What Happened to Halo?

This is the Halo franchise in a nutshell.

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The Halo franchise is lost in a nutshell. The series feels dead. 343 Industries has no idea what Halo is, or who it's for anymore. They're basically just guessing what players want. Halo deserves better and in this video I describe where Halo is in a nutshell, and what's causing it to be in the state it's in via 3 problems: the vision, the gameplay and the community. Fixing these 3 problems would help 343 finally achieve their goals of matching player expectations and delivering Halo back onto the throne of highly critical games it deserves.

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#halo #343 #microsoft

[ZenkaiGoose]

The Tragic History of 343 Industries (Full Documentary)

[paintballJohn]

It amazes me Microsoft let 343 fumble the bag this hard. It’s sad honestly.

[SpottedHares]

What i never understood is how people pretend Halo is a competitive game when Bungie strait up said that they were making Halo 2 for the 80% that just want to kick back and have casual fun. Obviously making the game for casual fun worked a lot better even for the competitive players

[patrickholt]

It may seem surface level but Halo truly is the Star Wars of gaming. It launched so many people into a whole new world that seemed endless. Not to mention the multiplayer was basically smashing action figures into each other. 343 was given the golden goose but never fed the thing. Also like Star Wars.

[greatsol]

It is pretty depressing to see where Halo went over the years. But also positively uplifting seeing all the fellow Halo bros that viewed Halo as I did. I remember looking forward to getting with my buds for Co-op and taking on the flood in Legendary… we were just teens.

[BrandonFrisco]

You had to be there for that original trilogy . 1-3 was pure living in the moment and enjoying perfection for me. Now we live in a world of monetizing gaming.

[Aether-Entropy]

As a dude in his 30s who was a huge fan of the original trilogy (and I mean HUGE fan). It's so depressing to see what 343 has done to this franchise. They loathe the original fans, plain and simple. In my opinion, no amount of good will can win my heart back with 343. One can only hope that it's given to a different developer.

[IBISMK]

Honestly, when I think about Halo, it just makes me sad af.

[kwisatzhaderach]

The OG trilogy is still a blast to go back to more than a decade later.

[trendkill]

i feel so sorry for Joe Staten having to go from working with Bungie in the golden years of Halo and then having to try and fix all the issues 343 caused but not being able to do much because of both Microsoft and 343 higher ups having the final say and ruining everything

[_KnuXles]

I was 13 when Halo 3 came out and managed to get the day off school thanks to a doctors appointment the night prior, and sat there all day in my pyjamas playing the multiplayer. I'd played the beta that came with Crackdown and it was so beautiful to be a part of such a lively community. It's sad to see how far the franchise fell once it had gotten to the top

[CliffDiverBOA]

The biggest problem I think for Halo is that 343 and Microsoft want to follow, not lead. They chase after the most recent trends and try and mold Halo into those (I'm horrified at the idea of a Halo Battle Royal). Bungie's Halo went on its own path, crafting its own legacy. Halo felt like Halo because nothing else felt like it. No other games could touch what Halo was trying to be, see all the "Halo Killers" that have come and died out the gate. If we could get back on track and just let the developers make a passionate game, rather than try to capitalize on the newest cash cow, Halo will be far better off.

[alexedelweiss]

The biggest mistake of 343 in my opinion is that they screwed up the original Halo storyline. They simply ditched everything that was revealed in the original trilogy and started a new inconsistent storyline. Until today it doesn't enter my mind why they did it and why they thought it would be fine. The only reason that I see for that is a revenge plan against Bungie to try to destroy its biggest work and legacy.

[LoLproductions]

A red flag that everyone should’ve seen was when 343 was first starting up, they made it a point to bring up how they hired so many people that didn’t even like Halo to begin with

[GrimmWarrior]

The day Halo 3 went live was such a great one, felt like a kid again for the first time after joining the Navy and the rec folks had secured copies for every x-box in the base's two MWRs. You had guys/gals of all sorts sitting or standing 3-4 rows deep around the big screens just watching people play it, waiting for their turns to tag-in. Man...

[xcynicalreasonsx]

I had played every single Halo game split screen with my wife. I had to buy another Xbox when Halo 5 came out. When I found out that there was no coop for infinite, I was extremely frustrated. I remember when the Master Chief collection came out and I took a vacation day from work so that we could play at home. I couldn't even get that thing to download faster than dial up speeds for 2 days and even then the game was glitchy and if you accidentally activated a terminal in the campaign, it would boots you out of the entire level without saving any progress. Heck I don't think I could even play a matchmaking game for the first 2 weeks after MCC released. Overall I've been very disappointed in the games direction for a while now. I love MCC now, I still have flashbacks 😂. I remember an error message that told you to check your privilege during multiplayer search. Haha. I really hope they fix things.

[userJohnSmith]

I've got to say proximity chat was the most significant and important part of Halo's sustained Xbox Live success.
Every game felt competitive because you were trash talking the entire time. Even while failing horribly. It made the game feel a lot more like a LAN party or couch game.

[matthewjalovick]

Jeez. That end got me teary. I used to go over to my youth pastor’s apartment after church and we would play Halo nonstop. I remember driving the Warthog around thinking this is the greatest game I’ve ever played… like, it was just… pure… fun. Every match was different based purely on that sandbox nature.

So I bought an Xbox myself, the see through green that they made specially for Halo, and got Xbox Live when it came out the next year. Going on Halo 2 and making our own setup for Infection (we would literally have to hand punch giant boxes across the map to box in one room) and the honor system of changing your team after death or the legendary Golden Warthog that we would search for by doing the BR/Sword cancel trick and free climbing in the air out of maps. I was 14 when Halo 2 came out and yet every single person who was in our “clan” at the time I’m still friends with to this day… talking and joking and making fun of each other til 2am.

Halo’s story was what got me pumped for release… but what kept me coming back for months and years on end was always because of the sandbox community. It was sandbox fun first and then could be as serious as you wanted it… but now it’s serious first and then the sandbox. And you know what? That’s the wrong way round. People leave when they’re not having fun :/

[KruddyKaRL]

Can't forget Bungie day, the Vidmaster achievements, and the legendary Recon helmet

[luvair]

I miss the pre and post game chat rooms. Made it easy to party up. I stopped playing after 5, but the way to communicate audibly was so awkward. It made it so everyone was in parties and couldnt communicate with the other people. Even being able to talk to the other team when they are in your radar was such a fun small tidbit.