Such a trend CLEARLY demonstrates something is wrong with the game, and i think we all know thats true.
My hypothesis as to this decline is H4 was made to appeal to the CoD playerbase, and come the release of CoD Black Ops 2, they all left. ( As seen on the graph)
This left the Halo playerbase with effectively a hybrid Halo/CoD game, that didn’t fit in with EITHER of the playerbases. The result is what we see, a AAA title with 75% of its population gone in a month after launch.
Please share your ideas as to why this is happening in the thread below.
EDIT: I have compiled a list of possible ideas from your responses in the thread:
-Lag in Spartan Ops and War Games
-Rank Cap
-Specialisation Code disaster
-Lack of playlists
-Lack of proper FFA
-Unbalanced Gameplay
-Low population causing long search times, causing lower population as people leave, downward cycle
-VERY poor maps, all seem geared towards BTB, none of the others work for any gametypes, except a few designed for Dominion, Haven for slayer and a few for “regicide”(bad FFA rip off)
Note to Mods, this thread is constructive and is discussing H4, please do not feel the need to censor, delete or lock this thread.
Many players are capped and stopped playing till they can level again.
Many players are adults that only play prime time weekends
Many players are kids who have parents to only allow short playtimes
Many players are busy because its Christmas in 11 days
Many players are bored with the current maps/rotation
Many players are crap and dont want to get better so give up
And last but not least;
Many players only went online with the free 14 day trial and are to cheap to buy gold.
Don’t worry there’s gonna be a moron stating everything is fine because they can find a game. After that there will be someone with their head in the sand spouting off about people being on other parts of the menu and Spartan Ops and some goob will say everyone is at School or the far end of the galaxy because it’s 3 AM in Denver.
It’s mostly what you’ve said. A lot left after Black Ops 2 came out while others left because they believe that Halo isn’t Halo anymore but rather a CoD/Halo hybrid. Still, others left because of the whole specialization fiasco that happened which left a TON of people who deserved their code without it. Because of that, those people won’t play Halo 4 because they feel wronged by 343i. I, personally, am in the third boat with the specialization people. It’s a shame that we, as consumers, payed $60 for a game just to find out that most of it was locked until the developers decided to release the content that should have been given on day one. That’s just wrong to do.
> Many players are capped and stopped playing till they can level again.
> Many players are adults that only play prime time weekends
> Many players are kids who have parents to only allow short playtimes
> Many players are busy because its Christmas in 11 days
> Many players are bored with the current maps/rotation
> Many players are crap and dont want to get better so give up
>
> And last but not least;
>
> Many players only went online with the free 14 day trial and are to cheap to buy gold.
>
> I think that about covers it.
I was waiting for a bunch of excuses.
Thanks for combining all of them into one post, but you also forgot the “It is exam week for college kids” excuse.
> Don’t worry there’s gonna be a moron stating everything is fine because they can find a game. After that there will be someone with their head in the sand spouting off about people being on other parts of the menu and Spartan Ops and some goob will say everyone is at School or the far end of the galaxy because it’s 3 AM in Denver.
>
>
> It’ll be okay. You can put the Halo charts away.
The population for Halo is always a little weird. The count goes up and down, wait until after Christmas. I’m sure the population will be more normal around then. Hopefully…
Buggy,laggy matchmaking that doesnt care about true skill.Im looking very forward to the early 2013 update that I have heard about.Should iron out a few problems.
Clearly COD is popular and #1, clearly Halo 4 has remained as #2 and clearly the peak population chart over at Halo Charts is NOT the correct statistic to look at.
The previous Major Nelson XBL chart for November 19 had Halo 4 as number 2 as well, see source link here.
Halo 4 has beaten out ACIII, FIFA13, Skyrim, FarCry 3, Borderlands 2 & Reach of course. All while holding #2 against the COD juggernaut. Halo 4 is doing great and sales have been excellent with a huge cash pile for 343i/MS.
We the community would Appreciate some unique players per day charts to replace the HaloCharts efforts and we can all see some exact numbers instead of XBL charts.
Only XBL or 343i numbers are the accurate ones, there is no official API support and already Halo Charts are missing a number of statistics to track population accurately. I appreciate Halo Charts they just don’t have the API support to deliver the goods reliably.
Halo Charts does not include Spartan Ops numbers.
Halo Charts does not include Campaign numbers.
Halo Charts does not include Custom Games numbers.
Both #1 (COD) & #2 (Halo 4) will experience fluctuations over XMAS, gift giving and players having more time off over holidays to play games.
Halo has always been able to attract players back over months and I don’t think Halo 4 will be any different this XMAS or through early next year either.
Can we now please stop referencing the incorrect Halo Charts statistics!
> Halo Charts peak population is not unique players per day or games played per day totals. You are looking at the wrong statistic and trend.
>
>
> Major Nelson Xbox Live Charts from Dec 3rd.
>
> Clearly COD is popular and #1, clearly Halo 4 has remained as #2 and clearly the peak population chart over at Halo Charts is NOT the correct statistic to look at.
>
> The previous Major Nelson XBL chart for November 19 had Halo 4 as number 2 as well, see source link here.
>
> Halo 4 has beaten out ACIII, FIFA13, Skyrim, FarCry 3, Borderlands 2 & Reach of course. All while holding #2 against the COD juggernaut. Halo 4 is doing great and sales have been excellent with a huge cash pile for 343i/MS.
>
> We the community would Appreciate some unique players per day charts to replace the HaloCharts efforts and we can all see some exact numbers instead of XBL charts.
>
>
> 1. Only XBL or 343i numbers are the accurate ones, there is no official API support and already Halo Charts are missing a number of statistics to track population accurately. I appreciate Halo Charts they just don’t have the API support to deliver the goods reliably.
>
> 2. Halo Charts does not include Spartan Ops numbers.
>
> 3. Halo Charts does not include Campaign numbers.
>
> 4. Halo Charts does not include Custom Games numbers.
>
> 5. Both #1 (COD) & #2 (Halo 4) will experience fluctuations over XMAS, gift giving and players having more time off over holidays to play games.
>
> 6. Halo has always been able to attract players back over months and I don’t think Halo 4 will be any different this XMAS or through early next year either.
>
> Can we now please stop referencing the incorrect Halo Charts statistics!
Being second is irrelevant, we are second by such a large margin that its ridiculous.
THE PEAK POPULATION HAS DECREASED BY 75% IN A MONTH. Doesn’t that tell you something? Do you see anything wrong, with such a large, hyped up game, losing so much of its playerbase so quickly?
Ofcourse we are second, the only competition is CoD, saying we are ahead of Fifa and Assassins Creed is lunacy. OFCOURSE WE ARE WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?