I have heard a lot of criticisms of Halo 5. But, none of them can really explain the decline of Halo with this new game.
Poor, cliché, bad story and misleading marketing campaign? Didn’t stop Destiny selling like hotcakes. People stayed and even bought all of its DLC. Hell, destiny barely even has a story. Repetitive bosses. Repetitive gameplay. Destiny did all of these things.
Game with few modes and limited multiplayer? Didn’t stop people buying and playing Battlefront and that game got just as much if not more venomous reviews than Halo 5.
Overused and bland? Hasn’t stopped Call of Duty from churning out games every year much less every three. People are clearly prepared to buy these games.
Micro transactions? Plenty of games have this and frankly it hasn’t dented sales.
Developer infamous for buggy games and poor developer that strips content as day one DLC to sell you half a game? I direct you to CA and the total war series over its last few instalments. Rome 2 total war in particular. Still a massively profitable strategy game and also the same capable hands who will be creating Halo Wars 2 BTW. Or Battlefield 4 for that matter, which as far as I am aware was slammed for having been shipped early and having lots of bugs. But people still bought and played the game regardless.
Negative reviews? Plenty of the games I list above had extremely negative reviews at launch that highlighted their many flaws. But they did not dent sales.
So I am just not sold on any of these arguments. If so, Halo would literally be the only case of a triple A title being rejected by its consumer base; to flat out refuse to purchase it. The sad truth is that, if you watch AngryJoe he mentions this a lot, developers do stuff like this because they can and have gotten away with it. I don’t think people or critics acknowledge or appreciate that unsettling truth. Any and all of these criticisms can’t account for what happened with Halo. I think everyone assumed that it would be terrible but that it would still sell because, frankly these brands normally have serious staying power and frankly even the most vociferously negative opinions do not translate into lower sales. I think theres something much more serious and fundamental going on to explain that.
I thought we were past these posts already, I guess I was wrong. Halo 5 had really good launch sales but due to the lack of stuff in comparison to the other games it lost sales by my guess when the June update drops (and technically the game is complete) I think the sales will come back up since now its not exactly finished but in June it will be
It must’ve sold, how else would I have h5 right now?
On on a serious note though, there’s no pinpoint problem for halo, it’s all speculation on what the issue may be. It could be change in gameplay, new art direction, certain features in game that many think isn’t halo, change in the industry, stagnate fps market, gamer mindset changing, ect ect. There’s so many possibilities that no one knows what the issue is, all we know is halo isn’t where it was at ten years ago.
My my opinion of h5: its my favorite halo game since h3 multiplayer wise, but the worst campaign wise due to false ads, poor execution, and making h4 irrelevant. It lacks many features in multiplayer and downgraded in others. I think h5s saving grace is how fluid the gameplay is, had it been h4 all over again I think h5 would be even further in the hole. It does many things right from the most balanced out weapon sandbox to decent symmetrical arena styled maps with weapon/power up pickups. It has it then has what is arguably the most flushed out forge that opens up many possibilities as well. I think 343 has the right idea, they just need to execute it better.
> 2533274816299345;3:
> Im pretty sure it sold well.
“Show me the book Dave?”
Why would they avoid stating the number of units sold? At the minute we can only speculate but that silence is highly indicative and plenty of people have remarked on it. From personal experience I know that Halo 5’s price just plummeted in the UK. It was on sale at GAME for £25 not long after release and only this week has it went back to normal. Pre owned is £20 or less at some Computer Exchange stores. Compare that to Battlefront or CoD which has stubbornly remained full price with sales only recently coming in for it. To me that suggests either low demand for Halo 5 or too many boxes in circulation (because people played it and traded it in straight away for various reasons). I simply don’t see why they would be that cagey if it had sold as well as Halo 4. An obvious counter to bad reviews and feedback is “but we sold more than Halo 4”. That’s not what we’ve heard.
But that’s an aside. My point is that plenty of big titles have committed many of the same sins as 343 but this hasn’t hurt them in any serious manner. People did not abandon CA after Rome 2. They view the developer with disdain and contempt perhaps, but they still buy the game. Same with any EA title. Or Destiny with its terribly shallow story. So I am more criticising the reasons people give to explain this away. I just don’t think they provide a true answer.
It had more sales on release date than any other Halo. Halo 5 had the least. 343i made a GOOD Halo game with 5, just no one tried it out because 4 tanked.
Obviously Bungie was behind Halo and created it to be what it is. Halo 4 was pretty bad and felt like a different game entirely. It’s not just that though, Bungle saturated the market before they handed it off the 343. Halo ODST and Halo Reach were both before Halo 4 came out and then when Halo 4 came out, people were less excited and didn’t like the feel very much. But Bungie had already started to make big changes before that anyway.
> 2533274803587475;1:
> I have heard a lot of criticisms of Halo 5. But, none of them can really explain the decline of Halo with this new game.
>
> * Poor, cliché, bad story and misleading marketing campaign? Didn’t stop Destiny selling like hotcakes. People stayed and even bought all of its DLC. Hell, destiny barely even has a story. Repetitive bosses. Repetitive gameplay. Destiny did all of these things.
>
> * Game with few modes and limited multiplayer? Didn’t stop people buying and playing Battlefront and that game got just as much if not more venomous reviews than Halo 5.
>
> * Overused and bland? Hasn’t stopped Call of Duty and Assassins Creed from churning out games every year much less every three. People are clearly prepared to buy these games.
>
> * Micro transactions? Plenty of games have this and frankly it hasn’t dented sales.
>
> * Developer infamous for buggy games and poor developer that strips content as day one DLC to sell you half a game? I direct you to CA and the total war series over its last few instalments. Rome 2 total war in particular. Still a massively profitable strategy game and also the same capable hands who will be creating Halo Wars 2 BTW. Or Battlefield 4 for that matter, which as far as I am aware was slammed for having been shipped early and having lots of bugs. But people still bought and played the game regardless.
>
> * Negative reviews? Plenty of the games I list above had extremely negative reviews at launch that highlighted their many flaws. But they did not dent sales.
>
> So I am just not sold on any of these arguments. If so, Halo would literally be the only case of a triple A title being rejected by its consumer base; to flat out refuse to purchase it. The sad truth is that, if you watch AngryJoe he mentions this a lot, developers do stuff like this because they can and have gotten away with it. I don’t think people or critics acknowledge or appreciate that unsettling truth. Any and all of these criticisms can’t account for what happened with Halo. I think everyone assumed that it would be terrible but that it would still sell because, frankly these brands normally have serious staying power and frankly even the most vociferously negative opinions do not translate into lower sales. I think theres something much more serious and fundamental going on to explain that.
You bring up some really good points. I don’t have anything to counter them with (nor do I really want to, I think Halo 5 is a pretty decent game and more people should play it). I do have to point out, you gave Assassin’s Creed as an example of a franchise doing well, but Syndicate sold fewer copies than Halo 5 did. And not just on Xbox, I mean fewer copies of Syndicate were sold on PC, PS4, and Xbox One in total than copies of Halo 5 were sold just on Xbox.
I think it’s simply a matter of industry trends. It’s just not as popular as it was 10 years ago. That doesn’t mean that it’s any worse than it was. It happens to a lot of things in pop culture, I mean, look at music: 10 years ago, Green Day was big deal again, and now I don’t know anyone who listens to them. That doesn’t mean they’ve gotten worse. I heard their last album, it was pretty good. That kind of music just isn’t really popular right now.
> 2533274923562209;4:
> It must’ve sold, how else would I have h5 right now?
>
> On on a serious note though, there’s no pinpoint problem for halo, it’s all speculation on what the issue may be. It could be change in gameplay, new art direction, certain features in game that many think isn’t halo, change in the industry, stagnate fps market, gamer mindset changing, ect ect. There’s so many possibilities that no one knows what the issue is, all we know is halo isn’t where it was at ten years ago.
>
> My my opinion of h5: its my favorite halo game since h3 multiplayer wise, but the worst campaign wise due to false ads, poor execution, and making h4 irrelevant. It lacks many features in multiplayer and downgraded in others. I think h5s saving grace is how fluid the gameplay is, had it been h4 all over again I think h5 would be even further in the hole. It does many things right from the most balanced out weapon sandbox to decent symmetrical arena styled maps with weapon/power up pickups. It has it then has what is arguably the most flushed out forge that opens up many possibilities as well. I think 343 has the right idea, they just need to execute it better.
I can only speak for myself and my circle of friends. Almost all of them bought Halo 5. Purely for nostalgia, brand loyalty and for the campaign. A few of them dabbled in multiplayer but none of them are too concerned about that. I played co-op with one guy two or three times but he got rid of the game because he wanted disc space on his xbox one and he really needed the change I guess (I do not understand trading in your games TBH). Theres one geek hipster who doesn’t like “mainstream” games and goes on about the Witcher and Dark Souls. But hes pretty much the exception. I did ask what there opinion on the game was and a lot of it was disappointment at various parts of the campaign. Although I had thoroughly convinced them that Cortana was definelty coming back in this game so they didn’t have that to moan about. But yeah, I can’t really speak for the bulk of gamers who buy the game for the multiplayer. However, I think generally people are quite loyal to the campaign and want to see the story of the Chief continue or even just have a Halo story. So I don’t think it would actually be the campaign that would put people off. Again, that’s purely inferring from my circle of friends.
> 2533274829103618;6:
> Halo 4.
>
> It had more sales on release date than any other Halo. Halo 5 had the least. 343i made a GOOD Halo game with 5, just no one tried it out because 4 tanked.
^ or that, in addition to what I said above. And I enjoyed Halo 4, but even I acknowledge it strayed a little too far.
I think it is pretty simple to see why Halo 5 is not the Sales juggernaut that CoD is.
First - Loadout customization. While I realize that none of the original Halos had customization, the customization in games like CoD 2 was nowhere near what it is now with BO3. I think once people got a taste of the significant customization you could do with the CoD MW’s, no one wanted to go back to fighting for power weapons in halo. Also, it doesn’t apply to today’s futuristic games, but I think people really enjoyed picking out a real-life rifle, and being able to notice the subtle differences in the weapon sound, fire rate, recoil, etc…
Second - Weak MP Maps. It is no secret, the MP maps on Halo 5 look like -Yoink-, have very little significant detail, and basically zero texture.
Third - More fun. Again, it is no secret. Games like CoD and Battlefield are just more fun for the casual gamer than Halo. For one, you don’t have a bunch of pretentious kids telling you how bad you are. You also don’t have a bunch of kids telling you to stop playing if you are bad. They don’t ban you for quitting, because they just allow more people to JIP.
I think the first few Halos were so successful because they brought something different to the genre of FPS. It was one of the first games on XBOX and it captivated people’s imaginations. But after that, you had a flood of FPS and with easier mechanics, more realism; people gravitated towards other shooters that are more casual friendly because they are simply more fun.
But yeah, I can’t really speak for the bulk of gamers who buy the game for the multiplayer. However, I think generally people are quite loyal to the campaign and want to see the story of the Chief continue or even just have a Halo story. So I don’t think it would actually be the campaign that would put people off. Again, that’s purely inferring from my circle of friends.