After 5 years I think we're all aware of how well it runs and that isn't much worse than Reach was in it's day. Giving people the freedom to play how they want is the most important thing. As I mentioned above all they need to do is warn people that much like all other Halo titles, frame rates and image quality will be reduced in split screen. I'm fairly certain that no one is looking to play competitive split screen.
As I mentioned above this is about multiplayer and Halo 5's Multiplayer is pretty decent except for the unHalo like mechanics, which can easily be edited down to feel more like classic Halo. Considering there's plenty of people still playing Halo 5 and a enormous database of customs maps I'm sure it'd be fine, especially if it gets added to the MCC.
Yeah, maybe it'll come back in the MCC later this year, maybe on PC next year. Maybe people will want to play it. Maybe people will want to slog thru a 200GB download every time they need to update shaders or multiplayer settings, or the battlepass menus, or the audio mix. Maybe. Evidence suggests otherwise. Anyone remember Halo Online and Eldewrito? Talk about a missed opportunity.
Plenty of people already do this to enjoy the full collection at it's best. You can't request that a game gets fixes/improvements and then ***** about the downloads. It is what it is. Microsoft has tried to help by allowing us to compartmentalize the collection and download what we need. File size is an ongoing issue that they are eternally working on. What's interesting is that due to Deep Learning game file sizes may actually see a slight decrease on the Series X. Sony also claims the potential to decrease file sizes on the PS5 due to their new data streaming technology. Instead of creating multiple instances of the same objects for each map block, they should be able to create the asset once and stream it into the game in real time. PS. Your link only talked about 1.46 Gb update. The only place I commonly see updates that massive (50GB+) is on the Flighting builds, which really isn't that unexpected.
I didn’t, nor have I ever complained about 343i fixing anything. I’ve never asked them or advised them to do anything. My link was to the dying thread on Waypoint discussing the drop in player population for Reach MCC on PC. The players haven’t bothered to stick around after even one update, less than 1.5GB as you say. It broke the game, a game which as I noted in September of last year, felt awful to play on PC. Do the math. I definitely agree that ‘gamers’ as a consumer demographic are particularly entitled - but never forget the state of the industry in such relationship. A producer that caves to the peanut gallery, or targets the wrong audience, has only itself to blame. The point is that Halo as a brand is currently on life support, and that its loved ones have largely made peace with its eventual passing.
Again I'll have to disagree. Halo's still quite popular and you can tell that by their sales numbers. Sure concurrent players is down but sales were solid and total reviews are still sitting at around 8/9 out of 10. Of course low concurrent isn't great if you're trying to milk multiplayer but only Halo 5 was really set up for heavy milking. If Halo's community seems to be dying it's because they've struggled with only themselves to support it on a minimalistic editor for the course of five long years. That's 2 years longer than any other title in the lineup. The reality is people are not hating Halo or running from Halo they're just tired of waiting for Halo. I have no doubt that when Halo Infinite rolls around, provided it looks like a decent Halo title, it will still see lifetime sales up over 9 million copies. Well sales might not be quite the right description considering the format that Microsoft has chosen but I'm sure it'll be equivalent of 9+ million copies sold by the time the money settles. Actually I would argue that number is still low considering the estimated 3 million MCC copies sold on PC. This would put Halo infinite at a low ballpark of 12+ million copies. It's easy to see how Halo infinite could generate over half a billion dollars in sales and that's before you start accounting for merchandising and future media. This also doesn't account for the fact that Halo tends to both draw and retain customers for the Xbox ecosystem. Money on money. I find it hard to view any franchise or people that double down on their efforts as weak or dying, and I certainly wouldn't refer to the franchise as on life support. 343 may fail but if they do it will be going balls in.
You make a strong point, and I agree that Infinite could do quite well in the sales department thanks to a PC presence and a new console generation. It completely depends on what they do with it. Word of mouth is a serious killer in the PC market. See Fallout 76, selling only 2.6 million copies. I still think Halo is on life support right now. This can be true, and there can still be the possibility that it makes a stunning recovery. I hope it does. But I do not think that 343i’s efforts have been very well-executed for the last 10 years. To double down on them would be a mistake. Would you go balls deep on a crack *****? All of that said, I don’t think sales is the right metric alone. It might sound nice to say “we pulled in a cold billion last weekend”, but that’s meaningless if the product or service is bad. For the money on money approach to work, sales and audience engagement should be measured hand in hand, among other things. That way they know what’s actually selling, and can make smarter decisions with their money.
This made me chuckle Fair enough. Maybe not the best executed but there's obviously a lot of heart there if also a lot of confusion about Halo's direction. Maybe the head should have been lopped off to save the body. Who knows, I guess we'll see. I wouldn't refer to Halo as a crack *****, more like an ex hotness that lost her confidence and now she keeps changing to try to fit whatever image she thinks her current boyfriend wants instead of standing on her own and saying like me for who I am. Emphatically disagree. The reality is if something sells well and reviews high, no matter how imperfect, it is a success. I'll adjust this: ------------------- For long term stability sales and audience engagement should be measured hand in hand, among other things. That way they know what’s actually selling, and can make smarter decisions with their money. ------------------- Simply riding on successes doesn't guarantee a stable future. If you're not learning and growing from your feedback, successes and failures, then you're just rolling the dice and hoping for another win. Eventually those odds will crap out. There's a lot that 343 did right and wrong with both Halo 4 and Halo 5 and they appeared to be learning from them. Only on release of Halo Infinite will we see to what extent and if audiences will deem it to be enough.
I would hesitate to compare Halo or any video game to a woman, and I did not do so earlier. Joking aside, the question is whether or not the heart and misdirection and confusion is something that should be doubled down on. I don’t think it is, and arguably, back in September on 2019, it was made clear to me that they are doing so, by approaching from a pinpoint, data-driven perspective, and not a wider philosophical one. It’s like looking at a mangled body and assuming that that’s the way it was put together to begin with. If they get the options and tuning preferences right for the sandbox and aftermarket players, then maybe it will surpass expectations and become a true success - but never, ever, ever are sales alone a measure of success, especially for an established property.
They can be, if they are taken in account within the full context of prior sales figures. As far as I know, individual sales of H5 are at about 2/3 of Halo 3’s total sales well into H3’s fifth year. Considering that, Halo 5 is nowhere near the success its numbers might portend. Bundle sales are hard to quantify, because it’s difficult to determine which was more valuable to the buyer - the exclusive game, or the console? Same with Gamepass. A [EDITED] $15 [EDITED] fee or whatever it is granting access to a game is not a purchase. In this case, active players may not be reflective of player retention from a previous, individual purchase. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Estimates have sales on par with other titles. Gamepass isn't considered a purchase but depending on how much time people invest in it on gamepass it might as well be. Sidenote: Please don't use the 1 dollar argument for gamepass. The majority of people using gamepass this far in are not paying that.
I'm pretty sure a while ago Bonnie or someone like that said they were added couch co-op to all future Halo titles. So it'll be in Infinite I'm pretty sure.