Support NeoGAF

[LordOfChaos]

- Internally, Halo is officially no longer considered flagship. This decision was made somewhere in the past 5 months - The next Halo game will be the last Halo game if it doesn't meet expectations - The next Halo game does not have even half the budget that Halo Infinite did - The Master Chief Collection is dead. Official end of dev cycle announcement will be made, but there's no date on this Halo is now in the worst place it's ever been, and with the Microsoft-Activision deal, it is less important than ever. If 343 Industries' next Halo game is a flop like their past ones, Microsoft is likely to ice the Halo IP, temporarily anyway. I'm sharing this because no one else on the inside can or will. I can tell you that this information is accurate. I've mentioned inside information in the past that proved to be true. I even reported that Joe Staten quit Microsoft before anyone else. So trust me, this information is correct. I believe that even if 343's next game releases content-complete and functions properly, it still won't do great because 343 just can't design a good and solid Halo game and want to keep changing it from the classics so they can make it their own thing and be different from Bungie. 343's overall vision, aspirations, culture, work ethic, and attitude toward Halo and its core fanbase are appalling and those are just some of the many reasons why the Halo franchise has massively declined and lost almost all relevancy. Some of their employees (especially their community team) are also responsible for encouraging division and hate in the fanbase. I am aware people from Microsoft and Xbox read my posts. I and so many others believe the best path forward is to hand Halo over to
@CertainAffinity
. Please consider this.
@MaxHoberman
is the only one qualified who truly understands Halo. He's the genius who designed Halo 2's multiplayer, revolutionized matchmaking and online gaming, invented social systems, created iconic maps, and so much more. He was the multiplayer, online, and UX design lead for Halo 2 and Halo 3. If there is anyone who can turn Halo around and bring the franchise back to the top, it’s Max and his team, but certainly not 343. Don’t let Halo die, there’s so much put into it, it just needs the right people to bring out its potential.

I don't know this person and if they've had good intel before, and I won't say believe it or not. I did fear something like this being true though, the mismanagement of Halo leading to low interest and having it put on the backburner with no satisfying ending to the Master Chief story or any of the many things they've set up over the years, the Precursors, if the Timeless had any relation to them, etc etc. Infinite was yet another game that ditched the last one's plot for something new, but the end of it was imo an interesting enough launching point for more content. Wonder if we'll even ever get more Infinite content, or if it's all on a next game now and any "10 year game" plans are canned as well.

 

[Sleepwalker]

Well no shit, they are trying to buy every IP out there that's not bolted to the ground.

 

[Artistic]

Terrible.

 

[Hudo]

Great strategy, not putting money into it but letting it "determine the fate of the franchise". EA did that numerous times.

 

[Puscifer]

Feel like you don't need a rumor to figure this out. They gave them twice the budget of TLOU PT 2 and still managed to launch an unfinished game.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Sounds like bullshit

But Halo is definitely in a terrible position right now, going to be hard to dig itself out

 

[kirby007]

ofc 343 is going to make cod

 

[Sushi_Combo]

Not too credible but not far out there when it comes to speculation. Halo has lost its staying power way before Infinite launched.

 

[Represent.]

Imagine not being able to manage your own cornerstone flagship IP properly and expecting me to have faith in you managing the countless other IP you buy

They will mismanage all their studios into the ground. I have zero faith in their leadersip.

 

[Fake]

Most depressing thing. Give a good franchise to a bunch of incompetentes to destroy.

People used to buy Xbox because of this IP.

 

[Stuart360]

I think they would give it to one of their other studios before completely shelving it.
Its def 343's last shot at it though, unless they completely blow everyone away with the next one.

 

[Salty Popsicle]

Great strategy, not putting money into it but letting it "determine the fate of the franchise". EA did that numerous times.

If the rumor of Halo Infinite being a $500 million project are even remotely true, then halving the budget for the next entry as this new Twitter rumor suggests, would bring it along the lines of other massive games of the past few years like TLoU Part II and Horizon: Forbidden West. A $200 - $250 million Halo game is still a massive amount of money to work with.

Anyway, I think the best thing for this new 343 team under new leadership is to create a fantastic campaign and get the core multiplayer mechanics perfect (although I did think Halo Infinite had great core mechanics already) and with a substantial amount of maps ready at launch. No more GAAS piecemealing of content.

 

[Skifi28]

So 250 million budget? Sounds pretty good.

 

[Robb]

I definitely believe they’ll get less money to work with and that the franchise is in a bad position.

I don’t believe the next Halo will be the last one though, even if that’s a major screw up as well.

 

[diffusionx]

How is this even a rumor? It's just obvious objective fact. It's not a top franchise, MS wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on Shitfinite, and they need to scale back and stop throwing good money after bad.

 

[Salty Popsicle]

Most depressing thing. Give a good franchise to a bunch of incompetentes to destroy.

People used to buy Xbox because of this IP.

People used to buy PlayStation consoles for Crash Bandicoot and Spyro. Mascots change all the time. Except for Nintendo...their IPs never die.

 

[intbal]

Imagine letting the mismanagement era of Bonnie Ross put the status of your flagship franchise in doubt.

This is a mistake, Microsoft.
The tumor has been removed. Halo will be healthy again if you just commit to it.

 

[Jadsey]

I mean, the last two mainline entries are two of the worst, generic and mediocre games ever made.

Going with half budget would be series suicide though.

 

[Represent.]

People used to buy PlayStation consoles for Crash Bandicoot and Spyro. Mascots change all the time. Except for Nintendo...their IPs never die.

Those franchises were never mismanaged to the point of being irrelevant, they were always treated well. HALO was mismanaged and treated like shit.

 

[Fake]

People used to buy PlayStation consoles for Crash Bandicoot and Spyro. Mascots change all the time. Except for Nintendo...their IPs never die.

People still buy PlayStation for God of War, people still buy Nintendo for Zelda and Mario.



??????

 

[Badlucktroll]

 

[Synless]

These companies need to look at Nintendo and ask themselves why they can’t do the same shit with their franchise. It’s frankly embarrassing.

 

[Gudji]

Is it still being done by 343?

 

[havoc00]

Lets be honest Halo has been running on fumes since like what 2014?

 

[Salty Popsicle]

I mean, the last two mainline entries are two of the worst, generic and mediocre games ever made.

Going with half budget would be series suicide though.

$250 million dollar budget is suicide?

 

[Sanepar]

Imagine this company leading this industry. No respect for legacy, their owm franchises quality, enforcing renting, enforcing cloud.

It will be great.

 

[Salty Popsicle]

Is it still being done by 343?

Yes, but without Bonnie Ross as leader and with half the team replaced by new talent.

 

[StueyDuck]

I call bs... Phil Spencer solution to anything is throwing money at it

 

[Jadsey]

$250 million dollar budget is suicide?

Yep. If $500m allows that studio to make an utter turd like Halo Infinite….they should be aiming for $5bn budget at the very least.

 

[Salty Popsicle]

Lets be honest Halo has been running on fumes since like what 2014?

Halo Reach was for many people the pinnacle of the Halo experience. That was 2011. It's been a steady decline in player base and souring of attitude towards the franchise ever since then. Some of it justified but some of it is also blind hate for Bungie no longer being involved and an irrational hatred for any gameplay changes that are not simply emulating the Halo 1-3 experience.

 

[ADiTAR]

I doubt it.

If true this is really not how you manage IPs, and the fact they dug its own hole, they should be the ones digging it back out.

 

[M.W.]

Halo: Finite

 

[kiphalfton]

Not sure if real person or not....

 

[Salty Popsicle]

These companies need to look at Nintendo and ask themselves why they can’t do the same shit with their franchise. It’s frankly embarrassing.

People expect a lot less from Nintendo franchises IMO. Just look at all the mainline Zelda titles, it's been re-telling the same story for decades.

 

[CanYouFlyBobby?]

Halo, banjo kazooe tier xbox franchise confirmed.

 

[Bernkastel]

who is this hailey and why should I trust her? follow a real Halo insider

https://twitter.com/Surasia_/

I will beleive when he says it.

 

[fart town usa]

So 250 million budget? Sounds pretty good.

Lmao. Holy shit, did Infinite really cost $500 million.

 

[CanYouFlyBobby?]

Not sure if real person or not....

no insta = fake

 

[DownTheRabbitHole]

Another Phil Spencer master class, that's hands off approach at xbox has destroyed it.

 

[LordCBH]

Wouldn’t have happened had they not made an endless train of retarded decisions regarding the IP

 

[Forsythia]

MCC dead, after just receiving a big update this week... sure. And even if this was the last big update, the game is fucking old by now.

Yeah, Halo needs work, but Xbox = Halo, no way they're going to kill it.

 

[Umbasaborne]

Cant say I blame them after the massive amount of time halo infinte spent in development hell, and the enormous amount of money it cost them. It’s really not that hard tbh, make a fun arena style mp game with a 7-10 hour campaign. It doesn’t need to be filled with trend chasing gaas bullshit. Also, scope appropriatley from the start. Don’t advertise your game a massive fauna filled open world like they did with infinite just to fail to deliver on any of that. From the start, focus on making a shorter, linear (with some open levels) campaign

 

[Synless]

People expect a lot less from Nintendo franchises IMO. Just look at all the mainline Zelda titles, it's been re-telling the same story for decades.

I assume this is sarcasm from the other thread. If not, that’s a simply ridiculous take. The game has reinvented itself multiple times and all have been great.

I’d day Nintendo games have some of the highest expectations of any company.

 

[Bernkastel]

Lmao. Holy shit, did Infinite really cost $500 million.

It didn't. denied by S Stinkles from 343i in ResetERA.

 

[Salty Popsicle]

I assume this is sarcasm from the other thread. If not, that’s a simply ridiculous take. The game has reinvented itself multiple times and all have been great.

I’d day Nintendo games have some of the highest expectations of any company.

The world will never know...

 

[Calverz]

I like to imagine this is the chief speaking to a 343 dev.

 

[Spyxos]

Not sure if real person or not....

Reminds me of Ai generated images.

Even with 250 millions, a good halo can still be easily created. If someone else does it. 343 can probably no longer be saved.

 

[tusharngf]

give it a rest for next 10yrs. Let other new IP takes its place. Same goes for GEARS series as well. People are tired of these games. GEARS HALO needs a full rest now.

 

[March Climber]

-Lower budget
-Zero Confidence in the I.P.
-New leads/some new staff

They simply need creativity, and it should be possible with half the budget.

 

[Disco Dave]

Halo: Finite