Interficium
Banned
Halo 5 sales have been an absolute disaster for MS, and this has been known for months.
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Kotaku UK Rumor: Xbox One, Windows 10, Halo 5, & Minecraft notably below expectations
- Thread starter Nirolak
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BleedOrange
Banned
The question is, how much do they care if it makes 5000% in revenue?
Artvanderlay
Member
So is the current version of minecraft locked behind GFWL or is that the eventual goal?
crab rangoon
Banned
I doubt that very much. Not sayin it isn't possible, mind you, but presumably we are talking about a producer here and I doubt they would casually be given nuanced details about expectations of such breadth (not just platforms, but of other titles to boot). Also, the statements made about Windows 10 installs and Minecraft simply defy logic.
An alternative context might be that MS nixxed Fable Legends because they felt it was unlikely to hit expectations, so when a miffed employee gets a chance to speak out, they vent their frustrations by trying to assert that 'literally everything under MS's banner was way below expectations!' as a defense for the game he poured himself into for several years. In the process of this venting, he makes some claims that sound unlikely to be true on their face.
Again, just the vibe I'm getting from the tone taken in the article.
RichiRamjag
Member
Well your post was silly. Who cares what position any of us are in? It shipped in a sorry state, that's all that matters to most of us. It's on them to know what state it was in if they put their name on it. Not many of us are going to know who knew what before launch. It was broken for a long time though after release though. They either didn't care that it was broken or they were incompetent. Neither is acceptable.
SpartanN92
Banned
Halo 5 didn't make 5000% percent revenue (Btw I think the word you are looking for is Profit in this case)
Second: They care a whole fucking lot.
Halo is their biggest franchise. It is their trump card. You bet they care.
blue_phazon
Member
"Work" as in balanced and not breaking core Halo.
For example, the jetpacks in Reach ruining map flow, or armor lock ruining gunfights.
And basically everything in H4 was bad because no one was on an even playing field.
Technically every aspect of games are down to opinion, but I've yet to hear a good arguement for why spartan abilities in H5 take away from what makes Halo, Halo.
The problems with Reach and H4 resoundingly went against Halo (for mp at least).
I can definitely see the argument that the story in 343 games are a departure and "unhalo" because they are.
Anyways, regardless of all of this, it isn't down to the actual game content that Halo is weakening as a sales juggernaut. 343 could make a game that plays like a combination of 2 and 3 without any spartan abilities, and it would still sell the way Halo 5 is.
I could write an essay on why Halo declined since Halo 3, but alas I'm at work and shouldn't be on gaf anyway lol.
Hint: it's because of the casual player migration to other fps franchises
The Mad Draklor
Member
We would've already heard from Microsoft if that was the case.
crab rangoon
Banned
How are you tied to 343i/MS? Producer? Accountant? Do you know the sales/expectations or are you confusing your assumptions/impressions with provable fact? You may be right in that impression, mind you, but you are presumably in no position to make such claims. Doing so seems more like a claim of being an insider with insider information...
crab rangoon
Banned
I dunno about the 5000% revenue stuff, but they were pretty quiet with Halo 4 for a while too. They don't always wear their sales on their sleeves.
Neuromancer
Member
Well the chickens came home to roost I suppose. I imagine their original plan to screw customers over with the always online nonsense still hurts them to this day.
You only have one shot at a good first impression and it was a disaster.
You only have one shot at a good first impression and it was a disaster.
SpartanN92
Banned
Well I know ******** is banned around here but I know they don't paint a pretty picture.
Assuming their numbers are even vaguely correct (TAKE WITH GRAIN OF SALT) they say Halo 5 is the lowest selling mainline Halo. It sold lower than even ODST.
Who knows if that is true. It could be complete bullshit but I feel like it is common knowledge that Halo 5 underperformed compared to previous entries. I don't know what internal forecasts were for the game but I imagine they are disappointed in Redmond.
Edit: Fuck lol I didn't know gaf sensored even saying the name of the site. That's some Scar/Mufassa shit there 😂
SneakersSO
Member
You're right - they do. But what i'm saying is, multiplats not focusing on the PS4 version is not preventing the X1 from taking off. Thats their market perception, particularly WW.
Chezzymann
Member
I wonder if minecraft is an issue because the mobile version is selling so well while the PC version is slowing down (although it still sells like 2-3 million a year lol). Mobile seems to be like half of the minecraft sales, but it only costs $7. So that might lower the revenue more than they thought it would.
/speculationfrommyass
/speculationfrommyass
Dash_Riprock
Member
I mean, no shit.
Every recent decision and announcement, from the infamous Halo 5 revenue PR, to name dropping W10 in every NPD PR, to porting all exclusives to PC, to the Xbox 1.5/Scorpio/One Two/Whatever leaks all suggest that MS is not happy with the state of the Xbox brand right now.
Every recent decision and announcement, from the infamous Halo 5 revenue PR, to name dropping W10 in every NPD PR, to porting all exclusives to PC, to the Xbox 1.5/Scorpio/One Two/Whatever leaks all suggest that MS is not happy with the state of the Xbox brand right now.
I think almost everyone here does not get how long the gaming/xbox on pc stuff has been in the works...there were rumors of this stuff in the early windows 8 days..this isn't some quick turn around in 2 -3 years when they realized xbox one wasn't selling well
Please also fire whoever wrote Spartan ops/ Halo 5. Dude is trash and unless something huge happened to the campaign during development he should be a story boarder at the absolute most, since halo 5 had cool ideas but they were expected awfully.
Also trash whoever designed the "big" Locke vs chief fight, because that was the selling point of the whole game and was terrible.
Caddyshack
Banned
That's all well and good if you go around defining success solely based on sales.
InsaneTiger
Member
I wonder what Crap Gamer thinks...
Probably this is what xbox gets for porting their games to pc...
Halo 5 sales were wretched and tons of decisions can be questioned, but Minecraft seems like the bigger question mark from a financial perspective. What has Microsoft done with this franchise to increase its revenue potential since acquiring it? Their current efforts with the brand seem woefully inadequate.
Hint: That may be part of it but it doesn't help when 343 has dropped the ball multiple times with the franchise. Halo 5 is a big dissapointment in my eyes and I don't think I am alone by any means. They have damaged the brand. Will it recover? It definitely can but Halo 6 needs to hit it out of the park.
Yeah I'm not buying the windows 10 or minecraft below expectations part. Minecraft is selling better than it ever was (and that's without them doing anything) and windows 10 is being forced onto most machines right now, so even if there was an issue before, I doubt there still is.
Dash_Riprock
Member
To be fair, even if Halo 5 was a faultless game and the MCC had not launched a bug-ridden mess prior, no way was it ever going to meet MS' lofty expectations, not when Call of Duty has the lion's share of the FPS market and Battlefield scraps up what's left.
I'm starting to think that people who don't like halo 5 see halo very differently than i do. The campaign was meh but the mutli was the best its been since at least halo 2 and perhaps ever. They were able to keep it fresh for more modern audiences, while still not taking away what made it halo, which was a mistake made in reach and 4.
CrispyBoar
Banned
Damn, Microsoft crashing & burning all around. Even Minecraft isn't being successful for them, despite spending $2.5 Billion obtaining it.
EatinOlives
Member
It's not that simple. First party devs rarely have the ability to delay a game. Microsoft has the final say, and if there's any entity in the development process that cares more about a game being good than a game being on time, it's the developer, not the publisher. Microsoft was most likely the party that forced MCC to launch in its state, and 343 were not about to say "we're launching a shit product, guys! Beware!" Combine that with the fact that 1) they were taking someone ELSE's code and porting it and 2) there were a bunch of studios working on the project in addition to 343, and it's pretty silly to say the blame is mostly theirs simply because its their name on the box.
BruceLeeRoy
Banned
Hahahaha
VincentMatts
Member
Na the community didnt die that fast. It took a few months of no new warzone maps, no forge no file share and a ton a missing gametypes before it happened.
Night Angel
Member
The hard number is completely irrelevant since they made the finding decision with a target in mind, and the game obviously underperformed. If they made X% but they expected 3X%, then they care very, very much.
Yeah I literally can't go back to any halo game that doesn't have sprint - theres this weird part of the market , that enjoy slower Fps I suppose and Halo (prior to Halo 4) was one of the few that still catred toward them. That's just my take away though.
Of course Halo 5's problems stem from more than just some peoples displeasure with the movement speed - but even if every other aspect had been fixed, I still think there would have been a vocal portion of the fan base unhappy, due to 343 modernising the movement.
NoLongerALurker
Banned
Keza MacDonald wrote this article? She's been ripping Microsoft ever since I saw her working for IGN. I can't take this article seriously since she wrote it. I mean, she writes headlines like this: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CdHj2WHUIAAdNYD.jpg:large
Some of this stuff is probably true like Halo 5 sales numbers not hitting expectations, but until other websites back up this article with sources, I have a hard time believing a lot of this article.
Some of this stuff is probably true like Halo 5 sales numbers not hitting expectations, but until other websites back up this article with sources, I have a hard time believing a lot of this article.
Caddyshack
Banned
lmao, what's the problem? That's pretty funny.
that headline is hilarious
InsaneTiger
Member
He's an idiot.
VincentMatts
Member
Its funny but it also comes off as if she has an agenda, or she got burnt by them once and couldnt let it go. Im sure if you talk to her shed say something like, no i have nothing against them, but people who write shit like that....theres always a little bit a bitterness or fanboy-sim behind it.
cyberheater
PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 Xbone PS4 PS4
I was really excited when I heard that Xbox One games where coming to PC but I'm not buying games from the MS Store.
Rain City Gamer
Member
Probably referring to the fact that they spent 2.5 billion dollars to acquire it and it hasn't had the return they were projecting.
InsaneTiger
Member
The initial announcement got me excited as well, but learning more about how to get those games turned me off. Just put them on Steam.
Tatsumi Oga
Banned
Halo 5 surprises me cause i could swear i read that it really didn't do bad at all.
Rain City Gamer
Member
sorry it was 2.5 billion, not 6 billion (was thinking of something else.)
Well, their after launch announcement included revenue from hardware if I recall correctly, lol.
Dash_Riprock
Member
You read wrong.
I mean, it's sales doubled since they acquired it (50 million to 100 million) which is just 2 years ago, and it is now the second highest selling game of all time. How much more could they have expected?
BRocknRolla
Member
Even if it didn't do bad, "not bad" is very well a far cry from what MS would be expecting from its biggest IP. Projections were probably quite high. Of course, we don't know what those projections were, so it's hard to know how far off the mark it ended up.
blue_phazon
Member
One day I'll probably make a thread on this whole thing, but in my opinion, it is THE problem, not just a "part" of it.
Halo sales being not what they used to be is not from people disappointed by the latest entries, but rather by people who never gave it a chance in the first place.
The way I see it, there's three major issues with Halo in today's climate:
- Halo is an exclusive game and the Xbox in general not being the place to play for the population at large like it was during the 360 era
- fps fans (even on Xbox) playing other games
- word of mouth from the MCC debacle
Of course, Halo is still a completey unique type of shooter. As long as they stay that way, and double down on what they makes them different (perhaps maybe carving a niche, yet sizable community using the kind of marketing Dark Souls has as being "hardcore"...as much as I dislike that kind of marketing and the elitism it builds).
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