Should 343 have waited an extra year?

Games Other Halo
1

Since release day, I’ve felt Halo 4 was extremely lacking. There was insane balancing issues, a tone of glitches, a lack of good playlists etc… However, I feel 343 is slowly fixing the game. A competitive playlist, Girfball, a working fileshare - these are all a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, I feel a lot of this is coming too late to make a huge difference.

I personally believe 343 should have waited an extra year, had a beta, and then released in 2013. I’m sure there was a lot of inner-office politics between 343 and Microsoft, but I feel this really would’ve given them the time to polish this game and not dissapoint such a large portion of the Halo community. What do you think?

2

Well, maybe not a year but maybe they should have launched early this year ( february, mid march)

3

I think an additional quarter would have been nice, but ultimately I would presume they had a budget to keep and a release date from Microsoft.

4

Maybe some extra months would have done good, but I am still very strongly opposed to a beta. I’m glad it didn’t happen for Halo 4, and I hope it doesn’t happen with any other Halo game.

5

Lol, nooooooooooo. First of all, its unnecessary. Second of all, delaying the game a year (any delay, for that matter) would have been disastrous for the studio. Not like in the forum definition of disastrous, but in the genuine “our business would be shut down” definition of disastrous.

6

With the complexities involved with developing a FPS, no multiplayer will ever be “done” on day 1 anymore. No matter how many alphas, betas or gamma-infused Bruce Banners there are.

7

> Maybe some extra months would have done good, but I am still very strongly opposed to a beta. I’m glad it didn’t happen for Halo 4, and I hope it doesn’t happen with any other Halo game.

Why is this Toa?

8

> Since release day, I’ve felt Halo 4 was extremely lacking. There was insane balancing issues, a tone of glitches, a lack of good playlists etc… However, I feel 343 is slowly fixing the game. A competitive playlist, Girfball, a working fileshare - these are all a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, I feel a lot of this is coming too late to make a huge difference.
>
> I personally believe 343 should have waited an extra year, had a beta, and then released in 2013. I’m sure there was a lot of inner-office politics between 343 and Microsoft, but I feel this really would’ve given them the time to polish this game and not dissapoint such a large portion of the Halo community. What do you think?

But Microsoft is the decider when it comes to release dates when it comes to first party games.

9

Yes, I believe so too. I felt like I hadn’t given Reach its full lifecycle. 2 years isn’t enough for a Halo game.

10

Yes, atleast a couple of extra months, would have done wonders to the game.
But please let this be a lesson for 343i to not rush Halo 5 out like they did with Halo 4.

11

> Yes, I believe so too. I felt like I hadn’t given Reach its full lifecycle. 2 years isn’t enough for a Halo game.

Well, if the rumors are true, 4 will have an even shorter lifespan if the next game releases holiday 2013.

12

> Lol, nooooooooooo. First of all, its unnecessary. Second of all, delaying the game a year (any delay, for that matter) would have been disastrous for the studio. Not like in the forum definition of disastrous, but in the genuine “our business would be shut down” definition of disastrous.

lol dont make me laugh. 343i is under Microsoft’s wing. Unless Microsoft has some random unfortunate financial crisis, 343i isnt going anywhere.

13

Absolutely, this game should have have been released in the shape that it was.

14

> Maybe some extra months would have done good, but I am still very strongly opposed to a beta. I’m glad it didn’t happen for Halo 4, and I hope it doesn’t happen with any other Halo game.

Honestly just curious about your opinion. Why are you opposed to doing beta?

15

Had there been the original multiplayer from Halo CE on Halo CEA made for XBox Live I would have gladly waited another year for Halo 4.

16

> > Maybe some extra months would have done good, but I am still very strongly opposed to a beta. I’m glad it didn’t happen for Halo 4, and I hope it doesn’t happen with any other Halo game.
>
> Honestly just curious about your opinion. Why are you opposed to doing beta?

In my experience, they’ve never resulted in anything good for shooters. Every beta I’ve played turned out better than the final product in terms of weapon balance and overall gameplay (again, this is only in regard to shooters). Halo Reach and Gears 3, for example, were much better in their betas than in the final product (serious glitches aside). From what I’ve heard of the Halo 3 beta, this was also true.

17

> > > Maybe some extra months would have done good, but I am still very strongly opposed to a beta. I’m glad it didn’t happen for Halo 4, and I hope it doesn’t happen with any other Halo game.
> >
> > Honestly just curious about your opinion. Why are you opposed to doing beta?
>
> In my experience, they’ve never resulted in anything good for shooters. Every beta I’ve played turned out better than the final product in terms of weapon balance and overall gameplay (again, this is only in regard to shooters). Halo Reach and Gears 3, for example, were much better in their betas than in the final product (serious glitches aside). From what I’ve heard of the Halo 3 beta, this was also true.

I agree with the “no beta” sentiments. Focus groups ruin things and betas are focus groups for video games. I got to disagree with you on Reach’s beta, though. I thought it was horrid. I was so relieved when I got the finished game and experienced the changes.

18

>

I like the gamertag ;D

Who said we even needed a beta, though? Just postpone the release date. I would have been a much happier customer if I bought Halo 4 with File Share working on launch day.

19

> Well, if the rumors are true, 4 will have an even shorter lifespan if the next game releases holiday 2013.

I have never heard that rumor. MS does want to up the schedule of Halo games, but doesn’t want it to be perennial like CoD. Halo 5 won’t be a launch title for the neXtBox if that releases this fall.

343 just started preliminary work on Halo 5 as team members were no longer needed for 4. The reason Activision puts out a new CoD every year is because 2 studios each get 2 years to make the game but they trade off release years.

If this was…say…Bioshock, it probably would have been delayed a bit considering the different developers and different publishers. 343 was created by MS to handle Halo, so they control just about everything about it.

If Halo 4 had been pushed back to Feb let’s say, it would be in direct competition with Gears. Having about a month between major first party titles seems awesome to the consumer, but is dreadful for a company. Some people can’t afford to buy a new game every month.

To increase sales, they intentionally space them out to give people a chance to play one, save up money, then buy the next. If Halo was delayed, Gears would have to be delayed. Gears would then detract from the Summer of Arcade which MS loves to charge $20 for $10-$15 games, and it would also be a distraction from their next gen announcement.

Those are my thoughts on it anyway. I have enjoyed Halo 4 since day 1 regardless of bugs, changes to the franchise or supposed balance issues.

The delay of the file share just means that there is a ton of awesome content right out of the gate. CSR coming after the game is released (as planned from the get go) gives everyone a chance to get familiar with the game before being ranked. I’m guessing TrueSkill will still be in effect somewhat with CSR, so just because you are a 1 doesn’t mean that everyone you face will be terrible. It’s not like one overrides the other…CSR is really just a visualized TrueSkill.

Sorry for the rant. Good for you if you read it!

20

in interesting sourceless fact I read somwhere. Delaying a game costs the studio about $100,000 per day (once they’ve announced a release date).

Just something to think about.