Every game release is broken, each launch has less content than before and we're a long way off from anything meaningful but the industry media says crunch is bad. Cheers, 9 to 5 for ten years it is then. Job security regardless of repeat performance metrics must be nice.
I was in a party chat last night with 6 of us, all Halo buddies for a long time. 1 of them hasn't even installed Infinite at all despite having Gamepass too, just doesn't give a shit when Apex Legends is around. 2 of them do shitty challenges when a cosmetic comes up they want but bitch about the game the whole time then don't play for large durations at a time. Those same 2 don't watch the show at all and laughed their asses off/got angry when they asked me to give them a run down of the show and heard what the first 2 episodes have/don't have. Myself I don't play Infinite anymore, campaign or multi; game is a shit show of exactly why 343 don't understand classic Halo in terms of maps, modes, matchmaking, content and more. It's terrible netcode and management decision in and out of the game are not a title I want to play. Out of the other 2 only 1 has played the campaign and enjoyed it but doesn't want to revisit multiplayer at all. He calls it the game that should not be named. The last doesn't give any shits about Halo at all and just plays Apex, hasn't touched Infinite after playing together for 13+ years and we've done countless ODST firefight, Halo 3 coop, Reach/4 multi and more.
None of our kids, half of them above have kids, play Halo at all. None of our kids played the campaign for Infinite (there is no coop to play with our kids), none of them play multiplayer at all. All those kids (8 of them from 3 parents in the chat) went from playing minecraft and nintendo to fortnite and Apex over the years. They literally have no reason to play Halo. Between minecraft, Fortnite and Apex you have better gameplay, better maps, more content more often, variety of characters/skins and modes of play that do everything Halo could do in its last few releases. Forge is in fortnite for them, watching my son and his friends do what we used to do in Halo customs/forge was interesting for this Halo fan to see that torch pass long ago. Apex shits on Halo's competitive scene and ranked play. Apex's netcode also shits on Infinite.
When you look at the population for Halo spikes when they launch or release content they're not attracting new players at all. It's the old fans having their quick fill and then not being retained or helping to grow the playerbase. Crossplay and Gamepass inflated those numbers, for awhile. It's why you keep seeing the drop off a cliff with 343 games. There isn't that hook and stream of content to keep you playing. You cannot build anything in Halo Infinite. You don't share activities like Destiny, Fortnite or Apex when you drop, loot, flow through maps and attack or flee etc. It's a rinse and repeat McDonalds Halo now. This grows old very quickly just like MLG playlists did of old. Had Halo released a BR or some PvE style content there would have been something new to the franchise while delivering a stream for retention.
How this company missed either of the BR or the PvE opportunities with the backing of Azure intrinsic to 343/MS is fucking beyond me. The beauty of a full blow PvE mode with progression, loot and story content on the regular was more than enough to do a Destiny style game and bring something to the table and could have been built from 343's experience with Azure and Halo 5's very well received firefight and mode. Bungie gave us RAIDs, LAIRs, strikes, world events, multiple planets, lore (ok somewhat in game I'll admit) and fucking cool art simulations to play in over recent years.
In, now pushing towards 7 years, fucking Infinite cannot even get good maps, vehicles that even work in maps designed around them, spawns that create fair and fun/competitive gameplay or working netcode for a large part of things. No shit we're out of patience. You fucked MCC, you've ditched all of the Halo lore since that terminals dump in Halo 4 so you freed up your own writers and now we've got an incomplete game, taking massive time to correct, adding fuck all new that's really replayable or shared with friends and a TV show 10 years too late that just throws the whole fucking universe into the sun so you get a fresh start again.
Another words the last 10 years from 343 is basically a giant fuck you to massive Halo fans everywhere. This is what fan investment gets you? Zero continuity in terms of story, character, universe, gameplay, features. Let alone games that actually work as best in class from supposed top tier studios and platforms.
So you say 10 year plan. Fuck you, you've had 7 years and you've given us dick.
May be I woke up on the wrong side of the cryo tube today but this is what they've done to Halo. Love has turned to hate in many aspects and it flip flops to and fro. I'm hoping the TV show really starts to kick some goals and that Infinite's new mode is really something special but again I think of what I would have done with Halo in the last 7 years of development and hundreds of millions of dollars and I get angry. I get angry at what could have been...no...what should have been.