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Has Halo lost some of its popularity?
- Thread starter SantaC
- Start date
Pretty much. You'd have to be living under a rock to assume the franchise was still on top of the world. Microsoft needs to haul ass and get new IPs going if they care about Xbox as a brand imo unless it really just is going to be "the console that you might as well not buy because why not play on all the other systems or windows?"
It was on this list last year and has out sold the first Destiny.its not even in the Top 10 NPD List of Microsoft biggest market, while Halo 3, Halo 4 and Reach were juggernauts back then, making it into the Top 15 List of the best selling exclusives between 95-2018
For a long time, Halo was "the good console FPS" and enjoyed the status unapposed for a long time. Over the course of the last gen, everybody caught up, the market has pushed past and now it's jostling for position against a load of heavy hitters. They should have retired it long ago and let Bungie move onto something new. Instead they binned them off and bought a studio to just keep it ticking over.
yes its still huge - but compared to last gen where all 3 (or was it 2) of them were in the Top 10 the OP is right
LOL, so what is Pokemon, Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy for grandpa's? What type of reasoning is this? Trying to frame the Halo franchise age as a pejorative, despite much older franchises around. Halo 3 came out in 2007, no, MS are not the targeting 12-14 yr olds, it would be 18-45, the core that are extremely active with all the purchasing power.
It has definitely lost a ton of popularity. During Halo 2 and 3 it was basically Fortnite popular. It was featured on ESPN which was unbelievable back then.
Reach is the last Halo I completed. I enjoyed the series until then, but I've seen the formula and couldn't get excited for four and five. If they can do something drastically different with Infinite, I'm back in.
Over the last 10 years of course. Little game called Modern warfare came out and took alot of marketshare. Halo is still very popular but lots of competition took away lots of its base. Halo is on the course to rise again. Especially MS putting the game on multiple devices. Next generation campaign, Forge (imagine the creations of pc gamers and console gamers together), Multiplayer - slayer team slayer king of hill oddball, big team battle etc, Warzone, split screen and many modes that might exist. Gonna be a meaty game for sure.
Eh, I dunno if drop-off was to be expected. Halo 3 was very popular, but with a different developer at the helm and more competition from games like Call of Duty, that all probably hurt it, whereas a Bungie-developed Halo 4 may have been off the charts.
Look at GTA. GTA3's popularity, VC's popularity, SA's popularity, 4's popularity were all insane. Yet V easily outsold all of them and is a monster the likes we haven't seen.
Reach was still top 3 in player count for two years. It seems Halo 5 struggled to even stay above the top 20.
Obviously a little bit since 4 and 5 weren't great entries.
All it really needs is a legitimately good entry to be back closer to where it was.
I mean, Halo won't ever be as big as it was because Halo was it's biggest back when there was no real competition around. It's no coincidence that a decline began post 2007....Modern Warfare. Since then other big shooters have come along and taken much of that mindshare that Halo once had. Battlefield, Fortnite, Gears etc. etc.
Having said all that, I do find it strange that Halo 4 is actually the best selling entry in the series.
All it really needs is a legitimately good entry to be back closer to where it was.
I mean, Halo won't ever be as big as it was because Halo was it's biggest back when there was no real competition around. It's no coincidence that a decline began post 2007....Modern Warfare. Since then other big shooters have come along and taken much of that mindshare that Halo once had. Battlefield, Fortnite, Gears etc. etc.
Having said all that, I do find it strange that Halo 4 is actually the best selling entry in the series.
Most of it. Halo used to be a fucking huge huge event. I remember normal TV news covering the halo 3 launch.
I still strongly believe that the original MCC launch did significant damage to the brand. I was part of a very big Halo group, we all got MCC and none of us could play it for months afterwards. I would say about three quarters of my group sold their xbox and bought PS4s because of that. When Halo 5 came around it was just me and two others that still played and we all dropped it within 3-4 months due to the lack of game modes and the feel of the shooting and movement being too different (we played Halo 3 competitively at tournaments, Halo 5 just felt wrong to all of us).
Oh yea, I love Halo but CoD kicked it off the Popularity Throne a long time ago; and lately, Fortnite and other battle royal games have kicked off CoD.
Unlike coalition I don't trust in 343i to make a good halo campaign. Halo 4 was mediocre, I didn't even finish the game, Prometheans are just annoying to fight. This + Halo - TMCC bugs and Halo 5 false advertise about Chief vs Locke (and a campaing that nobody that I know liked) made halo become less than it was in the 360 days.
Of course Xbox one not being the most beloved console didn't help but 343i alone did a good job harming the IP.
Of course Xbox one not being the most beloved console didn't help but 343i alone did a good job harming the IP.
I think MCC on Steam is going to be huge. The PC audience have been waiting for the Halo games for a long time. Call of Duty has all but evaporated from the PC space so the won't be competing with that. A lot of indies have tried to fill the arena shooter void but they haven't been that successful. But I think people will come to the Halo games. They are classics, high budgets, and contain loads of content.
I feel like the disastrous launch of MCC really damaged the brand. None of my friends seem to care about Halo, which is very upsetting since Halo 2 was the game that brought most of us to Xbox Live in the first place.
I blame Halo 4, that was my last stop in the franchise because the multiplayer was just so bad.
There is a chance the franchise could rise again though.
Once COD4 came out it lost a lot of its steam. The subsequent releases of halo 4, MCC, and halo 5 didn't help.
Now that 343 has fixed MCC, releasing Reach, porting everything to steam on PC, and being very transparent about it all is why they are gaining lots of popularity now. I believe the release of MCC on PC is going to be massive and halo infinite is going to be amazing.
Now that 343 has fixed MCC, releasing Reach, porting everything to steam on PC, and being very transparent about it all is why they are gaining lots of popularity now. I believe the release of MCC on PC is going to be massive and halo infinite is going to be amazing.
Of course, but it is still very popular and makes MS lots of money.
There is so much choice with multiplayer games now, compared to Halo at its peak.
There is so much choice with multiplayer games now, compared to Halo at its peak.
Some? The MP isn't even relevant to what's on the market/mindshare of gamers today.
I dont know why MS hasnt gotten a new centerpiece IP yet, they really need to
Overwatch, Siege, Fortnite, Apex, PUBG, COD, are the big players. Halo also feels like it has an aging demographic of Xbox Teens from the 2000s. I dont know any kid who cares about Halo.
I dont know why MS hasnt gotten a new centerpiece IP yet, they really need to
Overwatch, Siege, Fortnite, Apex, PUBG, COD, are the big players. Halo also feels like it has an aging demographic of Xbox Teens from the 2000s. I dont know any kid who cares about Halo.
Halo 3 was very competitive with CoD4 any given week one of the other would have been listed as most played game on Xbox Live. The quality of the follow ups were so poor and that's when the game started falling off.
Basically this. I remember playing Halo 3 a LOT, then COD 4 came out and most people never looked back, doubly so when Halo dropped stinker after stinker (ODST, Reach, 4,5). Now that most gamers went ps4, I don't think Halo is on most people's radar.
You see, it's weird because when you go to look at the reception on wikipedia it states that both 4 and 5 respectively ended up breaking the previous releases' launch gross.
I know the Master Chief Collection had soured people's opinions on 343's handling of the franchise, but I have to also attribute Microsoft suddenly becoming tight lipped on software sales/performance this gen as another contributing factor of Halo's "decline."
That and this gen saw the explosion of both Overwatch, Pubg, and Fortnite.
Yeah which is a shame. Halo 5 multiplayer is unmatched in term of gameplay. Apex, COD, etc are not on the same level at all
Of course it has, but that doesn't mean it's not still a big deal. I'm sure Infinite launching with the next Xbox will be a really good decision for the franchise but I think it's unlikely to ever reach that Halo 3 heyday again. It was fucking everywhere back then.
Yes 343 really mismanaged the franchise and needs to make a really amazing game for it to even have a chance to recover.
That being said it's a lot of factors at work here the transition from Xbox 360 to Xbox One was abysmal halo 4&5 both being really uneven games and Bungie launching a new IP has really taken it's toll on the halo franchise.
That being said it's a lot of factors at work here the transition from Xbox 360 to Xbox One was abysmal halo 4&5 both being really uneven games and Bungie launching a new IP has really taken it's toll on the halo franchise.
Eh, popularity is one stellar game away. Hit the right notes and gamers change their tune pretty quick. It's like wild brush fire, when it catches off it goes. Given launching with Scarlett, xCloud, on PC and more devices we're going to see quite a resurgence of Halo. Similar to Fortnite or Apex I feel, whether they capture or manage the population, content sustain and/or cross play so it continually grows is another story we have to wait and see to read.
There has been a shift away from arena shooters, there is more competition in FPS console games since mid life H3 and Halo is yet to really bring its PvE game to town e.g. Destiny. They have to expect such a decline with their MCC fiasco and poor Xbox One launch that took years to recover (they've done a stellar job in recent years course correcting), a divisive hardcore focus on esports with H5 and multiplayer audiences have shifted to PvE based games as well as BR style games where other elements exist besides simply straight up killing your enemy on a small symmetrical map.
Players enjoy looting, large map movements, larger weapon sandboxes and more that isn't inline with arena style games. 343 also ignored the core 4v4 and 8v8 aspects of light vehicles slayer/objective modes for two games (H4 & H5) which placed a very core audience segment for Halo out of the limelight for more than 5 years by the time Infinite launches.
Infinite still has all the potential in the world but has much promise to deliver on. Halo 5 progressed for some 1.5 - 2 years post launch and finally got the regional networking stable and reliable to play very well in game. It took years for MCC to get there as well, that doesn't go unappreciated but should never happen in the first place. So much of that was driven by the Xbox platform as well I feel at the time, constant change, dashboards, API, Azure and leadership misdirection. There's plenty to be happy about with Halo and 343 in recent years, I'm really quite excited for Infinite, we'll see what comes of that and how the global population responds to it.
Hopefully Infinite captures that world wide audience off the back of included with consoles, game pass inclusion, PC+devices ease of access. There is parallels between modern BR games getting so popular and some additional offerings from Xbox/MS that point to all the right moves so far. The game has to deliver at launch though to create that buzz, attract and retain players while not going down that slow burn course and content correcting pipeline H4, MCC and H5 did.
There has been a shift away from arena shooters, there is more competition in FPS console games since mid life H3 and Halo is yet to really bring its PvE game to town e.g. Destiny. They have to expect such a decline with their MCC fiasco and poor Xbox One launch that took years to recover (they've done a stellar job in recent years course correcting), a divisive hardcore focus on esports with H5 and multiplayer audiences have shifted to PvE based games as well as BR style games where other elements exist besides simply straight up killing your enemy on a small symmetrical map.
Players enjoy looting, large map movements, larger weapon sandboxes and more that isn't inline with arena style games. 343 also ignored the core 4v4 and 8v8 aspects of light vehicles slayer/objective modes for two games (H4 & H5) which placed a very core audience segment for Halo out of the limelight for more than 5 years by the time Infinite launches.
Infinite still has all the potential in the world but has much promise to deliver on. Halo 5 progressed for some 1.5 - 2 years post launch and finally got the regional networking stable and reliable to play very well in game. It took years for MCC to get there as well, that doesn't go unappreciated but should never happen in the first place. So much of that was driven by the Xbox platform as well I feel at the time, constant change, dashboards, API, Azure and leadership misdirection. There's plenty to be happy about with Halo and 343 in recent years, I'm really quite excited for Infinite, we'll see what comes of that and how the global population responds to it.
Hopefully Infinite captures that world wide audience off the back of included with consoles, game pass inclusion, PC+devices ease of access. There is parallels between modern BR games getting so popular and some additional offerings from Xbox/MS that point to all the right moves so far. The game has to deliver at launch though to create that buzz, attract and retain players while not going down that slow burn course and content correcting pipeline H4, MCC and H5 did.
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Of course it has - 343 butchered the franchise and drove away longtime fans.
That being said, I appreciate them owning the mistake of the MCC launch and providing support for it even today.
Infinite looks like a VERY promising return to form, so I am holding some small glimmer of hope that they can turn this thing around. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
That being said, I appreciate them owning the mistake of the MCC launch and providing support for it even today.
Infinite looks like a VERY promising return to form, so I am holding some small glimmer of hope that they can turn this thing around. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
I remember back in 2013 making a post after Xbox One's disaster of a reveal about how once new Halo comes out for Xbox One all the people complaining about Xbox One and those ridiculous policies will go out and buy Xbox One. I did not make that post because I had particular fondness for the franchise, I have only played bits of the first game. I did not make that post because I was being dismissive of how massive the backlash was. I made that post because such was the clout of Halo franchise. Now I look at that Halo TV show and think, "half a decade too late, mate." Shit dawg, I mean I would have been laughed off back then if I had said to someone that Uncharted 4 would sell more than Halo 5 world wide. (I did make a bet and win that Gears 4 will do about half the numbers of Uncharted 4 in the their respective first week of NPD. I was called crazy for that as well.) I am curious to see how PC and console audiences receive Infinite.
