I mean, it’s clear that they are treating Halo Infinite’s campaign/full suite and PvP as two entities, where people could simply install the F2P multiplayer if they wish (one of the few welcome ideas, tbh). And so it kinda dawns on me: Why is the PvP being delayed? It was the campaign reveal backlash that pushed the game back, but any changes to visuals or sandbox would be possible with at least a beta of PvP running in the meantime. Any issues during that would be expected of a beta anyway.
At the very least, a PvP beta should have launched weeks ago for a great deal of reasons.
You raise an excellent point. I think maybe they’re still scared about all the graphical complaints. And now with some of the series x problems maybe they want to wait for a Gen 2 series X of some kind to release the game to ensure both the Xbox and the Halo look and run smooth. They might also be taking advantage of the delay to double check story elements. They know a lot is riding on this one.
But this would be a perfect time for an F2P open beta test.
After Thanksgiving, the studio will pretty much shut down for Christmas and not return until the New Year.
Even assuming they have anything remotely ready to go, running a proper beta, fixing problems and collecting data over the holidays isn’t feasible, so I don’t expect them to do so.
> 2533274862181038;3:
> After Thanksgiving, the studio will pretty much shut down for Christmas and not return until the New Year.
>
> Even assuming they have anything remotely ready to go, running a proper beta, fixing problems and collecting data over the holidays isn’t feasible, so I don’t expect them to do so.
That would have been true if the release stuck, tho - and that release would be a full AAA game rather than PvP beta. And there’s lots of studio with a quarter number of staff and budget releasing and maintaining games over the same period
> 2533274862181038;3:
> After Thanksgiving, the studio will pretty much shut down for Christmas and not return until the New Year.
>
> Even assuming they have anything remotely ready to go, running a proper beta, fixing problems and collecting data over the holidays isn’t feasible, so I don’t expect them to do so.
But they did exactly that in 2014 with the Halo 5 beta, almost a full year before launch, while also dealing with the fallout from MCC’s first launch.
I think even with covid restrictions, a beta or flight is possible.
> 2533274797640604;4:
> That would have been true if the release stuck, tho - and that release would be a full AAA game rather than PvP beta. And there’s lots of studio with a quarter number of staff and budget releasing and maintaining games over the same period
Not just the studio but all involved subcontractors, etc. I don’t think coordinating the holidays of every key participating staff member would be practical.
> 2533274991067213;5:
> But they did exactly that in 2014 with the Halo 5 beta, almost a full year before launch, while also dealing with the fallout from MCC’s first launch.
>
> I think even with covid restrictions, a beta or flight is possible.
As I recall, the Halo 5 beta ran after Christmas (Dec 29 to Jan 18) and consumed the main studio, while the MCC dumpster fire was more or less sublet. Anything is possible, but I just don’t see it.
Being the tech giant that Microsoft is, I believe covid should have minimal impact on 343’s ability to do their jobs. Sure the holidays cause a reduction in staff with the actual day of the holiday and also people taking vacation time, but the “studio” isn’t going to shut down (any more than everyone is probably already working remote). This is a for-profit company, I would be shocked if they offered their employees 5 weeks of paid holiday time for just thanksgiving through new years.
All that being said, I’m not seeing any signs from 343 of feeling any pressure to get this thing out ASAP. So they certainly won’t go through the trouble of running a beta through the holidays. We probably would have more information on the game by now if they were considering a beta anytime in the next month or two.
After Halo 5’s backlash of not including simple features such as Forge, Oddball, and custom games at launch, I think they are trying to avoid the same issue by releasing the full game at once. With the multiplayer being F2P, though, I don’t think the same rules apply, since your $60 is technically only going toward the non-PVP modes. This could possibly be a “trick” to make the paid versions of the game seem more content packed if they are released along-side the multiplayer.
One example of a game that is releasing in multiple parts soon is Cyberpunk 2077. The story part will release in December, with the multiplayer component to come at a later, unannounced date.
> As I recall, the Halo 5 beta ran after Christmas (Dec 29 to Jan 18) and consumed the main studio, while the MCC dumpster fire was more or less sublet. Anything is possible, but I just don’t see it.
That’s still partly within the holiday season, and the main bulk of 343i’s staff are focused on Infinite just as they were focused on Halo 5 back in 2014-15.
If the MCC team can accomplish so much, I’m curious as to why the Infinite team would have a much harder time showing anything at all.
> 2533274991067213;10:
> > As I recall, the Halo 5 beta ran after Christmas (Dec 29 to Jan 18) and consumed the main studio, while the MCC dumpster fire was more or less sublet. Anything is possible, but I just don’t see it.
>
> That’s still partly within the holiday season, and the main bulk of 343i’s staff are focused on Infinite just as they were focused on Halo 5 back in 2014-15.
>
> If the MCC team can accomplish so much, I’m curious as to why the Infinite team would have a much harder time showing anything at all.
Fewer cooks and oversight with MCC. My guess is Infinite is, at best, a morass of managers, committees, egos, focus groups, analytics, politics and other bureaucratic sinkholes.
Nothing is happening until after the holidays:
> Right now we’re still going through the huge cascade of implications and ramifications to the release shift and the team is heads down working through nearly every facet of the game. Full disclosure we don’t have anything planned for the VGAs, but are hoping to offer at least a high level update within the next few weeks so we can kind of restart this journey together after the holidays. Pulling together something like a demo or big beat for the VGAs is an enormous amount of work and would cause challenges with current milestones of the holidays. I know it’s hard to wait, but the team is going to make the most of this extra time and we want to make sure we can put our best foot forward and commit to greater transparency and dialog on the road ahead. We’ll get there and get the train going again. @ske7ch343
I understand why 343 is hesitant to launch anything soon due to how this year played out
I do hope they release multiplayer early and treat it as a beta until the actual game is ready to launch
If there has ever been a time to release a video game, it is this year. Most governments are tightening up restrictions and shutting things down as things are spiking again. If the only place to look for entertainment is in your house then a video game is a great option. All these pay to win mobile games are making so much money this year they don’t know what to do with themselves.
I’m hoping there is some kind of a Beta or Demo during December.
Phil said he wants them both to launch together. The demo backlash isn’t the only reason it was delayed though. I forget who said it, 343i or MS, but they said they were also having technical issues on the mp side of things. There’s probably a whole mess of reasons the game was delayed. If you ask me though, I’d be 100% fine with sp and mp launching separately.
Perhaps they might prefer to release a small snippet of the campaign. If they go with the multiplayer, they could lose out on potential buyers who didn’t like what they saw in a reveal or beta or what-have-you.
> 2533274797640604;1:
> I mean, it’s clear that they are treating Halo Infinite’s campaign/full suite and PvP as two entities, where people could simply install the F2P multiplayer if they wish (one of the few welcome ideas, tbh). And so it kinda dawns on me: Why is the PvP being delayed? It was the campaign reveal backlash that pushed the game back, but any changes to visuals or sandbox would be possible with at least a beta of PvP running in the meantime. Any issues during that would be expected of a beta anyway.
>
> At the very least, a PvP beta should have launched weeks ago for a great deal of reasons.
Multiplayer has always been either a small side project of a game and or the last thing implemented. It even typically is only done by a small portion of the overall team since it reuses most of the campaigns graphical and geometry assets and gameplay. Done this way to save time and disc space which is why, down the road, map packs have maps that usually have better graphics than the launch maps. And scenery that isnt like anything in the vanilla game.
In a nutshell. Any overhaul to the graphical assets and gameplay will effect the overall presentation of the multiplayer component. And since the delay was brought on by the graphics and possibly gameplay it will most likely be on hold.
Also and equally likely. If the multiplayer isnt well recieved it could hurt the over all game sales
> 2793974233130299;17:
> > 2533274797640604;1:
> > I mean, it’s clear that they are treating Halo Infinite’s campaign/full suite and PvP as two entities, where people could simply install the F2P multiplayer if they wish (one of the few welcome ideas, tbh). And so it kinda dawns on me: Why is the PvP being delayed? It was the campaign reveal backlash that pushed the game back, but any changes to visuals or sandbox would be possible with at least a beta of PvP running in the meantime. Any issues during that would be expected of a beta anyway.
> >
> > At the very least, a PvP beta should have launched weeks ago for a great deal of reasons.
>
> Multiplayer has always been either a small side project of a game and or the last thing implemented. It even typically is only done by a small portion of the overall team since it reuses most of the campaigns graphical and geometry assets and gameplay. Done this way to save time and disc space which is why, down the road, map packs have maps that usually have better graphics than the launch maps. And scenery that isnt like anything in the vanilla game.
>
> In a nutshell. Any overhaul to the graphical assets and gameplay will effect the overall presentation of the multiplayer component. And since the delay was brought on by the graphics and possibly gameplay it will most likely be on hold.
>
> Also and equally likely. If the multiplayer isnt well recieved it could hurt the over all game sales
PvP became it’s own entire experience in Halo since H2. The last time it used campain environments to cut corners was Reach.
> 2535406260637191;16:
> Perhaps they might prefer to release a small snippet of the campaign. If they go with the multiplayer, they could lose out on potential buyers who didn’t like what they saw in a reveal or beta or what-have-you.
Campaign was doomed way before the reveal. F2P pvp rendered it moot. Nobody’s spending $60 to see what a long YT vid can show them.
Halo is PvP.
Not true. I buy every halo for the campaign. I stay to play with my friends in PvP and co-op (campaign and firefight). Halo has a strong story behind it with a strong player base. Halo is so much more than PvP. Player retention is probably more closely tied to the success of multiplayer though.