What Happened To Halo?

What Happened To Halo?

THE YEAR IS 2007. You load into Halo 3 for the first time, after queuing for hours outside your local game shop. You play the game non stop for a week until you hear the inevitable news: Bungie is splitting from Microsoft. 

And Microsoft is keeping Halo.

No need to worry though, as we fast forward a few years. Microsoft is creating 343, a company solely designed to make future Halo titles! With the golden formula already in their hands and Halo 4 already around the corner, it’s a great time to be a Halo fan, right?

Snapping back to the present, one of Halo’s most popular game modes ‘Infection’ has just been released and there are now just about the same amount of maps that Halo 3 launched with. Almost 2 years into Infinite’s cycle. The short, cinematic cutscenes in between each season have now been axed. The average player count (according to Steam Charts) has dwindled from a massive 50-100k monthly players (November 2021) to a measly 2k players (May 2023), which is still decreasing. The new season trailer, which is meant to help bring in new players whilst keeping the current ones engaged, doesn’t even get a feature on the Xbox Games Showcase. Instead, DLC for Microsoft Flight Simulator gets some time in the spotlight. Joseph Staten has left again, also including around 95 343i staff being made redundant. The long awaited Halo TV show was finally released and became more of an unintentional meme than a successful series.

So what has happened to Halo? Does OXM UK’s 2011 interview with Phil Spencer in which he states that: ‘If we lose our way with Halo, we lose our way with Xbox’ still hold any value?

The answer is no, it does not. The complete lack of promotion and content in Infinite’s lifetime proves this: Halo is slowly being phased out from the main stage and new releases such as Starfield and the new Fable are coming for that exclusivity throne. It is clear Xbox’s future is going to be RPG based and Halo does not fit in with this plan.

I think this is a big reason for Staten’s departure; Microsoft has given up with the franchise and there is clearly no ambition or backing to push Infinite to the level it needs to be at. Why should he stick around to write forgettable plotlines for each new season’s ‘story’ every few months, rather than a compelling campaign DLC or even a new Halo title?

Infinite was Halo’s last chance and it got blown. The recent most interacted with post on Halo’s socials was a teaser for an in-game infection event, which only reached those high numbers because people thought that it was a teaser for a battle royale mode coming out. The number of people who come back to check on new seasons gets less and less, or those that do just end up leaving again to go play MCC, which still pulls higher player counts (4k average players June 2023, Steam Charts).

It’s a big shame, because Infinite’s gameplay is solid in most aspects, despite the constant wrestling between what pro and casual players want in the sandbox. The new infected mode is pretty fun, but it’s one of the things among many that should have been there at the start. I can’t help but think that if we were given a complete game at launch, Halo as a game and as a community would still be thriving. We know that the broader audience still do enjoy a good Halo style game, as interest skyrocketed at launch and many new players were visiting the franchise. Halo YouTubers were thriving and hitting numbers they hadn’t seen in years and Halo content was everywhere. The success of similar games such as Splitgate, which has also fallen off the grid due to its problems, show us that people want this type of gameplay and it can succeed in the mainstream if done properly.

But it is too late for Microsoft to see this. Ironically, it’s their fault for forcing Infinite’s unfinished release, but if we got the full product on day 1 they could have had a goldmine. Now we’re left with a product which is almost like an inconvenience to Microsoft, as they move into this new era of gaming going forward. 

So what happened to Halo? Why is this historic industry giant being left to rot like this?

I don’t think it all comes down to 343, nor Microsoft’s handling of the brand, but a mix of both. 343 has failed to deliver multiple times, whether it was the bad reception of Halo 4, or the constant buggy mess of the MCC, 343 has been under fire for being incompetent pretty much constantly since its creation. The Halo fanbase has declined to an all time low since their takeover and when they finally started to get something good together with Infinite, it got unfairly released before it could get fully polished. Microsoft obviously put their hand into the mix when they saw the growing interest and made the predatory customisation system, whilst also forcing an earlier release despite all of the game’s issues. When the player count inevitably dropped, that was the final straw for Halo. It just isn’t currently as profitable or interesting as other future releases.

So what happens next?

Obviously, Infinite could make some sort of a comeback to the mainstream after a successful advertising campaign for new content that appeals to the masses, but in all honesty I think that Halo is over. It’s just going to be there for diehard fans to sink some hours into, but nothing will be done to attract new fans. Most Halo YouTubers will start to branch out and move away from Halo content, as there just isn’t enough interest and engagement to be a sustainable job. Right now at Xbox, the focus is elsewhere.

It’s definitely rough to be a Halo fan at the moment, but what are your thoughts on Halo’s future?