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[ZehDon]

Broken connection systems currently render Big Team Battles unplayable. That’s one of Halos biggest draw cards, and it hasn’t worked properly in weeks.

The lack of maps or new content makes the game feel incredibly small. 343i has always been glacial, but with Infinite, it feels like they’re just not even working on it. Whoever greenlit launching a F2P multiplayer only shooter with this little content should be fired.

The lack of mode selection, and modes in general, leaves players struggling through modes they don’t want to play game after game after game after game.

The atrocious challenge system and it’s egregious monetisation forces players to play the game in unenjoyable ways or cough up dollars, leaving them using unenjoyable weapons, in modes they don’t want to play, just to get their monies worth out of the horrible battle pass.

The complete lack of a decent or meaningful progression system gives players no reason to come back in a game that relies on large numbers of return players.

And the rampant desync issues leave the game effectively broken 50% of the time.

I dropped the game because I was tired of being forced into laggy games, on the same tired maps, where half my bullets don’t register, to be forced to use weapons I don’t enjoy against PC cheaters while playing on my Xbox. I can’t see the game surviving long, frankly. Everything about the game - apart from its core loop - is simply an unfinished mess that never should have launched.

 

[Mr Moose]

On one hand, the MP is free so you would expect fairly high numbers, but on the other... This is just Steam, there's still Xbox where the vast majority will probably play this.

 

[Topher]

On one hand, the MP is free so you would expect fairly high numbers, but on the other... This is just Steam, there's still Xbox where the vast majority will probably play this.

He makes that distinction in the article, but not the title.

"It's worth noting that "Halo Infinite" isn't exclusive to Steam — the game launched on Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and through Microsoft's own Xbox app storefront on PC. As such, the average player count is assuredly higher than what Steam reflects."

Pretty much the definition of click bait.

 

[EDMIX]

Wowz looks like Halo is dead folks. Imagine a free game and its still failing? Steam is the only number we need btw, no fucking logic should be used regarding that and lets just keep fucking repeating Steam data, no context or further research is needed for this discussion. /s

 

[Concern]

Ahhh steam player count is the new uk boxed sales I see

 

[Billbofet]

Struggling to write clickbait

 

[Oddvintagechap]

Doesn’t matter, Microsoft will never say. Plus does even it even matter? As long as they stay subscribed to gamepass its a win.

 

[STARSBarry]

Remember when people said BF2042 was doing fine because it was only failing on steam, and that there was far more playing console, so steam didn't matter anyway.... remember that?

Oh sorry "lol steam" there we go, did I fit in?

 

[SLB1904]

Remember when people said BF2042 was doing fine because it was only failing on steam, and that there was far more playing console, so steam didn't matter anyway.... remember that?

Oh sorry "lol steam" there we go, did I fit in?

That fucking trash isn't dead yet?

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Called it.

 

[8BiTw0LF]

343 should have focused on a Battle Royale mode.

 

[Shanomatic]

Remember when people said BF2042 was doing fine because it was only failing on steam, and that there was far more playing console, so steam didn't matter anyway.... remember that?

Oh sorry "lol steam" there we go, did I fit in?

Those two situations aren’t comparable, and trying to equate Infinite to BF2042 is disingenuous at best, outright malicious at worst.

 

[ChiefDada]

This is fine. Halo doesn't need to retain players, it needs to be there to attract new Gamepass subscribers, and it is serving that purpose ridiculously well. Halo offers a great campaign and doesn't require multiplayer numbers to achieve any modicum of success.

This can't be the strategy when there are future great new games and older games with properly executed GAAS model that will command new subscribers' attention. If you have an amazing campaign with lackluster/non-existent add-on content, that's antithetical to a subscription model and you're better of charging an up front fee for the game.

This isn't to say Halo Infinite has a long-term problem (idk one way or the other), just that the bolded seems incorrect.

 

[Abriael_GN]

The only thing that's "struggling" is crap mainstream press like the Business Insider trying to grab some of that juicy gaming audience with increasingly inane headlines.

How do you decide the performance of a game that's on multiple platforms, including Game Pass, from Steam concurrent numbers? What a complete trainwreck of an article.

And certain fanboys are falling for it because like many inane headlines from mainstream press that know nothing about the gaming industry, it fits their console war narrative.

 

[Shmunter]

Was wondering why this was going unnoticed. Brand new free multiplayer with the Halo brand would have expected to be top 10 easy.

Sony making any inroads into the GaaS market seems almost impossible. Buying Bungie was the only practical solution seemingly, and they knew it.

 

[EDMIX]

Those two situations aren’t comparable, and trying to equate Infinite to BF2042 is disingenuous at best, outright malicious at worst.

Halo is "struggling "and those steam numbers prove it (no other data needed or logic or any other context) lol

Halo Infinite - Steam Charts

An ongoing analysis of Steam's player numbers, seeing what's been played the most.

steamcharts.com

numbers don't lie doe ^^^ smh. Sad really...

Farming Simulator and fucking Wallpaper Engine have more players

Farming Simulator 22 - Steam Charts

An ongoing analysis of Steam's player numbers, seeing what's been played the most.

steamcharts.com

Wallpaper Engine - Steam Charts

An ongoing analysis of Steam's player numbers, seeing what's been played the most.

steamcharts.com

Looks like it might go free, free, free.....to play, like the game preinstalls on your system right when boot up your computer.

 

[Darlingcognito]

I dropped it after a week or so, just not enough content and fun stuff to unlock.

 

[recursive]

This is fine. Halo doesn't need to retain players, it needs to be there to attract new Gamepass subscribers, and it is serving that purpose ridiculously well. Halo offers a great campaign and doesn't require multiplayer numbers to achieve any modicum of success.

Ok Phil. Enjoy your award.

 

[DForce]

This is fine. Halo doesn't need to retain players, it needs to be there to attract new Gamepass subscribers, and it is serving that purpose ridiculously well. Halo offers a great campaign and doesn't require multiplayer numbers to achieve any modicum of success.

You don't need Game Pass to play the Halo Infinite multiplayer since it's free-to-play. So yes, retaining players is very important to them.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

It is constantly in most played on Xbox and bunch of people migrated to Xbox Game Pass app when campaign was out. Not a big deal.

 

[ANDS]

Game is still second most popular on Xbox Live behind Fortnite.

So... There's that.

But I guess that comparing Steam numbers is new "UK boxed charts" for success measurement.

All these caveats. Where were they when people were handwringing about BF2042 and COD (which doesn't even have STEAM metrics)? BF2024 has lost 95% of it's audience on STEAM. HALO. . .92%.

. . .like fine, STEAM doesn't tell the whole picture, but now that it's applied to a property/company that people like (as opposed to BF/EA and COD/ACTIVISION) all of a sudden it's "It doesn't tell the whole story. Clickbait!"

 

[Sanepar]

Game is still second most popular on Xbox Live behind Fortnite.

So... There's that.

But I guess that comparing Steam numbers is new "UK boxed charts" for success measurement.

No, it is not. It is 6th.

 

[Abriael_GN]

All these caveats. Where were they when people were handwringing about BF2042 and COD (which doesn't even have STEAM metrics)? BF2024 has lost 95% of it's audience on STEAM. HALO. . .92%.

. . .like fine, STEAM doesn't tell the whole picture, but now that it's applied to a property/company that people like (as opposed to BF/EA and COD/ACTIVISION) all of a sudden it's "It doesn't tell the whole story. Clickbait!"

Are BF2042 and COD playable at no additional cost on game pass on something that isn't Steam?

It's not that Steam doesn't tell the whole picture. In this case, Steam is likely the smallest part of the picture, likely by far.

 

[Hollowpoint5557]

They were told a LONG time ago the progression system SUCKED. I have zero sympathy when you dont listen to your customers.

 

[Companion Cube]

Twitch viewership isn't a reliable metric. Games that top sales and most played charts are not directly correlated to high Twitch viewers. Mainline Call of Duty viewer counts average in 4 digits despite constantly being a top seller month after month. Team Fortress 2, a regular top 10 most played game has 300 viewers.

But if you stick to those metrics then God of War is struggling even more with currently 4k viewers on Twitch and 16k players on Steam compared to Halo having 8k viewers and 22k players and GoW is just weeks old but we all know that isn't a conclusion to draw from these numbers...

Spoiler

...unless you're being paid to write a hit piece.

 

[Abriael_GN]

..unless you're being paid to write a hit piece.

Nah. This doesn't qualify as a hit piece. Hit pieces require at least some solid foundation that can be spun into a hit. This is basically just a writer who doesn't understand how gaming works writing on an outlet that doesn't have any idea how to report on gaming (which is how this was greenlit) but still want the juicy gamer audience, thinking he got a "gotcha!" argument to write a heavy hitter, but he really doesn't.

He likely saw some of the most desperate bottom feeders of gaming journalism writing articles based on Steam concurrent numbers and Twitch viewers and simply copied the method. That's what these mainstream outlets do to try and grab an audience that is now seen as lucrative. That's also why some of them hired some of the worst and most sensationalist/loudmouth journos that used to write on gaming outlets.

 

[ANDS]

Are BF2042 and COD playable at no additional cost as part of a popular subscription service on something that isn't Steam?

The only way this makes any sense is if HALO MP wasn't on the MS Store at the same time it was on STEAM. Why would any player, who knew they were going to be playing the campaign, not just play the MP on Gamepass?

. . .and not for nothing HALO INFINITE was bleeding players long before the campaign came out (50% in fact). I guess all those were leaving to go play on Gamepass as well.

 

[Shmunter]

Twitch viewership isn't a reliable metric. Games that top sales and most played charts are not directly correlated to high Twitch viewers. Mainline Call of Duty viewer counts average in 4 digits despite constantly being a top seller month after month. Team Fortress 2, a regular top 10 most played game has 300 viewers.

But if you stick to those metrics then God of War is struggling even more with currently 4k viewers on Twitch and 16k players on Steam compared to Halo having 8k viewers and 22k players and GoW is just weeks old but we all know that isn't a conclusion to draw from these numbers...

Spoiler

...unless you're being paid to write a hit piece.

GOW is a single player narrative driven campaign game. The only replay value is if you want to play it all again, which is rare.

Cannot compare a f2p GaaS game that’s supposed to be infinitely playable to a traditional game product. Apples & oranges.

 

[kingfey]

Nah. This doesn't qualify as a hit piece. Hit pieces require at least some solid foundation that can be spun into a hit. This is basically just a writer who doesn't understand how gaming works writing on an outlet that doesn't have any idea how to report on gaming (which is how this was greenlit) but still want the juicy gamer audience, thinking he got a "gotcha!" argument to write a heavy hitter, but he really doesn't.

He likely saw some of the most desperate bottom feeders of gaming journalism writing articles based on Steam concurrent numbers and Twitch viewers and simply copied. That's what these mainstream outlets do.

Breaking news: We have reports of decline userbase of the super popular game called halo. The game was supposed to be the biggest hit of the franchise, considering the developers worked for 6 years. Sadly, this much work couldn't keep the users happy. According to the prestige steam charts, which tracks the games, that is being played in the service, showed us the decline of this super halo game. It seems there are tons of problems, which made users abandon the game. During the launch of the game, the steam chart saw upward of 250k players playing the game. As of now, there are 10k players playing the game. At maximum, the numbers reach 30k users. Does this mean, this the end of the super halo game? Would the developers be able to revive this game, which has lost 80% of its players?


How did I do? Was that enough hit piece report?

 

[GigaBowser]

This is pretty sad.

MS is trying to act like big trend setters but they can't even give stuff away for free.

 

[Topher]

Breaking news: We have reports of decline userbase of the super popular game called halo. The game was supposed to be the biggest hit of the franchise, considering the developers worked for 6 years. Sadly, this much work couldn't keep the users happy. According to the prestige steam charts, which tracks the games, that is being played in the service, showed us the decline of this super halo game. It seems there are tons of problems, which made users abandon the game. During the launch of the game, the steam chart saw upward of 250k players playing the game. As of now, there are 10k players playing the game. At maximum, the numbers reach 30k users. Does this mean, this the end of the super halo game? Would the developers be able to revive this game, which has lost 80% of its players?


How did I do? Was that enough hit piece report?

It comes across like something written by a writer who is an idiot. If coming across like a writer who is an idiot was your goal then you succeeded.

 

[Flabagast]

I really don't understand how this game won so many GOTY, it seemed really average and no one plays it anymore

Maybe people were so surprised it was not that terrible, they decided to give it a pass ?

 

[Swift_Star]

This is fine. Halo doesn't need to retain players, it needs to be there to attract new Gamepass subscribers, and it is serving that purpose ridiculously well. Halo offers a great campaign and doesn't require multiplayer numbers to achieve any modicum of success.

What? It absolutely needs to retain players and players need to spend money on MTX. Infinite MP is f2p. You don’t need gamepass to play it.

 

[Hunnybun]

Now we know why Microsoft bought Activision: they desperately needed a shooter to compete with Sony now that Halo is dying, and even more so now Sony bought Destiny.

 

[STARSBarry]

Those two situations aren’t comparable, and trying to equate Infinite to BF2042 is disingenuous at best, outright malicious at worst.

Why because Halo is the perfect game with no issues?

naaaaa I think in context of a declining player base and lack of meaningful updates, they compare just fine. I think you should look up what a disingenuous comparison is before you start throwing stuff like that around.

 

[kingfey]

It comes across like something written by a writer who is an idiot. If coming across like a writer who is an idiot was your goal then you succeeded.

isn't that what a hit piece is about? Do I have to sound very smart about it?

 

[009EspadaSageJay]

Dead is when you cant find a game during prime time "wherever you live" and when match making takes 20 to 30 mins and even then you still cant find enough people to start the game "Drive club"

 

[Bernd Lauert]

The last time certain people were massively concerned about something Xbox related, we got a console war sticky. I hope this thread delivers

 

[kingfey]

I really don't understand how this game won so many GOTY, it seemed really average and no one plays it anymore

Maybe people were so surprised it was not that terrible, they decided to give it a pass ?

Games these days need to have BR mode to be successful. The traditional MP mode is dead at this point.
Halo offered the old traditional MP mode, which was good. But not enough for regular gamers. The people who keep playing, are those people who kinda hate BR mode.
Plus the game is missing important feature, such as the forge. Old halo fans wants that mode, and split screen. Or else, they wont touch the game at all.

 

[Shmunter]

Dead is when you cant find a game during prime time "wherever you live" and when match making takes 20 to 30 mins and even then you still cant find enough people to start the game "Drive club"

You can always find a game because it serves up Bots does it not?

 

[EDMIX]

It struggling to keep players even with being free is probably why a mass amount of developers is leaving 343, I heard a rumor like 75% or so quit cause they are so mad at game....

Xbox Boss Breaks His Silence On Halo Developers Quitting - SVG

Head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty has recently explained why the departures from "Halo Infinite" shouldn't have any gamers too worried.

www.svg.com

So I don't know how the IP will recover from this tbh

We should have saw warning signs from this mass exodus. Normally, no developer really leaves a company unless something wrong imho

Why Halo Infinite Keeps Losing Developers

What's causing all the changes with Halo?

screenrant.com

 

[ANDS]

The last time certain people were massively concerned about something Xbox related, we got a console war sticky. I hope this thread delivers

Concern about console warring in a thread not about consoles? How does that work. Like legitimately you are the first person to bring anything console related into this conversation.

. . .people are snarking at each other (this is NG), but I'm not seeing a whiff of console-warring. Odd take.

 

[kingfey]

It struggling to keep players even with being free is probably why a mass amount of developers is leaving 343, I heard a rumor like 75% or so quit cause they are so mad at game....

That is normal for developers to leave the company, when the game is launched. These are usually contractors. Its normal industry stuff.

 

[Bragr]

No one expected Halo to become Apex Legends. Compare it to COD or Battlefield, not the evergreen titles.

 

[Tschumi]

If you play infinite on PC with gamepass, is that through steam?

Is steam the only platform for it on PC?

Twitch streaming seems more relevant to me, twitch is a thing and for it to have low viewership suggests that the game's got a flaw.

XBox fans... Saying it's in the top 5 on xbox doesn't mean much. It's a problem that it's not #1 on Xbox, the game was meant to be the launch title after all... And what else is on Xbox aside from multiplatform addiction fests like cod, fortnite, whatever whatever? It's not like there's any direct competition for infinite's points of difference: xbox relevant; console relevant; fan pre-requisite; hugely hyped; long delayed...

It looks like the first of the titles which we were all told would win the gen for xbox isn't a gen beater. Apparently it's a free shooter with no progression, no ranked matches, whatever. I guess we now look to Starfield.

 

[TransTrender]

I'm sure Halo is doing fine with all those nail polish, maskara, pizza rolls, Doritos, and Mountain Dew sales.

 

[kingfey]

If you play infinite on PC with gamepass, is that through steam?

Is steam the only platform for it on PC?

Twitch streaming seems more relevant to me, twitch is a thing and for it to have low viewership suggests that the game's got a flaw.

XBox fans... Saying it's in the top 5 on xbox doesn't mean much. It's a problem that it's not #1 on Xbox, the game was meant to be the launch title after all... And what else is on Xbox aside from multiplatform addiction fests like cod, fortnite, whatever whatever? It's not like there's any direct competition for infinite's points of difference: xbox relevant; console relevant; fan pre-requisite; hugely hyped; long delayed...

It looks like the first of the titles which we were all told would win the gen for xbox isn't a gen beater. Apparently it's a free shooter with no progression, no ranked matches, whatever. I guess we now look to Starfield.

Game has 1 purpose, and that is the story. Its 3 month now. people played the story.

Its only the f2p one that is active. and that one needs content.

But this twitch viewership needs to stop. Nobody cares about that shit. I want to play the game, not watch some random dude play the game.

 

[Tschumi]

Game has 1 purpose, and that is the story. Its 3 month now. people played the story.

Its only the f2p one that is active. and that one needs content.

But this twitch viewership needs to stop. Nobody cares about that shit. I want to play the game, not watch some random dude play the game.

Fair points.. i don't give a toss and twitch either but it is a thing, even if we can't imagine who in their right mind cares about that stuff

 

[kingfey]

Fair points.. i don't give a toss and twitch either but it is a thing, even if we can't imagine who in their right mind cares about that stuff

Twitch viewership only benefits the person who streams the game.
Regular people dont watch twitch that time. Its mostly youtube, which they get more stuff that is related to the game.
The ones that watch twitch alot, are the hardcore people.

 

[Tschumi]

Twitch viewership only benefits the person who streams the game.
Regular people dont watch twitch that time. Its mostly youtube, which they get more stuff that is related to the game.
The ones that watch twitch alot, are the hardcore people.

Yeah but apparently more hardcore people watch other games, okay maybe twitch only indicates the hardcore factor... That's what we can take from it: halo doesn't have as big of a hardcore following. Por que? I dunno