Response to Microsoft’s explanation

Games Halo Infinite
1

Xbox marketing chief Aaron Greenberg was recently interviewed about Halo Infinite’s demo controversy. I’m simply going to share my opinion on his responses. I’m doing this for the sake of constructive critisism.

Greenberg: “Listen, we’re in the middle of a global pandemic,” Greenberg explained. “It’s July, we’re far from [launch in] Holiday, you’re seeing a work-in-progress game.”

Fair enough, the current global situation has undoubtedly impacted development. However, July is not that far from Holiday. There seems to be a considerable amount of work that is left to be done for it being so far into development.

Greenberg: “Go back and look at the game at 4K/60, we did that deliberately,” he continued. “It’s very hard to show the full power and graphic [sic] fidelity of what Xbox Series X will be able to deliver for you over a stream.”

This honestly sounds like damage control to me. I’ve watched both the stream as well as the 4K/60 video. The 4k/60 video obviously looked better, but it did not at all ‘fix’ the issues that people had with the demo. Low shadow and texture resolution, as well as clunky animation aren’t fixed by upping the resolution of the recording.

“The other thing I’ll just say is: it is a work-in-progress,” Greenberg continued. “I can tell you, because we see build check-ins every week, and they make progress week after week, so between now and Holiday it’s just going to get better and better.”

It’s obviously a work-in-progress. But as mentioned before, the amount of work and progress needed to be done with so little time left is concerning. I know the consensus is that it was an ‘old’ build of the game, but why wasn’t a newer build shown? Because it wasn’t stable? So this old build is the actual progress on the ‘stable build’? There is not enough clarity here. Furthermore, why are core graphical features such as raytracing, being added post-launch? This leads me to believe that 343 is not at all on schedule with development. Are there internal issues at 343? What other features could be missing at launch?

Greenberg: “That said, I thought it looked great, I thought it sounded great,” he concluded.

It does in it’s own right. But for the flagship title of the World’s most powerful console, that boasts ‘ten times the per-pixel processing power of Halo 5 on Xbox One’ there are certain expectations that haven’t been met with what’s been shown.

2

I’m not buying it, there’s no way the pandemic set back half a billion and multiple years of progress

3

the biggest issues in terms of graphics were the lighting, textures, pop ins and skybox. This was an earlier , more stable , build so im hoping the game looks better now. I think the game will look as good as the 2018 trailer on release, and I dont see them releasing the game in a bad shape with the series x.

4

He was talking out of his -Yoink-, marketing speak. It was interesting to see Phil Spencer’s reaction to the conference when he was interviewed by iJustine a couple hours after on their podcast. I got the vibe that he was proud of everyone but not happy with everything that he saw. I honestly think he has that fan/consumer mentality which makes him great at his role. I just don’t understand the disconnect between fans and developers at times, this is true for so many games. I honestly would’ve never let that demo seen by the general public, if so I would’ve clearly stated this was a way earlier build. Made it into a Vidoc of sorts, spinned it a different direction.

5

> 2535461330364523;4:
> It was interesting to see Phil Spencer’s reaction to the conference when he was interviewed by iJustine a couple hours after on their podcast.

Do you, by any chance, have a link to his reaction/this podcast…?

6

> 2533274804309511;5:
> > 2535461330364523;4:
> > It was interesting to see Phil Spencer’s reaction to the conference when he was interviewed by iJustine a couple hours after on their podcast.
>
> Do you, by any chance, have a link to his reaction/this podcast…?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBbFpPOhrY4

7

Hopefully that works

8

Google it otherwise my dude

9

> 2535461330364523;6:
> > 2533274804309511;5:
> > > 2535461330364523;4:
> > > It was interesting to see Phil Spencer’s reaction to the conference when he was interviewed by iJustine a couple hours after on their podcast.
> >
> > Do you, by any chance, have a link to his reaction/this podcast…?
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBbFpPOhrY4

Thx, m8!

10

Thats sad

Edit:

He said it sounded great - sorry but that Warthog does sound like everything but not great.

11

I think having it run on a PC was a mistake.
Since XSX is all about fastest loading, they should have used that here.

12

Honestly I’ve seen this hapoen time and time again. How they dropped the ball on this one… It looks like a game from the playstation 1 or xbox original era.

13

> 2533274818084099;11:
> I think having it run on a PC was a mistake.
> Since XSX is all about fastest loading, they should have used that here.

They maybe holding the XSX demo for next month’s first-party event. I believe five first-party studios did not show anything on Thursday.

14

> 2533274968894951;1:
> Xbox marketing chief Aaron Greenberg was recently interviewed about Halo Infinite’s demo controversy. I’m simply going to share my opinion on his responses. I’m doing this for the sake of constructive critisism.
>
> Greenberg: *“Listen, we’re in the middle of a global pandemic,” Greenberg explained. “It’s July, we’re far from [launch in] Holiday, you’re seeing a work-in-progress game.”*Fair enough, the current global situation has undoubtedly impacted development. However, July is not that far from Holiday. There seems to be a considerable amount of work that is left to be done for it being so far into development.
>
> Greenberg: *“Go back and look at the game at 4K/60, we did that deliberately,” he continued. “It’s very hard to show the full power and graphic [sic] fidelity of what Xbox Series X will be able to deliver for you over a stream.”*This honestly sounds like damage control to me. I’ve watched both the stream as well as the 4K/60 video. The 4k/60 video obviously looked better, but it did not at all ‘fix’ the issues that people had with the demo. Low shadow and texture resolution, as well as clunky animation aren’t fixed by upping the resolution of the recording.
>
> *“The other thing I’ll just say is: it is a work-in-progress,” Greenberg continued. “I can tell you, because we see build check-ins every week, and they make progress week after week, so between now and Holiday it’s just going to get better and better.”*It’s obviously a work-in-progress. But as mentioned before, the amount of work and progress needed to be done with so little time left is concerning. I know the consensus is that it was an ‘old’ build of the game, but why wasn’t a newer build shown? Because it wasn’t stable? So this old build is the actual progress on the ‘stable build’? There is not enough clarity here. Furthermore, why are core graphical features such as raytracing, being added post-launch? This leads me to believe that 343 is not at all on schedule with development. Are there internal issues at 343? What other features could be missing at launch?
>
> Greenberg: *“That said, I thought it looked great, I thought it sounded great,” he concluded.*It does in it’s own right. But for the flagship title of the World’s most powerful console, that boasts ‘ten times the per-pixel processing power of Halo 5 on Xbox One’ there are certain expectations that haven’t been met with what’s been shown.

It totally is damage control. Most of the issues people are pointing out have nothing to do with video/stream quality or bitrate. What an effing liar this man is. His reaction shocked me more than anything else because it seems they were totally convinced this was going to blow people away. They totally misjudged the reaction this was going to get.

And this close to launch, other than a texture here and there, you’re looking at the final product my friends.

Trouble ahead for 343, microsoft and xbox

15

I think the problrm is their artstyle (again…) The textures look good (Chief, the Environment, etc)

The problem is that a lot of things look like they have a seemingly cartoonish and smooth veneer? I don’t know how to describe it, but 343 has this immaculate shiny veneer that they apply to forerunner architecture and I think it’s hideous. Bungie’s forerunner architecture was futuristic but looked forgotten at the same time. Installations covered in sand and jungle. Stuff would be broken or malfunctioning, and even all the pristine stuff still didn’t look THIS shiny and smooth.

Additionally they said they were going back to the original artstyle. Chief has his old armor back, the elites are getting their classic look back. So why the -Yoink- is the Warthog the Halo 4-5 Warthog (and why does it sound so astronomically different), why do we still have Halo 4-5 grunts? What the hell was that banished phantom? The artstyles now just clash and it doesn’t look good. From what I could tell the brutes look good though.

> 2533274825726490;12:
> Honestly I’ve seen this hapoen time and time again. How they dropped the ball on this one… It looks like a game from the playstation 1 or xbox original era.

Even as Hyperbole this is laughable. You clearly haven’t played a PS1 or OG Xbox game recently if you think this game looks like that.

16

I don’t agree with Aaron Greenberg. His response was really average. The issues some people are pointing out have nothing to do with the quality of the stream or the resolution of the video. I’ve watched it on 1080p and 4K and some textures were still ugly to me.

IMO the biggest issues were on lighting, clipping and some textures that felt too smooth and not enough detailled.

I’ve seen multiple persons said that this demo is 4 months old but I’ve not yet found a reliable source to confirm this statement. To me that doesn’t make any sense, why would they showcase a 4 months old demo that is not technically optimised on a world premiere event seen by millions of people ? Especially since MS is communcating for months about the incredible power of the new Xbox ? You’re shooting yourself in the foot.

I think 343i did an amazing job on H2A, H4 and H5 graphics (well sometimes H5 graphics were not impressive but it was on purpose to maintain 60 FPS). The demo really surprised me and did not reflect the awesome work done by 343 these last years in terms of graphics quality.
I hope they’ll get the job done for launch. I hope the game will look amazing. I don’t see why they would launch a game with such graphics issues knowing perfectly people are going to laugh about it like they did when the demo came out ? (Some memes with the Brute were hilarious tho).

17

I may wait until the raytracing update to even touch this game because the lighting, shadows, and reflections in the demo were just downright terrible. If you think what they showed visually was acceptable for a game marketed as “being built to take full advantage of the Series X”, then you need to get your head out of the sand and go look at most other AAA games built in the last 4 years for current hardware, let alone next gen hardware. For MS’ flagship series, that showing was embarassing and inexcusable. It’s about 4 months from launch and this is the best they have to show off…

The saddest part is that lighting isn’t even going to fix the xbox 360 level textures and flat detailing. Part of me just thinks that 343 is just in way over their head’s with this franchise. Its their 3rd mainline game, people shouldn’t still be questioning whether they even have the talent to make a AAA blockbuster Halo.

18

it was a pure PR damage control move, but it doesn’t paint them in a good light as it feels like excuses. The game wasn’t made last month lol. You can’t excuse what they showcased compared to what let’s say CDPR did. I watched these Cyberpunk 2077 trailers in 1080 and both are from builds that are from last year and 2 years ago. Sure the gameplay trailer looks better in 4K, but to me this showcases more what real WIP should look like and looks good in any resolution:

19

> 2533274825726490;12:
> Honestly I’ve seen this hapoen time and time again. How they dropped the ball on this one… It looks like a game from the playstation 1 or xbox original era.

Don’t exaggerate, it looked like a game that is slightly advanced for an Xbox one. It looks nothing even remotely close to an original Xbox title lol

20

My biggest qualms with the reveal was the constant pop-ins and the textures basically making the game look like it was made with smooth clay. His comment about going back and watching in 4K does nothing to fix those.