People talk about 'supporting' devs - supporting MS and Ensemble in this case - as if they're doing you a massive favour.
Well - by holding back what is essentially an injection of freshness and fun into the Halo community, they're doing nothing to support you in return. They're not supporting nout - they're maximising their chance at profit by releasing it at a time when it'll garner the most attention, and drip feeding it to us in order to gain maximum money. We shouldn't have to 'support' a company as big as Microsoft, and the fact that they're CLOSING Ensemble rubs salt in that very wound.
The Halo 3 community is a year old now. 6 maps have been released, 3 of which (Legendary) really are still pretty niche due to MS's pricing policies. Many of my friends are fed up with the maps at present - they're good, we've just played them to death. New maps have been needed for a few months now, in my opinion. Those stating this is an ok decision due to the nature of the business and that it would go unloved due to new releases are missing a huge point - these new games will fracture and split the Halo community when it's at a low eb. When a lot of people are simply bored with it, here comes new titles, and plenty will never go back. I would argue that now, or within the past month or so, would have been a PERFECT time to launch maps. It would keep current and lapsing players interested, and keep things fresh. Considering 6 maps are finished/being worked on, an October pack and a February pack would have been perfect. The Feb pack would have brought back the players who still went after the Christmas titles.
Microsoft are not supporting the current Halo 3 community, and are instead supporting their own profits. In return, we should not be offering our 'support' to them by just buying whatever they attach the Halo 3 name too. I for one, am a member of the Halo 3 community, not simply the Halo community. As a member of this community, I want more maps, more support, and more Halo 3.
....lol
