Why I Think The Game Is How It Is.

Games Halo: The Master Chief Collection
1

Before I start, I’m not for 1 second pretending that I know the reason why this game is in the state that it is in, but I thought I’d share my 2 cents as to why it might be.
Obviously 343i haven’t done a great job, I think they’d readily admit that. However I think there are more things at play here than them just doing a not up to par job.
First off, there is no way that a full team has been working on this game. With Halo 5 just around the corner (relatively speaking), the top guys at 343i are almost certainly working on that. That’s how development works sometimes.

Secondly, the release date. Now there are two reasons why I’m certain Microsoft pushed for this release date (well, one reason, but disguised as another that 343i would have wanted to meet themselves). The first reason is it being an anniversary game. They want it to be as close to the Halo 2 release 10 years on as they can. This would be the ‘disguise’ reason. 343i would want to try to fulfill that to give fans it as close to the anniversary as is feasible. Microsoft I imagine don’t really care about that though, and this is what I suspect to be the reason (again, all speculation). The Xbox One we know hasn’t sold particularly well compared to its rival. This is a fact. This game however, was almost certainly a console seller, with so very many preorders linked to it. Now normally you’d think that if the game is going to be a console seller anyway, a 2 week delay wouldn’t really matter and would be much better than the current situation, the console will sell those same preorders anyway. However, Microsoft would have needed to get this console out at this time for one reason… The other releases that came out in short time afterwards or around that very same date. Huge releases, especially with GTA V NG, that Microsoft would want purchased on the Xbox One. Delaying the game to after may well have stopped people from getting these games on this console, making it even less likely to sell in the future.

That’s just my though process. I’m not trying to take the blame off of 343i completely, we know they’ve made mistakes, they know it, they’ve shown it with the patch which is hit and miss for a lot of people. There is something fundamentally wrong that probably wouldn’t have been fixed with a delay, but there are so many things that I think would have as well. So they definitely deserve criticism, just not to be completely pummeled into the ground.

All of this obviously only accounts for if they asked for the release date to be pushed and Microsoft said no. If they said to Microsoft that they would absolutely 100% have it ready, or that it’ll be released but with bugs, then yeah… They deserve everything they get.

Also, whilst I’m here, I’d like to praise them for things they’ve done absolutely right, for me anyway. The remade campaign and the remade maps are great, I love them (the fact that there are only 6 though potentially shows that a smaller team was working on the game? Maybe.). The cut-scenes (granted, not done by 343i) are awesome and I am now said there is no Halo movie yet. The forge is brilliant and is a much improved version of the Halo 4 forge.

I’d also like to ask the question. What was Certain Affinity’s role on the game? I’ve checked a few places and it said they worked on the multiplayer? I don’t think that’s true but would like clarification.

Thanks all.

2

Certain Affinty created the anniversary multiplayer. Saber redid the Halo 2 campaign graphics and built the new engine. Skywalker sound remastered the audio. 343 assembled the parts and built the multiplayer and servers that don’t function. There are a ton of parts to this game that are literally parts of other games. This wasn’t built from the ground up for Xbox One, parts of it were. A lot of the issue is reusing old net code and trying to update and adjust everything to a new console and networking. There are a lot of issues that need to be resolved, but I don’t intend to wait around. I’m in agreement that it should have been delayed rather than released in this state.

3

I believe everyone is probably in agreement with that given the situation. I just wonder whether 2 weeks would be enough or whether there are more severe underlying issues that need a couple of months. Also, I do wonder how complicated it is to get more than 4 game engines (5/6 if you include the graphics switching engine, though I imagine they aren’t as big) all functioning with separate multiplayers for all into one overlaying game. Maybe it really is that difficult and needs that extra time. Maybe it is not. I’d love to know though.

4

Oh I’m sure it’s incredibly complicated. I commend 343i for what they’ve created so far, but it is an unfinished product, and it what other industry is it okay to release an unfinished product? Granted, gaming is not like a movie or music, but if other major software is released in such an unusable state, it is almost guaranteed to be a failure and give refunds. I love Halo, but I’m severely disappointed in how this has all been handled. Promises were broken and I should not have to endure 2 weeks plus in order to enjoy a product I purchase. I say 2 weeks because I’m assuming it will be over another week with the holidays next week before there will be another decent patch to try and address these issues.

5

343 wanted to release it as close to Halo 2’s release date as possible. A noble goal that blew up in their face. None of this conspiracy crap about Microsoft and all that.

6

I was never blaming Microsoft, the chances are there was a mutual agreement that it could be done, both for 343i to release it close to H2A and for Microsoft for the release of other games. 343i probably said they can get it done and locked in the release date with agreement from MS. So now they’ve agreed to a date, they have to develop to it but have obviously failed to manage that. I just question as to why it wasn’t pushed back. They aren’t stupid enough (I would imagine) to not push it back if it’s broken simply because of the need to get it close to H2’s launch.

Half of me wishes it had been delayed, not for my sake but for the people turning on 343 like a pack of wolves. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the campaign and using forge (forge is my jam, I’ll play that to the end), so I have less complaints. I just hope this doesn’t damage Halo 5 too much. It wont for me but for a lot of others it seems to have.

7

<mark>This post has been edited by a moderator. Please do not flame or attack other members.</mark>

*Original post. Click at your own discretion.

TLDR go find a girl mate

8

Yes. They tried to hit the ten year mark for their release date. Which means it was probably rushed really badly.

But what is so wrong about communicating that to the players?

9

> 2535411749008672;7:
> TLDR go find a girl mate

:slight_smile:

10

Microsoft Studios is the publisher, they are the one that creates the release date and sends out the game. 343i creates it and maintains it. If Microsoft wants it out, they’ll push it out. Go read the whole Sega and Gearbox fiasco about Aliens: Colonial Marines. There are many factors that play into a games release date, and the anniversary of Halo 2 was not the only one. Obviously Microsoft needed Halo out to push consoles and make up ground on the PS4. Advanced Warfare was coming and Microsoft didn’t want to lose customers to Activision by delaying the game. Players would have picked up CoD and a majority would have stuck with it instead of grabbing MCC if it had been delayed. So obviously they finished the game to a point that it could be played offline from a disc, then added the rest with a day one patch and fixes later. I had the game 4 days before release and before the Day one patch was live. I could run through all the campaigns and play most of the multiplayer, there were only a 2 matchmaking playlists and some multiplayer issues. The game is going to need a lot of work yet and I feel releasing the game like this is fairly unacceptable. Allowing game companies to keep getting away with it too is unacceptable. I’m glad there is so much heat on 343i and Microsoft. It will be a lesson learned by them and hopefully other developers and definitely publishers will take something away from this.

11

> 2535411749008672;7:
> TLDR go find a girl mate

I like how saying “Too Long; Don’t Read” is in itself too long and needs to be abbreviated. Which is completely unrelated to this topic; just an observation.

Anyway, I guess the reason I mention that is because I wanted to tag your post with “TS;DR” but no one would know that the “S” stood for “stupid”. We’re on a Halo forum. Girlfriends or not, we’re all pretty big nerds either way.