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Halo Has Not Met Financial Expectations - Brad Sams

Pelta88

Pelta88

Member
There's another thread based on the same vid but focused on personnel/HR issues. But after watching the entire Brad Sam's vid, this info seems misplaced. I mean, Halo is a marquee franchise. A game that helped push this industry in terms of innovation and broadening the gaming market. Also, there has been a lot of debate on the gaming web and on this forum regarding the game's success. Particularly via the gamepass subscription/distribution model.

This info has major implications.

 
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Valedix

Valedix

Member
when you make a half a billion dollar game f2p with no updates and it doesn't make profit

 
Tiago Rodrigues

Tiago Rodrigues

Member
Thirty7ven said:
Cant wait for Phil Spencer’s blog post “Halo infinite was a success played by over 20 million players at launch, and the future has never looked brighter.”
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People took that info back then as "20M people have bought Halo Infinite" for some reason when it's pretty clear that when you have your game for free in a subscription service you'll need a lot more than 20M people trying a game and leaving.

The fact this was MS's last big game release and it's practically dead almost a year later...and their next big games are another Forza and Starfield to be released in Q2 2023 is honestly incredible. This is if there's no more delays.
 
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J

Jim Ryan other Clone

Banned
If I did not have my consoles and was in the market to shop for one, and at November there was 2 games coming with PS having GoW and Xbox Halo.
I don't know in what kind of drug influence i had to be to buy Xbox. I want to play games not to be consoles salesman... Where the fuck is my excuse to upgrade my ancient Xbox one? Whoever had Xbox because there was 0 games tried that game and relatively quickly abandoned it.
How they expect to reach the expectations that me that is searching for a reason to upgrade they give me none?
 
Lognor

Lognor

Banned
The game started out great but the lack of content really hurt it. It needed to have constant updates like fortnite. I'll definitely come back to it when the next season starts, but that's not until next year. It'll be close to a year between season 2 and 3. Wtf!! That is ridiculous. I hope they can turn it around because the gameplay loop is fantastic. It just needs news content regularly.
 
Sosokrates

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
STARSBarry said:
At the end of the day Halo Infinite was a failed experiment for game pass. How can we monetise a game we have to put on gamepass because we made it? The answer is not very well at all.
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Complete nonsense.
It has things wrong with the MP and things could be improved, but the single player is really good, its nice to have a sanbox game which has the sandbox gameplay of being able to manipulate objects with reactive physics. An area which severally lacking in the AAA space.
 
LordCBH

LordCBH

Member
Pelta88 said:
Given the insistence that GP made the game successful this has broad implications. Not just for the IP but the viability of games which have large budgets.

GP is at 25 million subs at the last count prior to Halo's launch.
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I think Gamepass is a wonderful thing for a lot of titles that fly under the radar. There’s a ton of shit on it I loved that I never would have played had it not been on GP. But it’s also a double edged sword, IMO.

Had I spent $60 or $70 on halo I’d have finished the campaign and played more multiplayer to make sure I got that value. As it is, I played about 4 hours of campaign, a little bit of MP, and uninstalled because there’s hundreds of other titles I can play with my subscription. I wasn’t gonna try to force value from it when I could simply throw a rock and potentially hit a better game in the GP library.
 
anthony2690

anthony2690

Banned
I think they should seriously reconsider MTX prices, £2 for an armour set, is probably impulse buy territory, as I'd buy a few here and there, as I enjoy playing the game

£8 an armour set with artificial rarity? I just completely ignore them.

I buy the battle passes though, only because they don't vanish and I feel like I get my money's worth with the amount I play.

I'm hoping if they sort out the content roll out issue, they can turn it around and fans will hopefully return.
 
Saber

Saber

Gold Member
Why take the stupid GaS aproach when they are not on the same level (on both popularity and quality) as CoD series? That was a stupid move, GP didn't help either.
 
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Interfectum

Interfectum

Member
Tiago Rodrigues said:
People took that info back as "20M people have bought Halo Infinite" for some reason when it's pretty clear that when you have your game for free in a subscription service you'll need a lot more than 20M people trying a game and leaving.

The fact this was MS's last big game release and it's practically dead almost a year later...and their next big games are another Forza and Starfield to be released in Q2 2023 is honestly incredible. This is if there's no more delays.
Click to expand...
No doubt. I think Bonnie Ross is only a symptom of a bigger management problem within Xbox.
 
Dr. Wilkinson

Dr. Wilkinson

Member
Ok let's dig a little deeper. What financial expectations are there for new first-party Microsoft titles launching into Game Pass? It's an Xbox exclusive, and isn't the whole point of Game Pass you don't have to buy $60-70 first-party games any more? That's like the primary selling point of Game Pass. Has always been my understanding. So the whole point of Game Pass from Microsoft's point of view, is big tentpole titles = a sharp increase in new subscribers + anyone who wants the game but doesn't subscribe will buy it like they otherwise would if there wasn't Game Pass. But really though, how many copies would they honestly think they're going to sell if no doubt most people/ half of Series X/S owners by now have Game Pass?

I think Phil's end goal is: there are so many amazing games in Game Pass that practically every Xbox owner + lots of xCloud/ Samsung app users are on it, and it's bringing in so much revenue that they no longer care about selling individual games. To become the dominant/ Netflix equivalent of video games. The question is though, will they ever be able to scale up Game Pass to that point? It's possible but it's hard work. I think this whole thing is an experiment until a game like Starfield comes along and proves it can be done. Up to now this whole thing has been a gamble, and not economically feasible without Microsoft's deep pockets and the business plan of "we can just throw as much money as we want into this because we just want new Game Pass subscribers, and that's the only number that really matters".

Interesting times!
 
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FalsettoVibe

FalsettoVibe

Member
LordCBH said:
I think Gamepass is a wonderful thing for a lot of titles that fly under the radar. There’s a ton of shit on it I loved that I never would have played had it not been on GP. But it’s also a double edged sword, IMO.

Had I spent $60 or $70 on halo I’d have finished the campaign and played more multiplayer to make sure I got that value. As it is, I played about 4 hours of campaign, a little bit of MP, and uninstalled because there’s hundreds of other titles I can play with my subscription. I wasn’t gonna try to force value from it when I could simply throw a rock and potentially hit a better game in the GP library.
Click to expand...

This right here is the main reason GP scares me in the future. I love that it's cheap and I get a bunch of games for little cost, but I also worry that big budget games will become too risky to produce.
 
Interfectum

Interfectum

Member
Dr. Wilkinson said:
Ok let's dig a little deeper. What financial expectations are there for a new first-party Microsoft IP put into Game Pass? It's an Xbox exclusive, and isn't the whole point of Game Pass you don't have to buy $60-70 first-party games any more? That's like the primary selling point of Game Pass. Has always been my understanding. So the whole point of Game Pass from Microsoft's point of view, is big tentpole titles = a sharp increase in new subscribers + anyone who wants the game but doesn't subscribe will buy it like they otherwise would if there wasn't Game Pass. But really though, how many copies would they honestly think they're going to sell if no doubt most people/ half of Series X/S owners by now have Game Pass?
Click to expand...
With Halo Infinite, they were looking for player stickiness and engagement. Financially they would make gamers stick with their game pass sub longer and participate in Halo MTX and Season Passes. Since Halo Infinite shit the bed after launch players didn't stick around.

So basically MS gave away a $300+ million plus game to GP subscribers in hopes they'd stick around after the single player game... it seems most didn't. So they wasted a fucking ton of money on this project.
 
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Bernd Lauert

Bernd Lauert

Banned
Dr. Wilkinson said:
Ok let's dig a little deeper. What financial expectations are there for a new first-party Microsoft IP put into Game Pass? It's an Xbox exclusive, and isn't the whole point of Game Pass you don't have to buy $60-70 first-party games any more? That's like the primary selling point of Game Pass. Has always been my understanding. So the whole point of Game Pass from Microsoft's point of view, is big tentpole titles = a sharp increase in new subscribers + anyone who wants the game but doesn't subscribe will buy it like they otherwise would if there wasn't Game Pass. But really though, how many copies would they honestly think they're going to sell if no doubt most people/ half of Series X/S owners by now have Game Pass?
Click to expand...
Can't really dig deeper because we don't have any numbers. The dude in the video also offers zero information and is instead just repeating what everyone with a bit of common sense knows, namely that Halo's performance is below Microsoft's expectations. Pelta88 Pelta88 thought that zero information is good enough to make a new concern thread though :messenger_beaming:
 
LordCBH

LordCBH

Member
FalsettoVibe said:
This right here is the main reason GP scares me in the future. I love that it's cheap and I get a bunch of games for little cost, but I also worry that big budget games will become too risky to produce.
Click to expand...

Some series will find a way. Unfortunately that way is largely going to be microtransactions. They’re STILL hoping to get your $60 -$70. Just with armor packs and skins instead of buying the disc.
 
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lh032

lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
Bernd Lauert said:
Can't really dig deeper because we don't have any numbers. The dude in the video also offers zero information and is instead just repeating what everyone with a bit of common sense knows, namely that Halo's performance is below Microsoft's expectations. Pelta88 Pelta88 thought that zero information is good enough to make a new concern thread though :messenger_beaming:
Click to expand...
tbf, the steam number alone is already a bad sign. Not going too well for the console playerbase either.
Less players = less MTX revenue.
 
Lognor

Lognor

Banned
FalsettoVibe said:
This right here is the main reason GP scares me in the future. I love that it's cheap and I get a bunch of games for little cost, but I also worry that big budget games will become too risky to produce.
Click to expand...
I don't think one game under performing is enough evidence that we'll see lower budgets on game pass games. Forza horizon was a massive success and that has a big budget and was on game pass day one. The fact that no game is exclusive to game pass is key. Forza did gangbusters on Steam. I'm sure starfield will do very well in sales too. Halo being free to play certainly affected their sales. One game isn't enough I don't think for you to worry about. There are still countless big budget games coming to game pass. Enjoy it now. In ten years time things may change. But for this gen don't worry. Enjoy your xbox and game pass.
 
ZehDon

ZehDon

Gold Member
It’s clear 343i knew the Campaign wasn’t going to be able to stand on its own with the multiplayer, Forge, and firefight modes stripped out. They’ve barely talked about it in a year.

They’ve obviously pinned their hopes on the multiplayer’s microtransactions to drive profitability. Unfortunately, the multiplayer imploded. Rampant connectivity issues, the worst online progression systems in the business, garbage customisation restrictions, and the least amount of content in franchise history meant that they have to basically redevelop the entire foundation of their game, in addition to trying to provide a live service.

Added to this is the TV Show also disappointing. Cyberpunk Edgerunners shows the insane impact a quality show can have in keeping people invested in your game. The Halo TV was a PR disaster; Googling it shows an endless stream of fans who just straight up shit on it, and rightfully so: it’s not a good show, let alone a good Halo adaptation.

The campaign disappointed, game missed the console launch, the multiplayer was DOA, and the TV drove away paying fans instead of creating new ones. Add on top that 343i is Microsoft’s largest - and most expensive - development studio, and I can’t see how anyone could have possibly thought Halo Infinite made money. Heads are rolling for a reason: the amount of money 343i burned must be un-Godly.
 
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