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4chan: Alleged former 343 employee shares studio details on Halo reception & develop.

It's ongoing and as far as I can tell has provided no proof to his claims. I don't know what the protocol on sharing 4chan stuff on Neogaf is, so truckloads of salt.

http://boards.4chan.org/v/thread/340764907/welp-time-to-find-new-work

Some highlights

EquivalentExchange said:
>>340765517
>Did anyone really think Halo 5's story was good in any way?
The narrative got pretty butchered when we had to cut it down (about a third of the campaign got cut) but the bigger alteration came when we had to adapt the story to the squad system which was never part of the original plan.
That being said, most of the team, myself included, never disliked 5he story we shipped. I feel like when you make something, you get attached to it and grow a bias

EquivalentExchange said:
>>340766954
Halo 5 "Nemesis" was going to be set largely on Sanghelios. Now that it's essentially scrapped (but not officially), I have no idea if the narrative plan has changed. It almost certainly will given the way this company handles negative feedback.

EquivalentExchange said:
>>340768648
>Be honest, was Halo 5 a flop?
It made a nice profit for Microsoft and we got bonuses out of it, but it performed at about just over 2 thirds of projections.

EquivalentExchange said:
>>340769041
>How does the future for the series look? Good or not so good?
I can tell you that as far as the modeling of the next main series entry goes, the big agreement from the studio heads was that a longer campaign with impressive enemy AI and a less story-in-your-face approach to experiencing the levels, possibly akin to Combat Evolved. Also a big core goal going forward is (and this is written on the grey board in every room that has one, almost as a meme) "MAKE THE PROMETHEANS FUN TO FIGHT". Yes they're here to stay.

Multiplayer I have no idea on, because the initial plan was to release another Halo 5 game/expansion with a different campaign and unison multiplayer. Since it's looking like Halo "6" is now more likely, I have no idea if the multiplayer will be that different or not.

EquivalentExchange said:
>>340770556
>Are you guys finishing Halo series on 6?
There actually is a plan to have a definitive end to the Master Chief's story before 2020. But after that if assume there will be games that take place at earlier time periods and then other games afterwards that don't star the chief.
No, Locke was not supposed to test the waters for a chiefless game.

Let me resign to save my resume if old.
 

bidguy

Banned
scrapped story for 4 player coop ? yup i can see that. first trailer was lone master chief and looked much more promising than what we got

theyre phasing out master chief for good huh
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Also a big core goal going forward is (and this is written on the grey board in every room that has one, almost as a meme) "MAKE THE PROMETHEANS FUN TO FIGHT". Yes they're here to stay.

Ugh, please! Strike 3 and you're out for Halo 6, honestly!

Even if this is all fake, I agree with that.
 

Kinyou

Member
The story wouldn't even be so bad if they're weren't so hardcore focused on going multimedia. I don't want to read a freaking comic series to know how the Master Chief met his old Squad and what they were up to the whole time.
 

bidguy

Banned
The story wouldn't even be so bad if they're weren't so focused on going multimedia. I don't want to read a freaking comic series to know how the Master Chief met his old Squad and what they were up to the whole time.

chief was in halo 5 ?
 
Something else I found interesting (it it's true, anyway)

>What actually happened during the Crimson Map Pack free trial thing? Was that a cover up for a pricing error like I thought it was or did they legitimately plan it and not tell anybody until after the "trial" had started?
It was a pricing error. I was actually directly involved in working with this. It was our first real DLC release and we fumbled it. Microsoft has a pretty strict policy about what to do when there's a pricing error, so yes, we released a "patch" that locked the downloaded content behind a paywall. Yes, that's legal via the terms and service agreement of XBL.

>Can you shed some light on what the fuck happened to MCC?
Believe it or not, the MCC was originally planned as an Xbox One pack in, but only with Halo CE/2/3 and no Halo 2 anniversary. When we decided to add H2A, we were given more time, but not nearly enough. Outsourcing and strict release fucked it
 

Kysen

Member
MAKE THE PROMETHEANS FUN TO FIGHT

I can't see this happening, all those bright colors and warping around really got on my nerves. Also they'd have to remove the trash dogs that spawn so damn often.
 
Assuming this stuff is true, they wanna get rid of Chief?
Lol.
Chief is Halo.

He has been in so many games.

He has very little (good) character development after halo 3.

The voice actor who voiced him has retired.

People need to accept that 343 can't keep using master chief in halo forever. And the focus should be on either a new character like locke
lol jk
, or on the world and other spartans.
 
If they are getting rid of chief, they should change the studio name make a new franchise.

But, probably fake.


Or how about an insurrection war story arc. Id take that to.
 

Gestault

Member
Assuming this stuff is true, they wanna get rid of Chief?
Lol.
Chief is Halo.

If the goal is to have a product that evolves to maintain/grow its audience, rather than catering to an "old guard," I'd say switching main characters twenty years later is justifiable.
 

The Flash

Banned
I can tell you that as far as the modeling of the next main series entry goes, the big agreement from the studio heads was that a longer campaign with impressive enemy AI and a less story-in-your-face approach to experiencing the levels, possibly akin to Combat Evolved

Yes please
 

Vinc

Member
All sounds good to me. I liked Halo 5's campaign a lot and played through it twice within the first week, but a more open Halo CE/3 style campaign again would make me SO happy.
 

Xaero Gravity

NEXT LEVEL lame™
He has been in so many games.

He has very little (good) character development after halo 3.

The voice actor who voiced him has retired.

People need to accept that 343 can't keep using master chief in halo forever. And the focus should be on either a new character like locke
lol jk
, or on the world and other spartans.
Wasn't that retirement just in regards to his job as a DJ?
 

Eolz

Member
Lol, if he's really leaking stuff, he gave waaaay too many hints for any company to know who he is.
Basically fucked in this industry. (edit: also lol at the NDA part, MCC, and some other stuff that people in the industry know to be fake. Way too many false flags)
 

Gator86

Member
He has been in so many games.

He has very little (good) character development after halo 3.

The voice actor who voiced him has retired.

People need to accept that 343 can't keep using master chief in halo forever. And the focus should be on either a new character like locke
lol jk
, or on the world and other spartans.

I honestly don't remember any character development for Chief through the first 3 games. Interacting with Cortana and his team in the last couple has been better than what came before, for me at least.
 

etta

my hard graphic balls
If you take Chief and Cortana out of Halo then it's just another sci-fi shooter. The uniqueness of those iconic characters are the main pillar for the franchise, bigger than the universe.
Yes Halo Reach and ODST are regarded as good games, but they are like spinoffs/non-mainline.
 
If you take Chief and Cortana out of Halo then it's just another sci-fi shooter. The uniqueness of those iconic characters are the main pillar for the franchise, bigger than the universe.
Yes Halo Reach and ODST are regarded as good games, but they are like spinoffs/non-mainline.

But how many games can they really make with Chief and Cortana? At some point, they gotta retire those characters.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
If you take Chief and Cortana out of Halo then it's just another sci-fi shooter. The uniqueness of those iconic characters are the main pillar for the franchise, bigger than the universe.
Yes Halo Reach and ODST are regarded as good games, but they are like spinoffs/non-mainline.

Agreed. It is like removing Mario/Peach from Super Mario Brothers. It just does not feel right.
 
It would be nice if 343i ended the Halo series with 6. It could be the last adventure with the Chief and some new recruits. One last epic ride. Then after that, create some kind of Destiny game that carries on the Halo lore without ruining Halo.
 

Noobcraft

Member
Halo 5's campaign had the best gameplay of any halo campaign. It was the story that kind of sucked but that holds true for a lot of Halo games.
 

Magwik

Banned
This 'Halo 5 SP is shit' idiocy needs to fuck off.

It's not shit but it shit the bed really fucking bad. The marketing and story built around the game was infinitely 10x better than the actual story we got, which felt like someone took the cliff notes of what they wanted to do and only built the game around those cliff notes.
 
Info is low key enough I'd buy it, but if fake, I'm sure the poster kept that in mind so we would buy it.

The way the cinematic just... end, I'd believe cut story. Dunno if I believe more single player content a la ODST, but if something is announced at E3, I could believe all this.
 

Vire

Member
Halo 6 seriously needs a major revision to the series. Halo 5 was very clearly rushed out the door, lacked in a lot of major features, game modes, game types, as well as the single player feeling incredibly short with a completely unsatisfying story that basically crescendos into a wet fart.

Here's hoping Microsoft gives 343 the time it needs to create a good Halo game, but really at this point... my interest is at an all time low for the series based on the treatment it's received in the last two games.

Oh well.
 

Wagram

Member
Bogus or not; I 100% believe the following:

"It made a nice profit for Microsoft and we got bonuses out of it, but it performed at about just over 2 thirds of projections."
 

Zeta Oni

Member
Might be tough to find someone to replace him for all 3 words he utters in every game

I get the point your trying to make, but either making a Halo game where Chief no longer talks or a Halo game where those 3 words don't sound like Steve would be...bad.

Steve Downes is chief to me just like Michael Ironside was Sam Fischer.

Halo doesn't need chief. Not anymore.
 

ElRenoRaven

Gold Member
Lol, if he's really leaking stuff, he gave waaaay too many hints for any company to know who he is.
Basically fucked in this industry. (edit: also lol at the NDA part, MCC, and some other stuff that people in the industry know to be fake. Way too many false flags)

That's why I don't believe it. He gave so many details that it would be obvious who it is. They'd just have to go and look at the details and that list would be pretty damn small then.
 
The two Halo 5 games (gaurdians/nemesis) kinda makes a lot of sense in terms of the story ending so abruptly and is still something I'd like to see done. While I haven't played the campaign myself I watched it and it didn't seem that enjoyable to me gameplay or story wise which ended up putting me off getting the game entirely (that and no couch co op) since I'm not much of a multiplayer guy but I'd still like to see the game and series do well as it was one of my favorites and I hope that in the future they can balance a great multiplayer and single player so I can pick up the next iteration on the Scorpio.
 
Good writers? It's sci-fi after all.

After 5-6 games with these characters, I'd rather have a new set of characters in a different place to keep the series fresh. Personally, I'm a little bored of Chief. Halo 5 kinda soured me on the existing cast.
 

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
I'll chose to believe this is real because I like the sound of this.
No, Locke was not supposed to test the waters for a chiefless game.

the big agreement from the studio heads was that a longer campaign

Locke was extremely boring and anytime I played as him, which was 2/3 of the game, all I wanted was to just go back to the chief and Blue Team. I REALLY hope in Halo 6, we never have to play him again.

Also, Halo 5's campaign was extremely short, I'm dying to have a 10+ hour long campaign.
 

WadeitOut

Member
Because of course an employee of a major gaming studio and franchise would go to...4Chan to talk about it.

I'm not young enough to believe these fake Q&As anymore.
 
Halo 5's campaign had the best gameplay of any halo campaign. It was the story that kind of sucked but that holds true for a lot of Halo games.
It had some of the best levels in terms of pure combat flow with the new mobility (Osiris, Blue Team, Swords of Sanghelios come to mind), but it also had some stinkers where you just moved from one wave of Prometheans to the next, and to the next, and to the next, some pretty mediocre walk-around-and-chatter-with-NPC levels that felt small and missing a sense of purpose, and of course the preponderance of Warden fights which sunk it like an anchor.

They have the tools to make something wonderful though, and Halo 5 showed that at times.

I also don't need the Chief in my Halos and would be fine with a custom Spartan and AI. Let me pick gender and voice and use visual customizations ala Reach. Just for once I'd also like to see in-game cut-scenes that also showed your custom co-op partners, if you have any.
 
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