So, with the recent little leak from Tesco about a 2013 Halo game, I was thinking: Would having a Halo game every single year really be that bad? The answer: Yes and no.
Best case scenario:
If there is a Halo game this year, it will be Season 2 of Spartan Ops just under a different name, probably something fancy. But it will have a selling point to it other than the Halo brand, this will be the beta for Halo 5 (they are going to do a beta, H4 kind of proofed to them that they need outside help) and it will be on the nextbox. So surely Spartan Ops 2 would be on the nextbox then? Well no not really. We know that 360 games pretty much won’t work on nextbox, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a file on the disc triggering something when used on another console. Like if you put a 360 disc in a PS3, a little message pops up saying you can’t do it. But if you were to do it with Spartan Ops 2 on a nextbox then it could potentially trigger a link or way of getting access to H5 beta. It can be done though.
Now what about the rest of the time between now and when Halo 5 were to get launched? A small spartan ops campaign won’t quench my Halo thirst till then (most likely Q4 2014). So in order to deal with this issue, 343 will give us more maps to play on Halo 4 (Yay?)! This will allow the community to get the competitive Halo fix with addition of more environments and sweeten the deal on paying £40 for spartan op 2, which would probably feel like a £20 game (or if it’s anything like the first one, a £10 one). With these new maps it will also allow for them to try out new things (classic playlists) and try out different ideas on the Halo community before putting them into H5 as well as finally an excuse to raise the SR rank!
Now you’re probably thinking: Well, wouldn’t Halo 2 Anniversary (H2A) be coming out in '14? Well, yes it would. However I can see it as being more of a taster and tease for fan during the summer period, this is when they will need to remind people of the glory days of Halo, just before H5 comes out. This will allow for them to remind people of the good old days and become another means to get into the beta for H5 (I reckon more people will want to play H2A over SOP2). Think about it, they release H2A just before E3, then the expo happens and this builds up more hype for the Halo 5 train then -BAM!- September-November come around, people are super stocked to play Halo 5 because of all the nostalgia from H2 and H5 will sell loads!
That’s given us 3 games (SOps2, H2A and H5) in the span of 19 months (going from May '13 - November 14) and hopefully everything will be set right for the Halo community.
Worst Case Scenario:
We get spartan Ops 2…and then Halo 5…and then Halo 6…and then Halo 7…then Halo 8. Nothing really changing between the two and the series that we all love falls into the endless pit of generic FPS games.
My preferred Scenario:
We get spin offs and bonuses. When Halo Wars and ODST were announced, I thought it was awesome, finally something different for the series, playing FPS all the time gets SO boring. I want to know more about the universe and see it from different points of view. I thought it would be great if we have main series one year, spin off the next. I know it’s very similar to another gaming series, but rather than just keep doing FPS, allow for some time apart to evolve the genre and dip 343’s hand into other pots. I’ll give you an example:
2012: Halo 4
2013: Halo Wars 2 (Halo 4 map pack/ Halo 5 beta)
2014: Halo 5
2015: ODST 2 (Halo 5 MP / Halo 6 beta)
2016: Halo 6
2017: spin off
Now you look at the list and think that’s a lot of Halo, but at the end of the day if you just want to play as the MC and that’s it, you can. Or if you want to play just the Multiplayer of the series, you can download the map packs separately. I personally love the lore of the series, so would buy each game, but I know some of my mates wouldn’t.
I have no concrete evidence that any of this is true, it’s all just speculation and wishful thinking. Let me know what you think. I personally miss the good old days of a game having a 3 year life span and things like map packs added to it until the sequel came out, but something tells me Halo isn’t that series anymore.