Like it or not halo 5 is not a popular game. It’s fun but it has a very poor population for a halo game, a large amount of hate, and was extremely disappointing in almost every respect at launch. Not to mention 343 has had to deal with the disaster of the MCC and the almost universal hate of halo 4.
However, all though these are very bad for halo in the short term, in the long term these disasters are going to give halo the opportunity to not only become more popular than it was in the past, but also more fun. But why? Well with the drop in population, and the large amount of fans that are leaving, 343 is desperately trying to get as close to the community as possible to understand what we want and how to make the game better. Were it not for this drop 343 would have probably not even bothered listening to the community. But now they are, because they know halo has hit an iceberg and listening to the community may be the only chance of keeping the halo franchise afloat.
Let’s look at halo 5 to understand what i think about halo 6. The launch was terrible and lack lustre to say the least, however in time it has become far more enjoyable due to the content that has finally arrived. In this content we can see the voices of the community in 343’s work.
No UNSC air vehicle in 4 or 5? Here is the wasp
Halo 4 forge was terrible? Well hear is everything you asked for in halo 5 forge.
Miss the old art style? Well although we can’t change it now, here are classic weapons and armour from the original games.
No firefight in 4 or 5? Well here is warzone firefight
See where i am going with this. This shows they are listening to us, however because halo 5’s launch was so rushed many things are still missing, or are not a detailed as previous halo’s. For example warzone firefight, although was a nice gesture, does not live up to halo reach firefight. Reach allowed for so much customisation for firefight it was ridicules, even allowing us to play as elites and lead the attack on the spartans. Another example is the lack of armour and emblem customisation. 3 armour options in 5 where as there are 9 in reach (including armour effects, FF voice etc, not including colours).
343 made many nice gestures in halo 5 after listening to the community but it was too little too late for many, and with halo 5’s rushed launch much can’t ever be changed.
However halo 6 is a golden opportunity for them. They have the problems of halo 4, mcc, and 5 to learn from as well as 10 years of bungies halo before that. If they are patient with halo 6 and listen to the community more and implement those ideas during the games development rather than in updates halo 6 could be the greatest halo of all time. Rumours of AI’s in forge, the return of splitscreen, possibly returning to the original art style, they could implement firefight like it was in reach but even better, they could make reach’s armour customisation look terrible in comparison to halo 6, they could give us derivable pelicans and phantoms in game modes that make warzone look like a pillow fight, they are possibly bringing halo 6 to PC.
Long story short. 343 has had many disastrous failures and problems when making halo. But halo 6 is their golden opportunity to learn from those mistakes and the community feedback. They have years to develop halo 6, they should spend that time wisely, not making pizza skins for assault rifles.