It's not 2004 anymore. I know some of it is my own personal feelings but I can't help but also feel that most people don't care anymore. That Halo mobile game was ported to Arcade. Little fanfare. If this was 2004-2007 something as little as that would have gotten people talking. That's how big Halo was. To say this is your most important IP now is kind of sad and goes to show what a horrible of a job they've done introducing new IPs. Fable and Gears have fallen to the wayside in terms ot popularity. At least they still have Forza I guess.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Halo is our "most important IP", says Microsoft - TV show won't be "filler"
- Thread starter statham
- Start date
Reach is a book of its own The Fall of Reach, the book tells a side of the history and you play others. If you did read Ghost of Onyx, you should have had a fair amount of references to know what was what in Halo 4, not direct references, 'cause Onyx is no H4's planet, but very similar, and as stated before, the Forerunner Saga is the main juice for Halo 4 and forward.
I have no problem with Halo having books with lore out of the game as long /r/halo exists and explains many hard to get joints of the history.
That's a little messed up though, don't you think?
You need to read a series of books to have a clue what's going on in a game series that you've played from the start.
Whatever dude I actually really enjoyed Spartan ops. You can keep that Messiah as John 117 the only story that needs to be told. I would love to see a game starring Sgt. Johnson during the first contact with the covenant. Hell make the TV show about that.
Syphon Filter
Member
Well they better show that care with Halo 5 after how Halo 4 turned out.
So important, they create a company whose entire focus is to work on Halo and just Halo, and proceeds to barely give it enough manpower to maintain one game, having to use unpaid volunteers to help keep matchmaking updated. They stopped having the manpower to update Reach before Halo 4 even came out.. And then proceeded to tell us they were going to update Halo 3 and Reach after 4 came out.. and finally admitted a year later they weren't going to do it. (But hey, at least they updated Halo 3's MOTD to tell people to buy Halo 4 GonD) They constantly outsource DLC and cross-media content for the cheapest dollar. Their latest comic book has characters in the pages that don't even have coloring completed and are missing anatomy in some places. It was clearly done with the lowest budget they could muster and no time extensions.
If that's how Microsoft treats important IPs to them...
Caayn
Member
It's sad that Spencer dares to call Halo their most important franchise while we've just had Halo 4 last year. Where's the proof Spencer? As much as I'd love to believe Frank O'Connor, I'm having a hard time doing that.
And that's a perfect example of what's wrong with the Halo 4 campaign. It can't stand on it's own and relies to heavily on external sources of information for example the terminals (not included in the actual game) and books.
I haven't been too impressed with their live action stuff. Looks too much like a parody of Aliens and Starship Troopers. UNSC for teens is at odds with the serious tone which is nothing more than the lowest cookie cutter drama. They have yet to make the universe feel unique. Future military stuff doesn't help, could be anything. Deep characters are needed rather than UNSC insignia. Not sure how far they could push it on TV and Spielberg's name means nothing on these things.
Battlestar Galactica similarity with some mystery planet hopping would be decent.
Battlestar Galactica similarity with some mystery planet hopping would be decent.
Chezzymann
Member
Which is a really bad thing and a perfect example of bad storytelling. You shouldn't have to read any books for it to make perfect sense.
AllIsOneIsNone
Banned
"Halo is our most important IP, so we're going to make a good tv show." I think they forgot Halo was once a video game.
From the beginning it was stated that Halo is more than just the games and that the books are cannon. My first exposure to the universe was the first book which was released before Halo 1 and billed as the start of the franchise. Its the reason why MS wants control over the film property because the continuity in Halo matters.
brotherbean
Member
As a fan of the general Halo lore and universe and someone that enjoyed the heck out of Forward Unto Dawn, I'm pretty excited to see what they do here. The games stopped really being interesting to me quite a while ago but I'm still intrigued by the story so a tv show/movie is right up my alley.
Perfect sense? Sure. But in terms of Halo games, how many have made perfect sense without extended media? Maybe the first Halo, yet Bungie has always been partial to cryptic storytelling anyway. 343's outing was actually a little clearer to understand in my opinion. Just they hid some of the storytelling inside the terminals..some of which is important. Not a fan of that.
Sho_Nuff82
Member
You know, it is possible for a game series to crawl so far up its own ass that only the hardest of the hardcore bother to keep up with the story. Resident Evil and Splinter Cell are firmly in that camp; Metal Gear Solid 4 actually went out of its way to connect everything, even if the connections were internally inconsistent. The original Halo trilogy jumped around a lot with little exposition but it was still somewhat manageable. The new trilogy is off to an awful start in that regard. I can see it turning away a lot of players who used to be into it for the SP, especially if the enemies are as forgettable as those in 4.
MS needs to make storytelling in these games a less daunting experience.
That's not really what I meant. You can have expanded lore in other types of media, but it each should make sense if they were the only form you follow (or atleast the only mandatory type should be the main format, which would be the games).
I read the books and comics for Mass Effect along with playing the main games. They complement each other, however someone who only played Mass Effect isn't at a loss for what's going on, due to not having read the books. If part of the story is important enough that it explains a main antagonist, then that needs to be told in the game. You can't just drop him on people and expect everyone to be all "oh, shit.. I better pause it here and go back and read the book".
I really enjoyed Halo 4's singleplayer (moreso than most of the previous entries), but hell if I knew what was going on throughout it. That's a problem considering I'd played every Halo preceding it.
infinit777
Member
Forward Unto Dawn was great and kept my hype for halo 4 running. I cant wait for the show and i'm sure it'll do the same for me for Halo 5.
dragonelite
Member
I think the First strike novel would make an excellent series.
Digital-Hero
Member
I have both but I play my PS4 much more. Still, MS has aces down their sleeves and deep pockets. I doubt Halo will be the only thing worth buying in the life of this console.
NoMoreTrolls
Banned
Awesome. Forward Unto Dawn was pretty decent, so I'm hesitantly hopeful they can pull something like that off again.
AllIsOneIsNone
Banned
What is unclear? This wasn't meant to be taken literally. I just find it funny that they're ensuring quality Halo related media; I know they haven't forgotten about the game...even if they forgot what made it so good.
SpartanN92
Banned
FUD had a $10 million budget. Not nothing for sure. FUD's problems were not budget related.
SpartanN92
Banned
Actually I think the best novel for movie/TV adaptation is The Cole Protocol. It doesn't have Master Chief but has Spartans. It has Innies, Covenant Political espionage, The Arbiter, Captain Keyes, and over all the premise of the book was amazing (Insurrectionists trading with Covenant.)
Deadly Cyclone
Pride of Iowa State
Halo 4 sold near 9 million copies. People still care about Halo, even if Halo 4 wasn't the game they wanted in the long run. Not to mention I believe Forward Unto Dawn did well for a web series.
SpartanN92
Banned
Joe Staten's IMDB profile lists him as the writer but I'm 99.99% sure that's bullshit.
Night Hunter
Banned
That is my question as well. A TV Show with Spielbergs name slapped on it is fine and whatnot, but TV is a creative medium, so the writers are much more important than producers or directors ...
Look at how Falling Skies and Terra Nova turned out.
If you haven't seen them: Horrible
FaintColt388301
Member
They might have some good games further down the line but you can't miss something you haven't had before. Well if you stick to this definition of miss at least. You're not going to miss playing Quantum Break because you haven't played it before in the same way I can't miss sleeping with Anjelina Jolie because, contrary to what you might think, it hasn't happened before
Most of the MS's previous exclusives haven't come close to what Halo did. Halo is the only already established IP that they have that I'll actually miss.
I'm sure you are able to point out in my post where I said John 117 is the only thing to make a game a nonfiller?
Because I can't, if I did that I would have also called ODST or Reach a filler, but I didn't so don't spout bullshit and think before posting.
Spartan Ops, was mediocre repetive mission design, with badly written characters like Palmer, with corny dudebro dialogue.
Halo isn't the first series where you can't just randomly pick up a part that is deep into the series and not know what is happening. You can't just buy a Wheel of Time book midway through the series and expect to know what's going on. MS has never hid the fact that the books are cannon, not an alternate universe or something that has no effect on the main story line.
Falling Skies and Terra Nova weren't horrible at all. They weren't near as good as Breaking Bad or Mad Men, but had some compelling characters and interesting episodes. It's entirely conceivable that a Halo show would be of the same level of quality.
In Halo's case, the books added background flavor and some nice references when you heard certain places being named or people being named. But you could still enjoy the story and keep up with what was going on.
Halo 4 is the first Halo where halfway through a cutscene I thought "what the fuck is going on?"
The future. Spaceships and whatnot.
You can make it 100%. IMDB is like Wikipedia in that regard
Not that Joe wouldn't type good.
And to address a repeated question here:
There is no way we would make a TV show that dumped you into the middle of game lore with no context. It would be a story anyone could follow.
FaintColt388301
Member
The books and games being canon aren't the problem. It's one thing to have a series of books follow a story that can't be just jumped in to. It's another thing to have a video game series that can't be followed as a just video game series. To require people to dive in to multiple mediums isn't a very smart thing to do.
Why can't they come up with an original story that follows the canon, is enhanced by having background knowledge, and can also serve as a stand alone story so people who just want to play the games can follow it and not be confused?
Hire him, also did you guys begin production or even casting? It all seems to be so far away.
Or first the next game? What will be first?
D Bo Chops
Member
With Speilberg directing the series, I have a good feeling there will be substantial budget involved, hopefully making it awesome. Looking forward to it either way.
Liquidsnake
Banned
I cant believe you did this. I have both If I had to choose one it be X1.
Demoncarnotaur
Member
I do wonder how far they are.. We haven't even heard anything about who is writing the story, or who the showrunner/director(s) will be.
Night Hunter
Banned
NullPointer
Member
I enjoyed Forward Unto Dawn as a solid attempt, but PR crafted lines like this always lower my expectations:
I mean, Jesus. Nobody actually talks like this. Not an MS specific complaint at all btw.
This is also good advice for the games. *cough*
You're still arguing against something I never said. I know it's canon. So is Mass Effect's. I'm saying that you shouldn't need to read the books to have an idea of what's going on in the games.
This isn't a case of playing Metal Gear Solid 2 and having no idea what's happening because you didn't play Metal Gear Solid 1. This is playing Halo 4, and not understanding it despite having played Halo 3... and ODST... and Reach. The first Mass Effect book introduced Saren and fleshed his story out, but enough of the character was explained in the original game, that someone only playing the game aren't left with a character they don't understand anything about. What I'm saying is, Halo 4 failed to clarify who our opponent was, and why. I'm not saying they had to duplicate all the information contained in the books, simply whatever is required to prevent the entire campaign from being confusing.
Do you think if someone comes up and says "should I play the Halo campaigns?", that the answer should be "not unless you're going to read the books as well"? Because that seems to be what you're saying.
The first Halo book is the introduction to the universe and the plot for the first arc of Halo. The first Halo game drops you in at the end of the first book. From the beginning the books have tied into the games. First Strike lead right into Halo 2. The problem with Halo 4 is that it took a while for the game to get made and in that time you had a few books get released, some of which are important to the next halo story arc.
There are original stories that follow your second paragraph.
Halo would be a hard to show a family because Halo is more realistic then those two shows ever could be.
Night Hunter
Banned
Well, that doesn't mean it can't be complete and utter shit.