Halo Infinite appears to be the exception here, but most games are flooded with more content in the F2P model. More support than you would have ever got before.
Gears 5 had some great updates, but still hasn’t held a strong population at all.
I used to split my gaming time between Gears 1, Halo 3 and Modern Warfare. Now only Modern Warfare is still a powerhouse.
I’m convinced that Gears and Halo with their arena style, are not accessible, not mass appealing and the fact they’re Microsoft exclusive cannot help either.
I think Halo Infinite is probably the best Halo game in my opinion. Almost feel like it is destined to fail.
From a competitive perspective its great, but what the casual audience wants is really cool PvE modes or Battle Royale, its simply not as interesting game by game to play an Arena Shooter as it is a BR. Every time you play a BR mode its completely different, Arena shooters on the other hand are pretty much exactly the same game by game.
What Dr Disrespect said was facts, Halo Infinite can maintain a small and relatively passionate community assuming they add more content and the features we want lol, but it’ll never be #1 again, too much competition and not enough reasons for people to make the jump.
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Yeah I got flamed hard at launch when I agreed with him.
Battle royale games are super streamer friendly because there’s loads of chill time where the game slows down to interact with chat, you only focus when fights take place. This means it’s also fin for players who don’t want to be zoned in 24/7 when they play.
The biggest thing I think though is how if you do bad, it’s instant game over, you just start a new game. Also no expectations to win so when a win occurs it is hype. In Halo a win is a win, it’s cool but even a good competitive game can be slow. Tournaments are fun as you always watch the most lively perspective at each given moment and even that can be slow at times. I watched Dr Disrespect play MCC and he struggled to get like 6 kills in doubles. Not a good watch for the fans is it.
Technically, 343i’s F2P model failed. The free-to-play template isn’t an instant game-killer, we know that already from games like Apex Legends and Fortnite; it fails here because there’s so little content, both in regards to customization (where the bulk of the content is simply inaccessible even if you do have the money to pay for it, thanks to this timed-release nonsense) and to gametypes, and because the income that’s supposed to compensate for cutting out the buy-in price isn’t coming in due to how badly they botched the store.
All of which fans have been telling them for nearly a year now, but fans aren’t sponsors, so 343i has no reason to listen to us.
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His statement was quite clear. Not a direct quote, but he said. “For Halo to be successful from a streaming perspective, it needs to have a BR.” Not sure why everyone ignored that bold part.
I still believe that Infinite could have been successful without the BR if not for all the reasons I need not repeat here. Now, I believe 343 has completely missed the boat, and no matter how much the game improves from here, only an insignificant number of players will return.
We need to separate the devs from the corporate bosses when we make the harshest of critiques, I don’t think many of the devs are aware of what they were instructed to build, put all the pieces together and what they have is software to subtlety manipulate behaviour.
As it turned out, Microsoft played a bad hand based on the assumption the new landscape of players no longer needed a game with variety and engaging content, they assumed because so many people play mindless, monotonous mobile games that are peddled as F2P, and then eagerly fork over a small fortune on in-game purchases eventually paying 50 times what the game is worth, it’s sort of reminds me of a Star Trek NG episode “The Game”.
Microsoft figured they could pull the same con with Halo, and no one would be the wiser, and the pitiful part of this whole story is it might have worked if Infinite hadn’t been plagued with game breaking bugs, and a cosmetic scheme too complicated to keep everyone in a mindless euphoric state thus breaking the perpetual loop of chasing useless cosmetics, there is no endorphin rush when the game is unplayable.
No worries though, If Microsoft can get the game working just right, many people will slide into their intended mental state and all will be well and Microsoft will be counting the money. They aren’t creating a game, they are designing a new player base, one that is very low maintenance, but there are still enough of us who remember what gaming used to be though, we need to convince the up-and-coming generation that what companies are doing is ethically wrong.
Watching these companies in action, Is like witnessing a bank robber who inadvertently forgot to cover their face, we see you. If the corporate world can convince enough people to accept what they are doing as normal, that it’s the future, the gaming world will forever morph into the most unrecognizable pile of disgust, this isn’t nostalgia, it’s simply right and wrong. For anyone who believes what is happening is normal, I am sorry to say, but you are lost.
I know, it sounds silly … or is it?
Oh yeah, responding to whether the F2P model has failed … no, the F2P aspect of the game has nothing to do with Halo Infinite’s problems, it was using F2P as a deceptive lure, and Microsoft should be ashamed, but they feel nothing.
In my opinion. F2P can sometimes be an excuse to release unfinished games and be lazy. Drip feed content.
And 343 did this. They also did it to try and capture the kiddy Fortnite playerbase (“broader audience”). Hence no blood splatter anymore, no gritty combat. Everything is bunny ears comedic combat. And we will never get the Flood now. The Flood is not a kiddy theme and would constitute a need to raise the age rating of the game and thus not be broader audience friendly.
343 don’t want us current Halo fans who played the original games they don’t cater these games to us hence why no:
- Blood splatter/gritty combat
- Flood
- ODSTs
- Split screen CO OP
- Online CO OP
- Mission replay/select
Their entire focus is on competitive MP. To move it into the E sport only direction for Fortnite kiddy audience.
all i want is arcade mode, man.