From the lack of a roadmap, to the drama with CM’s and the utter lack of features this game launched with is in my opinion driving Infinite into a brick wall. Between how unpolished the game is for some (reason for the mid season update I guess) and just how lacking Infinite is right now compared to other titles, Hell, Destiny 2 launched with more content under Activision. Both this game and 343 need a massive change. I’ve never seen Waypoint so up in arms about Halo. I think honestly the last time Waypoint was holding pitchforks was honestly the Armor Lock and Sprint contoversy back in Reach. But never lke this, and back then that was Bungie.net, not Waypoint.
I know there are Halo fans who are passionate about the franchise, and love Halo Infinite, I’m not wrong about that. I love this game also, just NOT the STATE of it. This post launch crap is hurting the game and the severe lack of ranked and social playlists. It’s not hard to make some gametypes or playlists that are currently right now in MCC. Maybe a Ranked Snipers or ranked FFA. If you can make a gametype in custom games, how honestly hard is it to make a playlist hopper with that gametype?
I know there have been some fans calling for Halo to be sent to a different game studio, and honestly while I think Halo would changed massively under different game studio as they might not know the pillars that both campaign and multiplayer are founded on, how long until Season 2 or Season 3 even comes out that the players that have already left don’t trust 343 enough to come back? 343 needs to be more understanding with the community and they need it pretty soon. I’m not saying Halo is “doomed” but the game is become more disinterested by the day for some. I’m sure 343 understands that but shamefully also I don’t think they understand the scale of what this game is right now or have the energy to care anymore.
Halo Infinite needs to change…
343I themselves need a change…
Some if not a lot in the community are past fed up, if recent topics on Waypoint are anything to go by.
EDIT: I know this thread is a couple days old and I don’t like bumping my own thread with changing an OP but I felt the need to because in the latest update today, 343 mentioned something about priority zero. Now I understand that they explained it as wanting to make sure teams were in good mental health, which is always important. But if 343 is feeling the need to discuss this and that this is a cause for the slowdowns, than it seems I might have been right about 343, needing a change. Because something might be going on internally that for NDA reasons I know we aren’t allowed to know about, but if this is a cause for the radio silence than one could say that 343 bit off more than they could chew for Halo Infinite. I can only hope now that Season 2 does retake interest because that radio silence became a huge disconnect between 343 and the community. So due to that disconnect that season 2 interest could change opinions about Infinite or they could remain the same that they have been with a lot in the community.
Agreed with this. Mainly it’s the consistent lack of new content for a live service game touted as live service that is driving the most people away. Halo used to be the disciple king of content other video games paled in comparison to. Forge was SEVERLY underestimated!
Look at this “massive” mid season patch that basically is just a bunch of small fixes that should have been patched by week 3, not month 3. We expect content, like, a lot of it, by month 3; not just minor bug fixes.
This game is being held together with duct tape and super glue.
343i and their CMs are 1000% to blame for this escalating the way it has. I’m beyond surprised that leadership from either 343i or Xbox have not stepped in by now.
Legitimate issues such as desync and lack of playlists are being met with gaslighting from 343i’s CMs.
Players bring up desync and 343i responds with “It’s lag bro, every game has lag”.
They could have just come out and legitimized the concerns, apologized for letting something so egregious slip through QA, and laid out next steps for their plan to address it. Instead, they chose to gaslight their community. This totally backfired when the same issue was visibly present on LAN.
Players want new playlists to hold them over until real new content arrives. 343i responds with “Muh UI can’t handle playlists”.
It’s kind of getting ridiculous. How can you build a live service game and not have the ability to add playlists? It’s just a list… just add to the list. Like what am I missing here? How hard would it be to make doubles? Just put 2 players on the team instead of 4. Like really???
I really wish Bonnie Ross, Joe Staten or someone would rise to the occasion and speak up rather than letting these CMs continue to spew their nonsense and increase the level of distrust the players already have with this studio.
The CM’s, the ones I see on Twitter at least… the way they react to things, their personality, their comments, their blaming and finger pointing, everything, really makes me doubt 343 as a whole. Like, are they really not working because they’re glued to their TV watching Ukrainian stuff? I’d get fired if I did that. These people are supposed to be the face of the company.
Now I’m wondering; Is 343 run by a bunch of GenZers and young millennials that think this is okay? Are the developers fresh out of college making these terrible UI decisions? Is this why we have to wait so long for small fixes? Are the veteran developers/coders all gone? That would explain a lot.
I totally agree. The CMs are the face of the company and should be well versed in PR which they are not. Their responses, especially the tweets, are typically filled with personal emotion and not very well thought out. It’s pretty common sense to wait until you’ve cooled off to make a response in any role but especially in a PR centric role. Some of their comments, the Ukraine one included, probably should have led to termination or stepping down from the role.
About the actual developers, 343i relies heavily on contract workers to do their dev work. So yeah, I’d expect most that worked on this game are now long gone. Naturally with contract workers, you get devs that do not put the same level of passion or consideration for long term maintenance in their code architecture. Once they leave the company, the knowledge of how that code actually works also leaves. The heads of Xbox/343i clearly do not understand this or just don’t care.
Maybe we could devise a petition on ‘change dot org’ asking for answers from Bonnie Ross and Phil Spencer. Get this community to sign it… Reddit to sign it… and see what happens. Surely if more than 10 people sign it they’ll listen?
Who knows they may even feel obliged to say - it’s okay it’s under control this is the plan. They must have a plan.
Maybe? Though I’m sure it would take a heck of a lot more than 10 people to get their attention. They don’t even pay attention to what people are saying here on their own website. I have yet to see a 343i employee post or reply to anything here.
343 needs an overhaul when it comes to leadership/higher-ups.
The vary poor decisions for this game reminds me of the most asinine thing I ever seen any AAA gaming company ever do in my 30+ years of gaming. Bungie put a person that literally had no prior experience in anything when it comes to developing a game. They put him in charge of a sequel.
Do you know what happened when Destiny 2 launched? Luke Smith made a hell of a lot of unnecessary changes just like 343 did and Luke Smith almost lost the entire player base because of his arrogance.
The games may be profitable for now, but future projects are going to experience a huge financial loss. People will not be willing to spend money for future Halo games, if Infinite as THE spiritual reboot wont be fixed properly.
Same with Battlefield 2042. The game might not be a financial meltdown for now because of the not-refunded preorders, but the next one (if it will be released at all) will (hopefully) not have that many preorders and people will wait, until the quality of the game is confirmed.
And you know, that things are really bad, when @Little_Squash does not want to summon collision
anymore.
The general drama is that their responses to feedback since launch have been a mix of radio silence, non-answers, PR spin, gaslighting, and their own versions of excuses and blaming the community akin to DICE’s “you guys have brutal expectations”.
The most recent specific drama was that Halo wars 2 and halo 5 were unplayable for almost two days and one of the CMs blamed current events on the other side of the world for why they weren’t doing their jobs.
Very little of the general drama is likely the fault of the CMs themselves… The real problem is a pay grade or two above their level with the decision makers at 343
While it’s true that upper management should hold them accountable, I don’t think it should excuse their actions. Speaking of Postums recent drama specifically, his job is a PR role, he should at the very least consider what he’s saying before posting anything publicly. It’s common sense and ingrained in his profession. I’m quite surprised he has a job still.
My guess is that they only post things they either directly or indirectly already know upper management approves of. Rather or not you judge the CMs good at their job, they aren’t the problem. Top management is.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the truth is that basically nobody is working on Halo right now at 343 and they’re all in a safe space room watching CNN because news is scary.
It’s just such a ridiculous notion to have something happening at the other side of the world unrelated to his job making him feel like it’s a valid justification for not doing his job. God, imagine if people back in 2003 be like “I can’t imagine my child living in a world with war and stuff going on” meanwhile tons of troops are dying in the middle east.
It’s one thing if you have immediate family and friends stuck over there, it’s another if you are just “contemplating your future”