According to Steam charts numbers are now down to less than an average of 60k players per day.
This doesn’t include Xbox players, and numbers will always drop down from the new game craze of course. You’ve got to ask though, are other issues the real reason? There’s plenty of discontent in the community.
343i have addressed almost every issue with assurance of changes, but I’m concerned people won’t give Halo another chance. What do you think?
It’s not normal for a game to drop that hard this early. It should be cause for concern especially if it keeps up.
Now is the game dead? No. But that kind of drop is indicative of something being very wrong. Games like that either die, or end up becoming very niche…, well and then dying.
Now we don’t know Xbox numbers and sure enough that is where a majority of the playerbase is. Some games really don’t have communities on certain platforms than others. But I think we’d be mistaken as to not look at that like there’s a problem.
I honestly wouldn’t be too concerned about it. We don’t know how many of those players just played (and finished) the campaign and avoided multiplayer all together. Drops in player retention are normal, but there are quite a few latency, desync (melee), and networking issues that ‘343’ needs to fix and smooth out after their holiday break is over.
I would say ‘BTB’ being busted for a lot of people contributed to this drop (my favorite game mode, and I can’t get into ‘BTB’ games unless I restart ‘Halo’ after every match). Like I said before, I expect it to be looked at and fixed by ‘343’ after the holidays. Lots of people want to kick back with their friends and play a less stressful game mode. Not everyone wants to be in tiny quarters during ‘Fiesta’ or ‘Tactical Slayer’ with a bunch of ultra sweaty gamers where you have to be on the edge of your seat. There are also a lot of players who are new to ‘Halo’, and they want to hop on and see what the ‘buzz’ is about, especially since this is a free multiplayer game. They later figure out it doesn’t hold their interest, and move on to something else.
Then you have the store pricing controversy, which probably turned a lot of people off regarding certain ‘reach’ armor not being included in the battle pass, armor core issues, or the feeling that bland or boring colors are greatly overpriced, ect., ect.
Then there is the issue of potential cheaters and wall hackers (we’ve all seen the video clips), with no easy way to report them. In a f2p game, these cheaters might continue breaking the rules for nearly a month before getting punished or banned. Without a more ‘invasive’ anti-cheat in place, these unscrupulous players will just create a brand new account in a matter of minutes after their permaban, and then they’ll be right back in the game ruining potentially hundreds of other matches for legitimate players.
I’m sure there are many more reasons for the sudden drop in players, I know I didn’t name them all.
However, I wanted to state that aside from being rather disappointed that ‘BTB’ is currently busted for me, I am having lots of fun. This truly feels like a ‘Halo’ game, and the newly added game modes really spiced up the playlist. I think if ‘343’ manages to fix ‘BTB’ and the boring nature of current challenges and challenge swaps, the game will be in an even better place.
I also sort of detest the ‘fear of missing out’ factor of weekly challenge ultimate rewards, and hope the ones that I fail to complete will return eventually in some form or another.
I saw that the game’s multiplayer population was already steadily declining by several thousands each day per average based on the steam charts before today, since release, but some say that perhaps some technical problems with BTB may have accelerated that decline significantly, which is something that I agree with. This [BTB issues] combined with the many series of issues that one could name of with this game as a whole and it is not something that I can imagine lot of players being able able to put up with for a while, especially those that aren’t dedicated, long-term Halo fans… and they will leave and carry on.
I think it’s up to 343i to address much of the game’s problems quickly before it happens to be “too little, too late”. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that this will happen though (given 343i track record with Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians with having failed to maintain good range of numbers if you know what I mean), and so I expect the player pool sizes to decline a little further in the months ahead.
Its a concern, certainly, but a population drop is hardly unexpected. Its free so there’s hardly any reason to not give it a go, but you’ll also end up with greater percentages of people who will end up dropping it, especially in the initial months. Holidays may also be a variable that could take away from the numbers as well - just as many people taking a break as there are people who would spend more time with it.
I’m one of the believers that the inaccessibility of BTB is a big contributor, especially when a bunch of the marketing featured BTB in particular heavily; the Flights, trailers, tech previews, etc. For me in particular, BTB was always my number one Halo game mode ever since the 16-player servers in CE PC. so it being so difficult to get into games (with some of those said games having 9 vs 2 teams) really sucks right now.
Other than that, I think a lot of the turn-offs is its current quality: the monetization, limited playlists, and some technical issues. There had been nothing but praise when it comes to the gameplay when it first came out with all that followed being the progression and monetization and the lack of features/content such as co-op campaign and Forge. Even though its difficult to get into BTB, the gameplay is a lot of fun, we just need fixes and content. Do that in a timely matter and populations may stabilize and even bounce back.
But given that the current season we’re in is supposed to last for six months instead of three with Co-Op Campaign supposed to arrive with it but Forge expected to take longer to appear in the summer with the start of the third season…who knows. I don’t believe there’s any big shooter releases coming around those times so its entirely possible that those releases alone may be enough to draw people back to at least give it another go combined with whatever other content we’ll get by then.
It certainly appears as though these are major factors. My Hubby, my daughter and I, all play. The last 4 days we have seen, 4 verse 3, 4 verse 2, 4 verse 1 ( that was Hubby ) and 2 to 3 time outs, before getting a game in Ranked. It’s not much fun to have 4 verse 2, you really get crushed.
The timing has also greatly exasperated those problems considering that during those last four days we know nothing has been done due to the holiday break. It really became a bad look when BTB became so broken right before then and their announcement about it was made ten days ago with it being outright stated that a fix won’t be coming until January - over two weeks to three weeks later depending on how long it really takes.
Halo Infinite started off strong but there’s been a crap ton of setbacks in varying degrees with them being unable to do anything about it. It is really no surprise that the numbers have dropped the way they have. I’m just hoping they get the fixes out as soon as possible and start adding more content in order to try and make up for it.
Fix Spawn time, takes way too long, giving advantage to whoever is winning.
Fix grenades time, they take too long to explode, the range is absurd and if I throw one Before I’m killed, it doesn’t explode.
Fix the rocket launcher, it cannot be shoot right after You pick it up, there’s a delay. Also, You get killed by it Even if You shoot it at a safe distance.
Bring back Halo Reach maps. This Season is called Heroes of Reach but there are no remake of those maps.
Fix the shotgun, one shot point blank should kill instantly.
I think releasing before holiday break was a mistake. Everyone deserves holidays of course! It’s just unfortunate we’re stuck with these issues, I’m forever going to be against holiday releases for that reason.
Idk I switched from Steam so I could have it all together on games pass but yeah sure ok. I also quit multiplayer a month ago as it was getting super boring with such few lists and maps so now I play a 5+ minute bot match to get my winter prizes
So yeah be worried if they can’t come up with some new content stat
With the shotgun you need to learn the two piece. Slap and shoot
It shouldn’t kill in one but it’s close
I dunno it makes sense, two months of sustained interest from MP launch thru Campaign launch and a lil quiet just before the end of the year as the free seasonal event is wrapping up. Right time I’d say to have a bit of a lul, specially since fracture is gonna get everyone all methed up again in 12 days here. I’m sure lot of people got other games as gifts this year too but also, steam numbers arnt the world just good baselines.
I predicted this would happen a long time ago. Halo is just one of those games that doesn’t retain big streamers or modern gamers.
I honestly don’t think it’s a concern at this point. Player bases drop 20-40% after the first month on most games, as long as they bring out new game modes, events, maps etc along at a good pace the numbers will build back up. The multiplayer is too empty right now though, I’ve rammed hours into halo multiplayer since halo 3 and played them for months at a time. Infinite is great at its core but wow is it lacking content… no single player modes like firefight. No fun, chilled out modes like action sack. The progression feels a chore and I’m very close to finishing the pass already. They can’t leave the game this barebones until the second season in may. If this happens it could be a massive drop and too late to bring players back. Honestly though I have hope, I think I’m a couple months time the game will be making us all a lot happier.
simple answer is yes. This game is doing well due to surrounding factors such as battlefield’s horrendous game and people not liking cod as much.
launching early and free to play was the best move.
Can you image if you couldn’t play the multiplayer without dropping $60?
Not to be a downer but the truth is the truth.
What I think about it, is that going (f2p MP) with the BP as a game was the dumbest decision 343/Microsft has ever made for Halo. They may have addressed some issues, but the issues they did address are not what is actually affecting the game. As soon as 343/Microsoft wake up to reality and stop using the core game as bait to make a profit, the better players will receive this game.
It’s not brain surgery 343/Microsoft. It’s literally screaming in your face about what you actually did wrong.
This game has dropped off faster than almost any other AAA title (that wasn’t a complete failure, like Cyberpunk). I don’t think a lot of people will give it another chance until 343 lets go of some of their greed and pride and redesigns the system, but they’re not going to willingly let go of the money they can make by, for example, selling two tiny 3D models of triangles in the shape of cat ears (which probably took less than a day to make, start to finish), for $10 a pop.
The problem is, they haven’t actually addressed much of anything with assurances. They’ve addressed a few easy things with assurances, and defended a lot of other things with vague “we’ll look into it” and “we’re always reassessing xyz” that doesn’t actually mean anything at all.
They haven’t addressed the lack of customization content or the outrageous pricing system. They haven’t addressed the lack of game content (maps and game modes). They haven’t addressed the horrendously buggy networking and server tick rate, or problems with hit registration and magnetism. They haven’t addressed the low number of weapons and vehicles. They haven’t addressed the obnoxious fragility of vehicles or the fact that they flip over every time you touch a piece of terrain that is 0.1cm offset. They haven’t addressed the abysmally small radar and poor UI readability. The haven’t addressed colorblind or color-impaired accessibility settings to force armor coatings that match the outlines. They haven’t addressed forced crossplay. They haven’t addressed the blandness and repetitive nature of the campaign. They haven’t addressed the low amount of story content in the campaign compared to past games. They haven’t addressed the lack of meaningful customization or anything else that can be unlocked through campaign, or the fact that the game’s current model charges more than $60 for less content than every past Halo game offered for that price.
There is so, so much that @343 has not responded to, so no I don’t think people will give the game a second chance, as is. If they come out with a real, genuine “there is a lot wrong and we are going to fix these specific items,” then maybe, but right now all they’ve done is cover themselves.
‘oh but it’s free to play! meaning more new players will join’ and see the aweful state of the game and leave :3
The earlier release of the multiplayer was the right move as there was quite an initial wave of support and congratulations, especially after the debacle that 2042 suffered from and the very mute response to CoD’s Vanguard release. Even during the previous Flights Infinite was getting plenty of praise for being a much more solid and working game compared to its competitors.
The F2P model I believe was the right move as well to get people to play it and I think Infinite can end up doing well. The problem at the moment is that their success has hit this massive roadblock that is the holidays. They were answering and responding to criticism pretty regularly and introducing fixes in a timely manner such as the changes to the Daily XPs and reinserting player collisions and adding more playlists.
Then there came this gigantic wall that suddenly crashed down, cutting off the communication and support as everyone went on their holiday breaks and right as BTB had taken a nose dive in stability.
Its a very massive bump in their road - on par and even eclipsing all the good that came with the initial release - and 343 really needs to reestablish the goodwill that they were garnering but is now taking quite the hit with the pain just growing as time goes on.
Free to play with crossplat is a great recipe for a popular game. Fortnite is super predatory with forcing their shop and battle pass in your face, but theyre super successful regardless. Sure a lot of people hate it, but it was the biggest game by far for quite some time.