concerned especially since the video directly said that a lot if what they used was place holders. All the models have been given more polys and more details and a LOT more things are happening on screen at any given time. Animations have been improves as well. Of course…people said halo 4 looked like halo reach with maybe better light in 2012 so I’m not going to waste much breath.