In an excerpt from a by Keith Noonan of fool.com (via Yahoo), he talks about the importance of the next Halo FPS game coming this year.
With Microsoft confirming Halo 5 for 2014, the Xbox One’s short-term lineup just got a major stat boost. Will a strong stable of first-person shooters have the Xbox One outgunning PlayStation 4 in the coming year?
The series that made Xbox
The legacy of the Xbox platforms is closely tied to the FPS genre. The original Halo helped to propel the popularity of the original Xbox and established the series as one of the biggest names in gaming. The “Halo” franchise has a large and dedicated assortment of followers that are certain to show up for the latest installment. A recent batch of Xbox promotional materials that bore no mention of a “Halo” title arriving in 2014 had given some fans and speculators reason to believe that the title would slip into the next year. Microsoft has officially clarified that this omission comes down to the next game in the series not having a proper title and that it was still on track for a 2014 release.
Bring out the big guns
With reports of Sony’s PlayStation 4 outselling the Xbox One in Europe and North America, the ability to deliver an installment in a marquee property is a large feather in Microsoft’s 2014 cap. The PlayStation 4 moved over 4.2 million units in 2013, with the Xbox One pushing past 3 million units in the last year. Microsoft will need to deliver quality software to reverse this trend. Halo 5, or whatever it winds up being officially called, should be the best-selling piece of exclusive software in 2014.
While Sony’s box looks to enjoy pricing and hardware advantages, it would appear that the Xbox One is on track to deliver a bigger 2014 in terms of games. Multiplatform mainstays likeActivision‘s “Call of Duty” series and new IP Destiny should do big numbers on both platforms, but console platform exclusives like first-party Halo 5 and Titanfall from Electronic Arts are going to give the Xbox One a much-needed edge.
To read the full report, go HERE.
So this brings up a topic I’ve talked about many times before. Will 343 deliver not jsut a good game, but a great one? Will it be ready straight out of the box, or is it going to need 6 months of further development after launch? Will it deliver the classic Halo gameplay we love when Bungie had the title, or will they continue to tweak multiplayer?
SO much is riding on Halo 5’s (or whatever it’s to be called) success. The success of the franchise isn’t the only thing, it’s the XBOX One itself. Still considered the XBOX’s marquee exclusive title, Halo needs to go WAY above and beyond not only it’s predecessors but nearly every other game out there as well. Will it compete with Titanfall? I’d venture to say yes. With Destiny? That will be a bit tougher. WIth Bungie developing that game and Activision having a hand in it (makers of Cod), Destiny is likely going to be the benchmark game that all other gamers needs to strive for in terms of sales. Since it’s a multi-platform game, it already has the advantage of Halo.
I do think there needs to be MORE in Halo. What is that more though? I’ll bullet point those ideas:
• More maps AT LAUNCH – Complaints were high that three multiplayer map packs were already planned and had release dates before Halo 4 came out. Dismal sales of these map packs caused those who DID get the packs to be frustrated by not being able to play them in matchmaking (NOT customs).
• More versatility – this could cover a LOT of things. Forge needs some elements back in that were taken out from Reach. New things need to be added like a terrain editor, night/day effects, weather effects and more.
• Customization – Forge notwithstanding, Armor customization was pretty good in Halo 4. However, those skins, while somewhat cool, could have been even better. Imagine those skins being a third color? As well, an emblem editor. Yes, the classic emblems would be included, but we gamers could also have the ability to create our own emblems. THis would be great for gaming groups. Of course it does have the unfortunate circumstance of those who would use it to make inappropriate emblems.
• Utmost attention to playlist management – Right now in Halo 4 we do not have a dedicated Objective playlist. We are only just going to get a playlist for Team DLC and that will only be for 2 weeks. There have been complaints ad nauseum about the playlist management in Halo 4. DLC is one of the biggest ones. If you don’t give the players what they want in terms of map availability and/or gametypes, they won’t keep coming back.
• Ranked AND Social Playlists – this is a MUST for the next Halo game to succeed. Taking away to competitive aspect as well as ranks you can achieve (not just through prolific gameplay, but SKILLED gameplay) was one of those things that separated Halo from most other games of similar genre. Having a ranked playlist would open up again the opportunity to bring back Halo into proper competitive (PRO) gaming.
• LONGER time to rank up (not skill related) – In Halo 4 many people achieved SR130 very quickly. I hit it at 40 days after launch. Compare that to Reach where most people did NOT hit Inheritor (and still haven’t). BTW, I hit that mark at 9 MONTHS into the game. Fast by Reach standards, but still MUCH longer than Halo 4. Making the time longer to rank up gives people something more to strive for and keeps them coming back to play.
There are plenty of things major and minor I could talk about. Some being important, others being nitpicky or even selfish on my part. The point is, the next Halo game MUST deliver. It can NOT be just a good game, or “good-enough”. It MUST be the BEST Halo game ever. Why? Again, not just for the future of the franchise, but for the XBOX One itself.
343’s task is HUGE in this. They know it, we fans know it. All we can do is wait, hope and see.
-Sal
Great summary Sal! Knowing that Halo 5 is to be released this year has me cautiously anticipating the actual release date. I really want to be excited and scouring every available site for information in waiting for the hype to start, but tempering that is a nervousness about if the game can deliver the feelings of awe and amazement that the previous titles have given us.
With some of the more recent changes at 343 (such as bringing GH057ayame on) I am feeling less nervous. I just want to get home with the Halo 5 XBox One console on release day, plug everything in and then be totally blown away by it. It is my greatest hope that by this time next year we are talking about how great the resurgence of Halo is and saying that 343 has earned our trust back.
Keep up the great work!
Thanks man. Yeah, hiring Ghost was a great move, IMO. However, the short time period to get Halo 5 done does have me worried. Also, this is technically only the second FULL game 343 will have developed. They were consultants on Spartan Assault and farmed out most of the work to another studio for Halo CE Anniversary. If we as fans aren’t blown away from the get-go, word of mouth will be horrible and the game/franchise/console will take a huge dive. As much as studios in general want to appeal to new gamers, if you can’t appease the majority of your hard core fans (the ones who play continuously and buy all the DLC, etc.) you’re NOT going to have a successful game, regardless of initial sales. Frank O’Conner has admitted nearly as much. They know how much is riding on the next Halo FPS. I do have a distinct feeling that it the game doesn’t do well, we’ll see some major shifts in leadership at 343.
Again, I measure the success of a game WELL beyond initial sales. If buzz for a game doesn’t last for awhile, if people aren’t buying/playing DLC, if population for a game takes a nose dive just a couple of weeks after launch, it’s failed. While I know money is the name of the game for business, sustainability and popularity MUST also be words by which a franchise/studio need to live by.
Again, thanks, fellow Sal.
Now that the initial launch period has finished I kind of feel like at the moment the console war is irrelevant. The hype between which console is outselling the other seems pointless at the moment especially since at the end of the day the hardware is so rediculously similar in performance. As it was with last gen as it is with the new one what’s going to separate it for people will be the console exclusives. That’s where Microsoft thrives. I’m slowly starting to be a little bit more optimistic to the future of Halo again due to some of the moves behind the scenes at 343. E3 this year will be huge for 343 you have to feel. They will need to go even bigger than they did with the Halo 4 reveal to really get people hyped especially since Destiny is releasing around the same time. I can even see it being almost halo centric. Another great write up Sal
Thanks Martin. (And Patriots lose!) LOL
I can’t wait to see what they have done with Halo on the Xbox One. I am another of those that has not gone to next gen, but will be for the next Halo. Let’s hope they have listened to what fans want, stayed true to the community and tone of the series, and give us something great!