I’ve been playing Halo for 20 years and Forge was never something that I truly enjoyed. It was fun to play a custom game here and there but that’s it. I think the vast majority of players do not play forge games.
Right now there is barely 2,000 players on Steam playing Halo Infinite. There is 15,000 playing Farming Simulator 2021.
I think it will help, but there’s a few key points that we need to keep in mind,
We have no idea if Forge is free or paid. 343 themselves have not confirmed it, and the best we have is that of leakers. While leakers can be reliable, the lack of confirmation by an official source at 343 is worrying.
Custom Games Browser. If it doesn’t launch with the CGB, because this is just a Beta to start with, it’s not going to help at all. This will require additional steps from players that they won’t want to go through.
Forge in 5 was not for the average user. I don’t think Forge in Infinite will be either. I could mess around in Forge in 3, Reach and 4 and make something passable. Not super great or “intense,” but fun enough to mess around on. Forge in 5 was not like that. It was hard to use, and kind of obtuse for the average user. The results of people using Forge is going to be what brings people back, not Forge itself, if Forge is as hard to use as it was in 5.
Challenges. People want to do Challenges. Will Forge allow people to do Challenges? If not, then Forge will be underutilized because it does not offer any progress for the user. There will still be people using it, of course, but Challenges need to be accomplishable while playing Custom Games.
Infinite’s existing issues are hamstringing the game. Desync and net-code issues are absolute rife with Halo Infinite right now, and seriously damage the ability for players to actually play the game. Forge can help with the content issue, but the gameplay issues need to be addressed before Infinite can make a serious come back. Otherwise, people will say Customs and Forge are fun, but not functional
Unfortunately no players will return for a short bit but forge only attracts the creators the people who usually kept halo alive but once halos been dead for a while at the 1 year mark. Its probably going to remain that way it might get a playerbase like halo 4 and 5 but for the most part this halo trilogy is dead
As per 343’s Council Member Ducain23 stated:
FORGE WILL NOT BE MONETIZED!
Linky:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV5ItkTtkdE
Peace! 
Not without proper customs and browser
Is this a community influencer, or someone who actually works for 343 in an official capacity? Because there is a chasm of difference between the two.
As long as theirs a custom games browser
It could be the bee’s teats but if custom games and theater are still broken and we don’t get a UI overhaul to restore Halo’s inherent social features, then no.
How to phrase it… If they improve their social stuff?
Maybe.
If all I can do with regard to lobbies is what I can already do, then custom games are going to be a nightmare to navigate.
It will bring players back, but, not the numbers to make any significant impact.
You only get one chance to make a good first impression and 343i with Halo Infinite did not make a good first impression.
New players that came to see what all the fuss was about in November are almost certainly gone for good. Those that stuck around for a few months a handful might come back to check it out, and you might get some legacy players back. But the damage is done and 343i will have one hell of a mountain to climb to restore any good faith with legacy players and bring new players in to the fold.
the fact that a poll was made for this is just sad.
Forge is an extremely effective community support feature, it basically carries every single niche community that has ever existed (race, Infection, Grifball, etc.) and it leads to player retention as more casual/creative types have something they can play around with outside of MM.
It likely will not result in a massive spike in population, nothing may do that, but what it will do is lead to players actually staying (they’ve lost probably a million players no cap just as a result of no content at release) so then when Season 3 comes out it would result in tons of new/returning players so technically speaking no it does bring in new players, but logically speaking if its awesome and it keeps players for longer than they might otherwise stay, then obviously you’d see new players just off of that.
Forge is just as important to Halo as mod support is to Bethesda titles… it leads to long term organic growth and it means the floor of players rises because there will be people that spend months/years forging on and off so it results in a more stable population. Its worth noting as well that if its entirely free (as it should be) then it’ll have a far more positive impact than what it did in Halo 5 or the previous Halo games, very few F2P games give you a great map maker for free.
No way it will help bring back players. The game going F2P was a HUGE fatal mistake, and over 96% of the population has already quit the game for good. And because 343 won’t address, let alone fix the endless MAJOR issues with Infinite’s custom games, Infinite Forge will NOT bring back players. And even if it does, it will only do so temporarily. They already lost my respect when this disgraceful disaster of a “game” released in November last year, and this year they have lost ALL of my respect.
1000% Forge will bring back players. How forge gets implemented into Infinite will be the long term answer to this question.
Will 343i create a community map playlist? With still no doubles playlist? Will 343i add in community maps into the current various playlists?
I hope the answer to my questions are all YES.
Would be a major addition to this game. Fingers crossed that it’s sooner rather than later my fellow Spartan.